Let’s start this year on a positive note and visit one of America’s favorite neighbors in the world: Canada! The land where the world’s best hockey players reside…. the land of delicious poutines… and most importantly (at least for Miki…), the land where Ryan Gosling is from.
The Fairmont Pacific Rim, one of Fairmont’s new management flagship properties, is an amazing place to stay for an upscale hotel in the Vancouver B.C. area.
For every stay, they provide check-in service where they personally escort you to your room or suite. It’s the little things, but whenever this happens, I always feel like I’m “home away from home” 🙂
If your room is on the 20th or 21st floor, the hotel even have personalized butlers where they offer complimentary early-morning french press coffees, welcome amenities, and dry-cleaning/press services upon request (similar to St. Regis Osaka)
A fun story is that for one of the stays, Miki & Paul decided to surprise their parents with a “special personalized butler” of their own for their birthday 😉
That epic morning, Tony Chai (Paul’s brother) dressed up as a fake Canadian French butler and secretly flew to Vancouver without their parents knowledge during a family vacation. For a hilarious 10 minutes, it went something like this…
Tony (french accent), “Bonjour sir, this is a champagne bottle, compliments of the hotel eh?”
Paul (almost bursting into laughter), “Yes, we’ll have it on the dining table”
“Mr. Chai and Mrs. Chai… I hear it’s your birthday eh? Special weekend! Let’s take a picture!”
Mom & Dad stand cluelessly next to their unrecognizable son… Miki laughs & pretends to take a picture. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he rips out his fake mustache and reveals the “special butler” is indeed… Tony Chai.
Besides awesome real (and fake) butlers, the hotel has an amazing panorama of the city’s harbor.
You can view the convention center, cruise ships, and even sea planes departing in and out of the port.
In the evenings, this hotel becomes a “see to be seen” type of crowd. That weekend, we pretended to be socialites and attended an extravagant hotel party in the lobby. Hey, we can be fancy too! 😉 While the scene was a bit pretentious, it was certainly fun to mingle with the 1% crowd.
For bike lovers, the hotel provides complimentary BMW bicycles to ride around Stanley Park. It is an entertaining outdoor activity (especially for families) to enjoy the city’s nature.
For ice cream lovers, the award-winning world’s best gelato shop is within walking distance of the hotel. No joke, it is literally right downstairs when you exit the lobby!
Overall, the Fairmont Pacific Rim proves to be a timeless family destination that delivers on service, style, and location. As Tony the French Butler would say… this property certainly has a “je ne sais quoi” that other normal hotels don’t have.
As the New Year unfolds, we hope there are more memorable moments that match the caliber of what this property has to offer.
Merci & see you next time :).
Chai Bear World 