Stayed here recently and overall had a good experience. The hotel is clean, comfortable, and just steps from the beach -- which is the real highlight. There's also a restaurant right on the ground floor, which was super convenient. Plus, you're within easy walking distance to coffee shops, convenience stores, and a variety of other restaurants, so you really don't need to drive much once you're here. That said, the parking garage is tiny. Definitely only suitable for compact cars -- if you're driving anything larger, be prepared to struggle or find alternative parking. This isn't a hotel you pick for luxury amenities, and it is expensive for what you get, but if location is your top priority, it's a solid choice. read more

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The location is awesome. The staff is pleasant enough. Sure it's a budget hotel, so I can't ding them for that. So why one star? Because the air conditioner smelled horrific. Imagine the smell of a rug that hasn't been washed in 30 years and soaking-in nasty odors all day and all night. That is basically what the air conditioner smelled like. The "change filter" light was on, but that wasn't terribly helpful at midnight. We were hot and stuffy, but that was better than the gag-inducing smell of the air conditioner. We had a second room which was better, but we still couldn't run the A/C since the smell was the same, but fainter. If they service their air conditioners, this can be a decent place to stay. read more

Place is located in front of English Bay Beach. There are many eateries around of all type but, I seen a lot more Greek food places. All around the hotel is good to hang around area. On this trip I was just passing through so did not get to enjoy much of the area though. For the hotel, is a bit crowded reception area and the bar on the side has live music so if you arrive on dinner time it will be loud. Rooms are clean, nice bed, I meant nice because was a firm type and I loved it. All the amenities where nicely accommodated including the coffee maker. Now, one thing that I wanted to share here is for the arrival. The garage is not easy to be find so make sure to call the hotel to tell you how to get there. Beside that I enjoyed my stay very much. read more

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This hotel is very expensive a night- we are paying $250.00 a night and I would say that this hotel is not worth that a night. The location of it is amazing- we are one block away from English bay but the hotel is in such rough shape m. Bad windows it is SO loud- not triple pane, you can hear everything! read more

Best Western Plus Sands - View from my hotel room at night facing Davie street - Hotels Near Me - Vancouver, British Columbia

STAY FAR FAR AWAY FROM THIS INFESTED DUMP. My husband and I booked to stay at this property for one night on our trip to Vancouver to see Taylor Swift. Upon check in into room 506, I noticed super tiny ants in the bathroom. I was unsure where they were coming from but when looking around I just kept finding more. I did not search the actual room itself at this point, instead I had called down to the front desk to make them aware of the situation and asked to be moved to a different room. They agreed and moved us to room 508. We quickly took our luggage over and I did a quick sweep of the room/bathroom as it was time to head to our concert (and at this moment I did not notice anything). Upon returning to the hotel after (which was around 1am) I was in the washroom and noticed an ant on the wall almost at the ceiling. Inspecting the washroom further I found more on the floor by the shower and toilet. It was still unclear where they were coming in from (but I did happen to notice some absolutely disgusting baseboards/heater). I then moved onto checking out the room in search for where these ants were coming in from. To my surprise, I found a nice little pile of mouse crap in the corner of the room (hard to see unless you are looking for something as the carpet hides it well.. maybe this is their plan so guests don't notice it?). I then found a hole in the wall by the patio where the ants (and mice) were coming in and obviously travelled across the room into the bathroom, they were on the walls and baseboards. Now it being 2 am at this point I was almost about to let this slide (even though it is absolutely unacceptable) until my husband physically saw A MOUSE run along the baseboard and under the adjoining door to the next room. That was it, we immediately checked out and the gentleman working reception obviously had seen this before as he was not at all surprised. It was also very inconvenient to have to check out at 2 am and try to find somewhere else. The photos online of this hotel are 10000% deceiving from what you actually get and I don't understand the good reviews. This place is an absolute infested dump. So if you enjoying furry little critters running around and bringing home some ants in your luggage.. this is the place for you! If you don't enjoy these things, DO NOT STAY HERE. (Please see the photos that I will attach) read more

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The pros of the hotel - the staff is very friendly, and the location is great. You can walk to many restaurants, Stanley Park, etc. And it's dog friendly! The cons - only 1 elevator was working the whole time we were there, and looking back at reviews, it's been this way for a while. There was always a long wait for the elevator. We ended up taking the narrow and dark stairs to our 4th floor room most of the time. Other guests were also using the stairs, but they were so narrow, you'd have to step out into the hallway to let people pass. What a pain! I don't know who decided to put all the dogs on the 4th floor, but, let me tell you, when your dog is traveling and off their regular schedule, and they start whining to go potty, and your choice is a 15 minute wait for the elevator or climbing flights uo and down a dark and narrow stairway as fast as you can, well, you've gotta make some tough choices. I also found the entranceway to always be cramped - we were trying to navigate in and out with luggage, around other people's dogs, around the long line for the elevator, and the automatic doors opening and closing on us constantly, and it was just annoying! The room itself was fine, except... there was this weird large hole under the window area. At first, it was uncovered and our dog kept trying to reach something under there. (Who knows? Who wants to know?) We ended up asking the front desk for a solution and they gave us some towels to stuff under there. Which, solved the problem, in a way, but what the heck? read more

Best Western Plus Sands - Towels, the solution to every problem. - Hotels Near Me - Vancouver, British Columbia

What a wonderful location in the city. Close to the beaches and popular foodie spots. Hotel was clean, restaurant food was pretty good too. Will book again on next visit. read more

Regret coming here. Thought it was going to be a nice weekend for us, wrong. My boyfriends frat rented out a few floors for their annual formal and needless to say we had a bad experience. Second day in we noticed paw prints on one of the beds (we don't have pets), meaning they didn't change the sheets before we came to stay here. We're also allergic to dogs so we've been suffering all weekend and we're both really grossed out by it. We love dogs but we just don't like sharing sheets with strangers. Prime reason of our upset is the fact that I got food poisoning from the pub downstairs. Had a basic breakfast and a smoothie there and something had to have gone bad because the food poisoning set in within hours. Been throwing up every 30 minutes and we can't even enjoy the last day of our trip now because I'm in such bad shape my boyfriend has had to take care of me. When I called the front desk to talk to a manager to A. Let them know that whoever "cleaned" our room before we came in doesn't do their job right and B. Let them know I got food poisoning from something in their kitchen (I used to work in food service so I didn't attack them for getting me sick , mostly just telling them they should probably check the expiration dates on their food so nobody else gets sick) there wasn't a manager or supervisor on the premises. You would think that there would be at least somebody in charge here during the weekends, especially since they had 50 couples rent out a huge portion of the rooms. Whenever I come back here I will absolutely not be coming back or recommend this place to anyone and will be telling the fraternity to not book here next year. It would be nice if the hotel could try to compensate for them getting me sick but again there's nobody in charge for me to talk to about that so read more

Best Western Plus Sands - Dirty sheets - Hotels Near Me - Vancouver, British Columbia

Convenient location but in a problematic area. The hotel is outdated with musty, smoky rooms, old mattresses, and moldy air conditioning. Some staff are helpful, but overall, it's overpriced for the value. Better to spend 30% more on a proper 5-star hotel. read more

AVOID- SEVERE RODENT INFESTATION as acknowledged by SHELDON on guest services at reception. Both rooms booked had mice running through them and the intermittent screams heard throughout the corridor led us to believe they were prevalent throughout the entire hotel. There are reviews dating back to 2007 siting the same problem. Sheldon apologised profusely and advised that it is an ongoing issue but they have pest control visit weekly. He said he would refund 50% for both rooms for the inconvenience but this has not materialised and the hotel is now refusing to honour this promise. read more

My sister and I were supposed to stay here for two nights, but after being in our room for less than two hours I saw a mouse running across the floor and captured this video. Our room was refunded, but no further help was offered in getting an Uber or finding somewhere else to stay. We would have simply moved rooms, but others on our floor also had mice. read more

Staff is super friendly and the location is excellent (near the gayborhood and English Bay Beach). Used the gym and it was FILTHY! I complained to the front desk and it was cleaned up the next day (I took the liberty of racking the weights myself on the day of). Cardio machines were not working, but that was corrected as well. Did laundry my last night there and the washer's spin cycle did not work properly so the clothes were a little damp. The dryer I used did not dry the clothes properly in 60 min so I had to use the other dryer and within 45 min were dry. Room was nice and beds were comfy, but was noisy due to our room facing the street, but there was a noise ordinance notification posted in the lobby for customers due to road construction. Would have given it 5 stars but due to the gym and laundry room issues I gave it 4. read more

A Contractor knows when chaos is #Caused by construction. Good job Here keeping it to a minimum #SafetyFirst please #TheSafetyCaptain eats all #Yummy food here. Good choices Pleasant aroma from bus stop Weed drifting in window and the Canadians weed store in the area read more

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The hotel is within walking distance to Stanley Park and Robson street for shopping and restaurants and has convenient amenities. The hotel room with the garden view is not worth the $400+ price tag if you are a light sleeper. The music from the restaurant across the water sounds like a night club. And the patron's conversations is clearly audible from the outdoor dining area below. It all looks great during the day but when it is time to turn in you can forget about sleeping for several hours. Apparently I read the wrong reviews. The hotel room with the garden view isn't worth the high price tag. If you need peace and quiet this hotel disappointingly cannot provide that to you. . read more

Hotel rooms were upgraded and is currently renovating. Close and walkable to the beach. Lots of places to eat and they also have a pub right downstairs. Staff was awesome. Rooms were clean. Limited parking. Rooms are pretty big. Really enjoyed my night there. read more

Stayed there for a few days, the location is great and the rooms look nice. First, we found a bed-bug on a wall, did not know it's a bed bug, we had never seemed them before. We tried to kill it, it didn't want to die‍, took it to the front desk and asked who is it. The front desk wasn't sure, they called maintenance. The maintenance said that it's a bed bug and started to convince us that we brought it with ourselves. Seriously, man?!! Our luggage, which were two backpacks, always kept them under my bed. If it had any bedbugs, they would bite me at home, not in your hotel. So they ended up changing our room, to the one which had broken fridge and the whole night drunk people from downstairs bar were singing, flirting and yelling like crazy. We were with small children, no one could sleep at night. Next day they moved us to a different room, it was another disaster night, our room was joined with someone's else room, and that people were very loud. Most likely they were drunk as well. First they were knocking the door and walls, and then they got tired and started snoring so loud, like grizzly bears. No sleep for two nights in a row. Just FYI no apologies from the stuff, they did change the rooms, but who cares if the new room was worse than previous, bottom line: we couldn't get any sleep at night. At check out they told me that they can waive the parking fee, which was already free for me as a gold members. I just want to say SERIOUSLY people? I always travel with best western, but this one just sucks. So much work after the stay at this hotel. Already sprayed the backpacks and clothes for bedbugs and now need to deep clean them and heat for 1 hours at high temperature after the stay. One point given only for convenient location, would not recommend unless you're OK with noise and bedbugs. read more

Stayed here for a Just got Laughs comedy festival in February 2023 and I guess the joke was on us. We had bed bugs. We only spent the night but that was enough. Bites all over our head and neck. And lasted about 10 days. Enough that even my co-workers commented when I went back to work the next week. read more

Front desk seemed to have always been very busy, but would do their absolute best to accommodate our needs as soon as possible. Sheldon at the front desk, especially, wouldn't waste a single moment and delivered any request within seconds. The room was also very clean, and basically had everything we needed. However, the one downside was that we needed to request to have body lotion, shampoo, and conditioner in the room. Otherwise, showers would have only consisted of water. Nevertheless, I had requested both an early check-in, and as nice a view as possible. Staff made sure both requests were completed at their finest caliber which I greatly appreciated. read more

Best Western motels are just slightly tarted up Motel 6s at double the price and that's being generous, but this review isn't about the motel side of this location, it's about the pub/restaurant. Let's start with the location, near the corner of Denman and Davie in English Bay, you really can't get a more central spot, lots of shops, lots of people (and not all of them are tourists, but a lot of them are) and just a few steps from English Bay and the beach. When visiting 'The Sands' as it's known by the locals, you don't even really need to go inside the motel part (except to use the bathroom). A pretty standard pub/restaurant with all the mandatory TV sets and lots of room inside and a few more tables outside, it doesn't stand out too much in any respect. So why the 5 stars? Well, they have some pretty great daily drink and food specials, like two apps for $12 or beer and highball specials that will make you want to stay just a little longer. Here's the scenario, you take your bike around the Stanley Park seawall, maybe stop on one of the big grassy fields and toss a frisbee for a bit, then make your way along English Bay to see some of the street performers and finally find a seat at The Sands outdoor patio. Here you sip on a few drink specials and maybe some food as you enjoy the Vancouver sunset, now what could be more 5 stars than that? read more

Best Western Plus Sands - these look better than they tasted, next time they should use non-stale tortillas. - Hotels Near Me - Vancouver, British Columbia

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I have to make a high recommendation of the staff at the Sands Best Western in Vancouver, Canada at English Bay. We live in Vancouver but it was my 1st time there. Our Tuesday night started mistakenly slow as we arrived an hour and a half before karaoke started. The bar manager, Brad, convinced us to stay by offering my cousin and I each a drink on the house. We ended up staying and singing our hearts out! We had SUCH A GREAT TIME! We made friends with guests staying at the hotel who were flying out the next morning to Saskatoon and Brisbane, respectively. We danced the night away the DJ was superb but at the end of the night we realized that my cell phone had been taken. It was disheartening. We couldn't imagine any of the people there or around us would do that... the vibe there seemed more mature. Since we had so much fun it was even more of a violation to discover the phone was taken right from under us, possibly while we were on stage singing a duet. My cousin left her number with the front desk, we informed the bouncer and Brad of the situation and left. All day Wednesday I spent locking my device, setting lock mode on Find My iPhone, and feeling betrayed. By Thursday, I had a new SIM card and was borrowing my aunt's extra old phone when suddenly my cousin calls to say the hotel manager, Eddie called and to phone him back because someone returned an iPhone but he wasn't sure if it was mine. I got down there right away and Eddie had my iPhone held strongly in his hand until I entered my password to ensure it was in fact my phone (which I really appreciated) He explained that a male patron came there to drop it off and told the front desk he must've brought it home by mistake because he was intoxicated. Obviously I was thrilled! But it wouldn't have happened unless all the team at the Sands Best Western pulled together to keep their eyes and ears open and contacted us. Thank you Brad, Eddie, the bouncer, the DJ, the front desk staff and the person who brought back my phone. You're all outstanding. WE'LL BE BACK! read more

Best Western Plus Sands - Hotels Near Me - Vancouver, British Columbia

Your room will flood and have no hot water. They'll refuse to switch your room and then the next morning will come bang on your door demanding you leave so they can fix it. Absolute horrible experience don't stay here ever read more

Best Western Plus Sands - Water - Hotels Near Me - Vancouver, British Columbia

I travel alot and I must say the location of this hotel is one of the best. Staff is friendly and good at listening and help. Close to the location, you can Hop On and Off the Vancouver Trolley. Very neat visit of the city even under pouring rain. To all gym rats out there, skip a training! I really did not like the gym there. read more

Staff was excellent, couldn't have been better. Parking was not great. Room didn't even have thermostat controled central air, had to use wall unit air conditioner that was being covered by windowshade. When windowshade was moved for air conditioning, sun comes blazing into room at 6am while sleeping. Not what you would expect for the price. PS. I would REALLY not recommend Vancouver in general. My wife and I sat in hours of ridiculous traffic, during the traffic jam I was cut-off in an intersection and as a result my car was assaulted by a 'maniac cop' who was apparently was upset because I didn't drive into the car that cut me off. So he punched my car and verbally abused me (forget the fact that I clearly had New York license plates and was a tourist on vacation and had no idea where I was and was just trying to get through a crazy traffic jam without breaking any laws). The next day we decided to visit Stanley Park, well things didn't go any better there. We drove in and parked in the Native American Totem Pole area at the park's east end. As you can see from my pics, there are no signs anywhere alerting unaware tourists that the parking is payed. We got back to our car and had a parking ticket (in a park). On our exit from the park we got lost and I had to check my phone for directions. Since I was driving I stopped and pulled over as much as I could to temporarily check my directions, since the road was not busy and I didn't want to drive distracted and kill someone. Withing 30 seconds the park police pulled up behind me and treated me as if I had robbed a bank. He demanded to know why I had stopped and before I could explain told me I needed to start driving and I couldn't stop for any reason whatsoever (by the way this was a double lane road with hardly and traffic on it). My wife and I were on a month long road trip this summer. In the last two years we have visited more than 40 different cities in the US and Canada and never had any experience even close to this. In fact we had been on the road for a total of 3 weeks up to this point and never even had any interaction with police and in the span of 24 hours in Vancouver had two extremely negative interactions. Outside of the obvious problems with police the people here also just seemed unfriendly and weirdly hostile. We didn't get a very friendly vibe from this place at all. In general, I would not recommend Vancouver as a place to visit. read more

Best Western Plus Sands - Hotels Near Me - Vancouver, British Columbia

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Of all the buildings being demolished in Vancouver this should be one. Noisy, drafty, and moldy yet still expensive. The only plus is location near the park and the West end. Restaurant pretty decent as well. read more

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Great hotel walk to great restaurants and facing the ocean Parking onsite Absolutely recommend read more

Hope you like luke-warm/cold showers. Booked here for two weeks and I only had one shower that wasn't uncomfortable. And the people who I stayed with all had the same experience. This needs to be fixed asap. Front desk staff were moody when trying to book in, almost as though we were bothering them. Workout room is subpar. Cleaning staff were good though, they came often and were friendly. read more

We very much enjoyed our stay. Staff was very pleasant and accommodating. Daily food specials were a great bargain and quite yummy. Actually, all the food we were served at their restaurant was great and very ample portion sizes too. Bathroom was small, but wonderful shower-looks recently updated. Room was very clean and comfortable. Very convenient to the beaches and the seawalk. The stroll around Stanley Park took us over an hour with lovely views along the way - a definite must for tourists. Walked in the other direction and found the water taxis and cruised around False Creek - also fun. read more

Unfornatuly, in the last year this place has went down hill. We stayed here in 2018 for Seawheeze and it was priced right and great customer service. This year, for Seawheeze, I ended up paying more than a 5 star hotel (friend stayed at Sutton). Our refrigerator was broken, balcony has loose boards and completely unusable, the main door does not shut completely without the help of the chain lock. They updated the bathroom with a shower only, but the door to the bathroom doesn't shut. There was no ice machine on our floor we had to go to the 1st/3rd. The air condition barely worked and is so loud. Also, we are on the side where there is a bar- be fair warned loud live music Friday nights, and loud customers leaving Saturday. Just completely bummed, this was such a nice place last year. Won't be back. read more

PROS: - very close to the ocean, lots of shops and restaurants nearby. Good location - clean - friendly + helpful front desk. CONS: - $9.99/day for parking. Not even kidding you. - noisy, from both traffic and other guests, probably because it was an old building. - tiny bathroom. The fan in ours wasn't working. - you can barely see the television; the tv hutch doors wouldn't open all the way. - old elevators that made you wonder if they were going to break down during your stay Instead of your traditional hotel bar + grill or restaurant on the lobby level, they had a sports bar, which weirded me out for reasons I can't articulate. Altogether, I think if we ever go back to Vancouver we'll be looking for a different place to stay. This was perhaps one of the strangest I've ever experienced. If you're looking to save money, you might as well go to a hostel. read more

We got 2 Queen beds overlooking the city and boy was it a view. Hotel wasn't too bad, we got parking and free WiFi. Bed for decently comfortable where you can get a good nights rest and not wake up with back problems. Staff were nice and friendly. Overall experience for the price it was well worth it. We would definitely come back again. read more

This hotel has a great location and a pretty good deal on price compared to close by hotels. It is an easy walk to many restaurants, grocery and shopping on Davie, Denman and Robson. English Bay Beach and Stanley Park are one block over. The front desk staff was very friendly. We were even able to check in early. We had requested for a microwave (to warm our baby's milk) on our online reservation (which I didn't ask about when I checked in), but shortly after we got to the room, they brought one up. The room was clean, had a flat screen tv and a refrigerator. We also had a nice view! We had a partial ocean view of English Bay. The bathroom is a little small. I think it wouldn't appear as small if the door swung the other way. We had a very pleasant 3 night stay and would definitely stay here again. read more

Disappointed in their unwillingness to work with their customers. I booked a stay through Expedia and booked it on the wrong day. Expedia's policy for that booking was non-refundable and no changes allowed. After speaking with them they said they would make an exception and work with the hotel. After speaking with the hotel and hearing about how they "tried" to help, they would not work with me and expedia to change the booking by one day. As a frequent traveller I value hotels that work with their customers, I think that it goes a long way. I think it says a lot about a company that is unwilling to do that. read more

Stayed here last week. It was horrible! our room was facing the main road. It was very noisy, it was hard to sleep. We would wake up every time a bus would come and go. all the windows are tightly shut but it was still very noisy. in the morning we could not sleep past 8, as there was a construction half a block away and it was very loud! wifi sucked, it was very slow. parking was limited. small parking stalls, surcharge was definitely overpriced. Certain channel on tv would make loud cracking noises, the longer to watch the more cracking noise it makes. house keeping lady was very nice. place was clean everyday. we checked out at 5 am on sunday and the guy that was there was very rude. didn't say much. no smile. tossed the credit card on the counter after he was done. will never recommend this place to anyone nor come back here ever again. read more

I stayed here with my family (4 of us) for a weekend. Everyone I encountered was very friendly and helpful. The rooms look like they were remodeled, and it looks very nice. The beds are comfortable, the bathroom is small, and there's a mini fridge in the room. They do have paid parking in their parking garage. It's a little inconvenient since there are all stairs, so carrying suitcases up and down stairs isn't great, but whatever..you can drop them off at the front door if you want. The price for parking is decent, as it is difficult to find hotels in the area with available parking. Overall, this place is updated, clean, and in a beautiful location for taking walks along the waterfront, and watching the sunsets. read more

Positives: Check in early and got a room immediately. Good size room for two people. Located at an area where there are a lot places you can go for food, coffee, drink and entertainment. All walking distance to the hotel. Close to the beach and Stanley Park. Hotel has a decent restaurant with friendly staff. Friendly and attentive staff. Not so positive: Shower temperature was difficult to keep warm/hot. This may just be affecting the room we stayed in. Highly recommend this hotel if you happen to visit Vancouver. read more

I was very disappointed in this hotel for the little things. The room was very nice and comfortable. Given I stayed during Grey Cup weekend, the $340 for two nights seemed reasonable. Until I tried to shower the first morning of my stay. The water did not even get warm, never mind hot. That made for a very grumpy start to the day. After being out all morning, I came back in the afternoon to see if the water was hot now (maybe everyone in the hotel was showering at the same time) but the water still didn't get hot (although a bit warmer than this morning). The wifi in the room was extremely frustrating as it was slow and disconnected very often. I would not likely stay here again. read more

The breakfast is the best quick, great quality and fairly cheap spot in the west end! My favorite is the avocado toast with sourdough bread +1 poached egg. would 10/10 reccomend! read more

I thought this place wasn't too shabby at all. For the price we paid we had two full size beds and a sofa bed to go with it. The TV was actually a flat screen and it was pretty cozy. The place is a stones throw from English Bay. It's a nice walk on a nice day. You probably could run to Stanley Park if you really wanted to. The rooms are nice and big. They are looking after the environment, and they encourage recycling. The elevators are old and slow. Parking is pretty tight. The iPod radio they have doesn't charge your phone. It plays music but what good is it if the music drains your iPhone? Want to microwave your food, you'll need to plug that puppy in. What's with the bathrooms in Canada? Why are they so small? The last place my GF and I stayed the door hit the toilet and you had to step onto the toilet to get out. While this bathroom was "bigger" it was still small. Hell you can't even make love to your love one in there. And the toilet...they are small, like grade school small. Free wifi, and a nice room, I would come back to this place again. I think it's worth every penny. read more

3.5 star rating. This is because of the impeccable service I received from the staff. Otherwise, a 2.5 or 3 ratin Pros: Right across from the ocean. Good balcony if you're lucky enough to get one with your room. Cons: Old hotel feel. Bad air circulation and no centralized AC! read more

Excellent location, friendly staff and a very comfortable clean room! So close to beach, restaurants, shopping we had a great time here! read more