Vancouver International Airport (Richmond, 604-207-7077, www.yvr.ca) is a destination in its own right: it routinely makes top-ten lists of world airports compiled by air-related organizations and by major magazines such as Condé Nast Traveler. Little wonder. Close to half a billion dollars has been spent over the past decade in creating an outdoorsy, if Modernist, environment that suggests the province’s lush coastal habitat while highlighting its indigenous native culture. For the most part it works — spectacularly (but then again, a major Us airline executive told me that behind the good looks, there are lingering problems).
The International Terminal collection of First Nations art is first rate. Coming into the arrivals hall, you walk alongside a bubbling stream presided over by an avant-garde bird creature, then encounter a massive wood carving by Vancouver Island artist Roy Vickers and two giant Welcome Figures and a Spindle Whorl of red cedar, both by Salish artist Susan Point. In fact, the sculpture appears in regular waves, comple¬mented by colorful hanging weavings by members of the Vancouver-based Musqueam band.
But the airport’s pièce de resistance is Bill Reid’s Spirit of Haida Gwaii:
The Jade Canoe, located in the International Terminal’s departures lounge. This shimmering bronze sculpture is a 20-by-13-by-II.5-fOOt paean to a cast of rogues who paddled the coast — and fantastic enough, in every sense of the word, to keep this airport on the men¬tal map of many of the i6 million passengers who pass through annually.
As to the many stores (lots of smoked salmon and outdoor wear), restaurants, and bars, management demands Street pricing meaning you shouldn’t pay more than you would on (expensive) Robson Street.
At InMotion Pictures (US departure area, 604-207-0360), you can rent a DVD player and video to take on a flight. Absolute Spa has locations in both the international (604-270-4772) and domestic (604-273-4772) departures halls, and the airport’s Fairmont Hotel ( 604-248-2772). Here, you can find relieffor those fear-tense shoul¬ders or revel in a full body treatment, if time allows.
Outside the International Terminal, you’ll find Chester Johnson Park — with benches, totems, and walking path — in which to relax and regain your composure after losing your luggage, missing your flight, leaving your spouse, etc.
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