“There was hardly a dry eye along the seawall as families, couples, joggers, and dogs took in the sheer beauty and scale of Vancouver's newest must see attraction.”
That’s an excerpt from a TripAdvisor review written for the “Sunset Beach Barge” which washed ashore Nov. 15 during a severe rain and windstorm. Rarely is such high praise sung of anything in Vancouver but the English Bay Barge is one giant, beached exception. Scheduled to be removed from the beach early the week of Dec. 6, the barge has received quite the following since its arrival. So far the barge has spawned its own social media presence, inspired fundraisers, and made international headlines.
We here at Vancouver Is Awesome have tried to pin down exactly what makes the barge such an attraction with varying results. Whatever the reason, much of Vancouver is in on the joke, to the extent that Barge Chilling Park now appears as a location on Google Maps and the barge’s own TripAdvisor page has a 4.5-star rating.
As it turns out, 4.5 stars on TripAdvisor in Vancouver is on par with some of the city's most well-known attractions. Other Vancouver tourist hotspots with the same rating as the now-legendary beached wood chip barge include the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, Harbour Air Seaplanes, the Vancouver Aquarium and downtown Vancouver on the whole.
The barge’s rating actually beats a few other local features like the Vancouver Trolley Company and the entire neighbourhoods of Gastown and Chinatown.
