L'Hermitage Hotel

A Heated Lap Pool Five Floors Above Robson Street

Downtown Vancouver is full of towers that sell a view and little else. L’Hermitage, at 788 Richards Street where it meets Robson, spends its effort differently. The hotel occupies the lower floors of a residential building, and its centre of gravity is the fifth: a fifteen-metre lap pool heated through the year, a jacuzzi beside it, a garden terrace under open sky, and L’Orangerie set at the same level, so a swim, breakfast and an evening drink all happen within a few steps of each other. Sixty rooms sit below. The result is small, quiet and unusually self-contained for a city-centre address.

Why It Works

Two things decided it. The first is that the pool is genuinely usable in February, which very few Vancouver hotels can offer, and which changes what a winter city break looks like here. The second is service at the scale the building allows: a Les Clefs d’Or concierge, a fitness studio open around the clock, valet parking underground and two bicycles kept for guests, handed over rather than rented. We kept it because this is the rare boutique hotel where the amenities get used daily instead of admired on the way past.

Why This Location

Richards and Robson is the hinge of the downtown peninsula. The Robson Street shops begin at the corner, the Vancouver Art Gallery stands two blocks north, and the nearest SkyTrain entrance is one block away, which matters for the run out to the airport. Gastown and Canada Place are roughly ten minutes on foot, Yaletown about the same in the other direction, and the Aquabus to Granville Island leaves from the foot of Hornby Street. The seawall is close enough that the house bicycles make sense: Stanley Park becomes a flat ride along the water rather than a taxi fare.

Fast Facts

• Price: Luxury

• Vibe: Discreet, residential, quietly European

• Rooms: 60 rooms and suites, from Classic Boutique and solarium rooms to two-bedroom Signature suites

• Best For: couples on a city weekend, long-stay travellers, swimmers, anyone with a small dog

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: the fifth floor, where the heated lap pool, the jacuzzi, the garden terrace and the restaurant share one level

• Dining: L’Orangerie on the fifth floor, seven in the morning to ten at night, cooking to the season, with in-room dining from the same kitchen

• Amenities: year-round heated outdoor lap pool and jacuzzi, garden terrace, twenty-four hour fitness studio, Les Clefs d’Or concierge, underground valet parking, two guest bicycles

• Attractions: Robson Street shopping at the corner, Vancouver Art Gallery two blocks north, Gastown and Canada Place about ten minutes on foot, the Aquabus to Granville Island from Hornby Street

Sixty Rooms, From Solarium to Signature Suite

The rooms run through Classic Boutique, Boutique and Boutique Solarium, then into One Bedroom Boutique, One Bedroom Signature, Signature Den and Two Bedroom Signature suites. The solarium rooms are the ones to ask about, since the glazing is a reason to take a lower floor rather than a higher one. Suites suit longer stays, and for anything longer still the same owners keep the Nicola Residences, a set of heritage homes elsewhere in the city.

L’Orangerie, and the Case for the Fifth Floor

L’Orangerie runs from seven in the morning until ten at night, cooks to the season and shares its level with the pool and the garden. It works as a lounge as much as a restaurant, which is the point: guests drift through at breakfast, come back for a working lunch and finish the evening in the same chairs. In-room dining comes from the same kitchen, and the concierge books the tables the hotel does not have, among them Café Medina nearby.

Bicycles, Valet Parking and What to Know Before You Book

Check-in is from four in the afternoon and check-out at noon, later than most, which suits an evening flight. Parking is valet and underground, the sensible choice in this part of the city. Small dogs are accepted for a fee charged once per stay, and the two house bicycles are complimentary but limited, so claim one early on a clear morning. The business centre and the fitness studio stay open around the clock.