Review: YVR (Vancouver, BC) Maple Leaf Lounge

City Guide: Vancouver, British Columbia
Review: Fairmont Waterfront Vancouver
Review: Shangri-La Hotel Vancouver
Review: YVR Maple Leaf Lounge

When we visited Vancouver a few months ago, the hotels were having awesome deals but of course, we couldn't find a good deal on flight prices. There also didn't happen to be any coach award seats either, so we bit the bullet and booked a couple of first class awards on Air Canada. One of the benefits of that was getting to check out the Maple Leaf Lounge at Vancouver International Airport on our way home. 

There are three Maple Leaf Lounges at the Vancouver airport. One in the international terminal, one trans-border, and one in the domestic terminal. We were flying back to the US, so we visited the trans-border lounge.

Maple Leaf Lounge Locations, Vancouver Airport

The Maple Leaf Lounge was on the second floor overlooking the rest of the terminal. There was plenty of seating, a television, a business center with a few computers, and floor to ceiling windows overlooking the runway.

Vancouver Airport Maple Leaf Lounge Seating

What really set the lounge apart from others I've visited was the awesome spread of snacks. I'm used to United Club lounges, which offer bags of carrots and ranch dressing, cookies, and trail mix - unfortunately, nothing substantial. By contrast, the Maple Leaf Lounge had quite a bit of food set out. I wouldn't necessarily recommend that you use it to substitute for a full meal, but there were different types of salads, chips and salsa, fresh veggies (not bagged) with dip, hummus, two different soups, breads, crackers, and cookies. 

Vancouver Airport Maple Leaf Lounge Food Selection

Vancouver Airport Maple Leaf Lounge Soup Selection

There's no denying that the food was great, but the best part of the lounge was the bar. Typically, lounge bars have a slightly angry, usually judge-y woman standing behind them. She'll only give you one glass of something at a time, she'll judge you if you have too many glasses of the free wine, and she expects a tip. All that changes at the Maple Leaf Lounge. The self-serve bar was fairly extensive and had beer on tap, bottles of wine free for the taking, and plenty of liquor.  Give me the chance to get my own alcohol (judgment free, thankyouverymuch) and I'm sold.

Vancouver Airport Maple Leaf Lounge Self-Serve Bar

Overall, the Maple Leaf Lounge was a nice place to wait for our flight back home and it's worth checking out if you have a chance. 

Happy Travels!