{"id":103283,"date":"2026-06-25T15:39:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T15:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/103283\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T15:39:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T15:39:10","slug":"what-its-like-inside-vancouvers-last-mile-hotel-during-fifa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/103283\/","title":{"rendered":"What it’s like inside Vancouver’s “Last Mile” hotel during FIFA"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m looking out at a sea of red and white ahead of Canada\u2019s historic FIFA World Cup match against Switzerland. But I\u2019m not in the stadium stands. Instead, I\u2019m 21 floors up, inside a room at Vancouver\u2019s \u201cLast Mile\u201d hotel.<\/p>\n

Just a stone\u2019s throw from BC Place, the JW Marriott Parq Vancouver<\/a> might be the closest you can get to the match without actually being there.<\/p>\n

\"ParqThe flower-covered soccer ball in the lobby (Darcy Matheson)<\/p>\n

Starting at check-in, the lobby has been transformed by a massive three-dimensional soccer ball built entirely out of flowers, including fresh and silk blooms, moss and succulents. The towering, limited-time installation is part of \u201cGarden of Goals,\u201d from Fleurs de Villes.<\/p>\n

Most rooms here have a stadium view, so instead of fighting for sight lines, you can watch the crowd gather from above, the grounds of BC Place inside the gates turning into one long pregame party. You\u2019re close enough to hear the chants through the glass (\u201cOh Canada\u201d heard twice so far, an hour out from the match), yet far enough to choose your own adventure and vantage point on game day.<\/p>\n

\"ParqView from the 21st floor of the JW Marriott Parq Vancouver room overlooking BC Place the evening before the Canada \u2013 Switzerland match (Darcy Matheson)<\/p>\n

The Last Mile route itself has become a must-do for FIFA visitors to Vancouver. It kicks off near Main Street\u2013Science World station, where the building\u2019s iconic geodesic dome has gotten an epic and photogenic glow-up as a giant FIFA ball, then winds along the seawall and Expo Blvd. The route is packed with activations: face painting, a pop-up soccer game for kids and adults alike, and a beer garden with live music on the north side of Science World, overlooking False Creek.<\/p>\n

The route ends just steps from the hotel and the stadium alike, so by the time fans arrive, they\u2019ve already journeyed through an hour or more of street-party energy, live bands and a horse-led parade before the match even gets underway.<\/p>\n

\"JWView from the garden area on the 17th floor (JW Marriott Parq Vancouver)<\/p>\n

The hotel has built itself into the tournament, too. The 17th floor rooftop JW Garden patio<\/a> with panoramic views of BC Place and the Vancouver skyline has a Summer of Soccer feature menu and live music on weekends and game days, while the Sportsbook Lounge offers a 50-foot screen and jersey giveaways for every Canada match.<\/p>\n

So even without a ticket to the game, you can get a front row seat to the World Cup frenzy of action unfolding in downtown Vancouver.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Darcy<\/p>\n

Darcy is the Editor in Chief of BCBusiness magazine, and the Vice President of Digital for Canada Wide Media and Alive Publishing Group, overseeing social, video and digital editorial for lifestyle magazines across Canada’s West Coast, including Vancouver magazine, Western Living, BC Living and Alive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019m looking out at a sea of red and white ahead of Canada\u2019s historic FIFA World Cup match…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1314,8465,37243,95,3543],"class_list":["post-103283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-fifa","tag-hotels","tag-jw-marriot","tag-vancouver","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}