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Hastings Racecourse, also known as Hastings Park, is a racetrack/entertainment center just a few miles removed from downtown Vancouver. With a backdrop of the North Shore Mountains and Burrard Inlet, it offers gaming of many types, restaurants, and other entertainment, both indoors and outdoors.

Hastings Park is in the Hastings-Sunrise community, a family-oriented community, rich in diversity and history. It’s one of Vancouver’s largest urban parks at 162 acres. The park itself consists of more than just the gaming aspect of the racecourse. It also comprises Empire Fields, which has several fields for soccer and softball, as well as an oval running track. There’s also a skateboard park, and the Momijii Gardens (a commemorative garden that’s a reminder of the internment of Japanese Canadians during the World War II).

Probably the best known venue in Hastings Park, besides the racecourse, is the Pacific Coliseum. The NHL’s Vancouver Canucks played there for 24 years, making Stanley Cup appearances in 1982 and 1994. The Coliseum now hosts the WHL’s Vancouver Giants.

There are plans for renovations in the park at some point in the near future. The detail in the plans calls for a balance between active areas and green areas, as well as community and commercial use. An implementation plan was approved in 2007 for how to proceed in the development of the area, which was broken into three phases that will take into account not only professional consulting advice, but will open up discussion to the public for their input.

There’s only one hotel within a mile of Hastings Park, and only a few more within 3 miles.  Those hotels are: Best Western Exhibition Park Vancouver; Holiday Inn Express Hotel Vancouver; Executive Hotel & Conference Center; and the Accent Inns.