2400 Motel Review: Vancouver's Retro Motor Court (With Free Parking)

Published 2026-07-12 · FanVancouver honest stay review

The 2400 Motel is a time capsule: a genuine 1940s motor court on Kingsway, with little white cabins arranged around lawns, that has somehow survived into 2026 with its charm — and its prices — intact. If you're driving to Vancouver, this solves the single most expensive problem of a city trip: parking is free.

🏨 What it's actually like

Cabins and rooms are simple, retro and well-kept — some with kitchenettes, which combined with free parking makes this one of the cheapest realistic setups for families and road-trippers. It's quiet at night in a way downtown never is.

📍 Location

Kingsway in East Vancouver. Downtown is ~25 minutes by the #19 bus that stops out front, or 15 minutes by car off-peak. Nanaimo SkyTrain station is a short bus hop. You trade walkability for space, quiet and savings — a fair trade for drivers.

✅ Who it's for

Driving up from the US? Our Seattle-to-Vancouver guide covers the border, and the free-parking math is in the budget guide.

The trade-off you are making

You are trading walkability for space, quiet and money. The 2400 is a 1940s motor court on Kingsway in East Vancouver — individual units around a courtyard, a genuine survivor of a building type that has almost entirely disappeared from the city — and it comes with free parking at your door, which in Vancouver is worth $30 to $50 a night on its own.

Downtown is about 25 minutes on the 19 bus that stops out front, or fifteen minutes by car off-peak. That is entirely workable if you have a car and are treating Vancouver as a base for day trips to the North Shore, the Fraser Valley or the ferries. It is a poor fit if your plan was to walk out of the door into the city.

Who should book elsewhere

• Car-free travellers — every trip becomes a bus ride. Go central: YWCA Hotel or St Clair.
• Short first visits — with two nights in Vancouver you want to be downtown.
• Anyone wanting nightlife within walking distance — Kingsway is not that.
• Travellers expecting a hotel — this is a motel, honestly and deliberately.

Compare more options in our budget guide or see how to get around.

🚕 Getting there from the airport

By car — the reason most people choose this place — it is 25-30 minutes from YVR outside rush hour, and there is free parking beside your door instead of $40 a night downtown. By transit it is honest work: Canada Line to Broadway-City Hall, the 99 B-Line east to Commercial-Broadway, then the #19 down Kingsway, about an hour in total.

🚶 Within a ten-minute walk

This stretch of Kingsway is one of the better eating strips in the city and nothing like a tourist district: Vietnamese noodle houses, Filipino bakeries, Chinese barbecue, taquerias. Trout Lake and its park are about twenty minutes north on foot, Nanaimo SkyTrain station a similar walk, and the #19 runs downtown in around half an hour. Do not expect a walkable neighbourhood in the downtown sense — expect a good breakfast and a bus.

📅 When to book

Rates here hold steadier through the year than downtown, so the saving is biggest in July and August, when a downtown room doubles and this one doesn't. Summer weekends still sell out with families driving through.

Is a 1946 motor court dated?

The layout is: individual units, doors onto the parking court, the shape of postwar roadside America. That is either the appeal or the reason to look elsewhere.

Is it far from downtown?

About 8 km — 20 minutes by car off-peak, half an hour on the #19. Close enough to visit the city easily, far enough that you are staying in a residential part of East Vancouver.