Things to do in Vancouver

Nature · West End, central

A thousand acres of rainforest on a peninsula at the edge of downtown, ringed by a seawall path that runs far beyond the park itself.

Local tip: The seawall continues for over twenty kilometres past the park through False Creek and out to Spanish Banks — the park loop is the famous part and the least interesting. Cycling is counter-clockwise only, which is enforced by everyone around you.

Food · Under the Granville Bridge

A former industrial island turned public market, theatres, breweries and workshops, reached by tiny passenger ferries.

Local tip: Drive there and you will spend forty minutes looking for parking. The Aquabus from Yaletown or Hornby Street takes five minutes, costs very little and is the correct way to arrive. Go on a weekday morning; weekends are unmanageable.

Neighborhood · East Vancouver

The old Italian quarter, now the most distinctive street in the city — cafés, produce stores, and a determinedly independent character.

Local tip: The stretch between Venables and 1st is where the original Italian cafés survive, and they still show football at six in the morning. This is where East Vancouver's identity actually lives rather than where it is marketed.

Nature · North Shore, 25 minutes by car

Ski hills inside the metropolitan area, with night skiing in winter and hiking trails in summer.

Local tip: The Grouse Grind is the famous hike and it is a relentless staircase with no view until the top. Cypress and Mount Seymour are quieter, and in winter the mountains sit above the cloud layer that makes the city grey — a clear day up there while it drizzles below is the single best thing about a Vancouver winter.

Food · Richmond, 25 minutes on the Canada Line

Arguably the best Chinese food in North America, concentrated in a few square kilometres of suburban malls.

Local tip: The night market in summer gets the attention, but the year-round strength is the restaurants inside Aberdeen, Yaohan and Parker Place. Regional specificity is the point — Hunan, Shanghainese and Cantonese are all separately and seriously represented.

Nature · 20-minute ferry from Horseshoe Bay

A small forested island in Howe Sound, close enough to be a suburb and remote enough to feel like a different province.

Local tip: Walk on rather than taking a car — the ferry is far cheaper and the village is at the dock. It is a genuine day trip that most Vancouver residents have somehow never made, and the Killarney Lake loop takes about two hours.