Ultimate Vancouver Travel Guide

Being stuck inside has me reminiscing about my favourite place on earth and how I am definitely booking another trip to Vancouver as soon as all of this passes. I visited Vancouver for the first time in 2017 and I haven’t been able to stay away ever since.

I moved to Vancouver in the summer of 2018 to work at a summer camp which was actually the most memorable summer of my life (my dream is to move out west permanently one day…sorry mom). When I worked at the summer camp I was really lucky since the camp did weekly trips which allowed me to see a lot of the city while being paid to work.

My cute little summer camp group exploring the Burnaby Village Museum

Even when I was living in Europe on exchange people from all around the world would ask me where the nicest place I had been was and out of the 35 countries I had been to I would always circle back to Vancouver/British Columbia.

Theres just something about Vancouver that feels like “home” to me, I am happiest when I am being active outdoors whether its hiking, swimming, running or biking and Vancouver has endless beautiful places to explore outside.

The city is very active and green and people there really value a healthy life style. There is so much variety of landscape to explore from the city to the beach to the mountains.

I find Vancouver has so much more of a calm and laid back/chill vibe compared to Toronto - The Toronto traffic/rush doesn’t really exist in there to the same extent. No matter what I am doing in Toronto I feel a sense of urgency or that I need to rush (the regular walkings pace in Toronto is insane).

The west coast weather is also a huge plus to me - I would take a mild temperature with a few months of rain any day over the months of -20 and snow we get here.

While there are also definitely great things about Toronto too, I feel like Vancouver just aligns more with my hobbies, interests and overall vibe - It makes me feel a lot happier in general just being there! I definitely understand now why all the people I met in University from out west wouldn’t ever shut up about it (west coast, best coast for real though).

The View from just above Kitsilano Pool

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Here are the highlights of why I am so in love with this city / province and what I would recommend doing and seeing if you get the chance to visit!

1. Explore the Mountains! Snowboarding Whistler has been my all time favourite thing that I have done.

It has the most breath taking view… I had never seen anything more beautiful in my entire life, even if you don’t ski or snowboard i would 100% recommend purchasing a gondola ticket just to go up and see the view (you can go up any month of the year)! While I was visiting Whistler I also went white water rafting and zip lining which were so much fun. Some other mountains I have enjoyed visiting that are closer to Vancouver are Grouse, Cypress, Seymour and taking a ride up the Sea to Sky Gondola.

View from Whistler Mountain

The view from the Sea to Sky Gondola

Whistler in Summer 2017

2. Visit the Beaches! I often see a 'would you rather?' question asking you to choose between the mountains vs. the beach, but in Vancouver you don't have to choose, you get the best of both worlds: A beach with a stunning view of the mountains. All the beaches in Vancouver are so so beautiful. After work I loved visiting Kits beach, Second beach, English bay, and Sunset beach which are all pretty close to the downtown core! My other favourite beaches are Spanish Banks and Jericho beach by the UBC campus. This beach is super cool to see during low tide and there is a section that is open for people to bring their dogs as well as lots of space to have a picnic or even BBQ. While at the beach I love to walk/run around, rent a paddle board, swim and I even got the hang of skim boarding while I was living there.

Spanish Banks Beach

Kits Beach

3. Swim in the Outdoor Pools! Every time I visit Vancouver in the summer I will spend a majority of my days swimming and relaxing at Kitsilano Pool. Kitsilano Pool is Vancouver's only saltwater swimming pool and is located near the beach, cafés, and neighbourhood of Kitsilano. The pool is open May to mid-September and only costs around $6 for a day pass. I liked taking advantage of the lane swimming and aqua fitness classes which allow you to even get a good workout in while having a day spent at the pool. Another beautiful outdoor pool that I love is Second Beach Pool which is located near the beach, trails, and forest of Stanley Park. This pool also has lane swimming, is right on the ocean wall and has a fun little water slide.

Second Beach Pool

Kits Pool

4. Go Hiking! While living in Vancouver I discovered how much I loved hiking and exploring outdoors. The most amazing hike I have ever done was the Joffre Lakes Provincial Park Hike (it is located around 3.5 hours north of Vancouver). This hike was a medium difficulty and took around 5 hours round trip but was definitely worth the views that came along with it.

Middle Joffre Lake

There is the lower, middle and upper lakes which each have a unique look to them - The waters are bright turquoise and look very similar to the lakes in Banff National Park.

Lower Joffre Lake

Some other good hikes to do closer to Vancouver are Garibaldi lake, Panorama Ridge, Quarry Rock, Tunnel Bluffs and if you are feeling like getting a tough workout in then the Grouse Grind or the Chief.

Quarry Rock, North Vancouver

5. Try some of the amazing Restaurants! I am constantly thinking about how much I miss the food in Vancouver…I could literally write an entire post about the food here itself. Some of my most notable personal favourites are Banana Leaf (Malaysian), Raisu (Japanese), *Green Leaf Sushi, Asa Sushi, Peaceful (you must order the beef rolls, house stir fried noodles, xaio-long bao, and BBQ pork buns) and Kerrisdale Pho Tan. *Green leaf sushi is a little restaurant located near Kitsilano and has the BEST sushi and Oshi that I have ever tasted in my life.

Pineapple Fried Rice from Banana Leaf

6. Check out Granville Island! There is so much to do / eat at Granville Island - The famous Public Market has over 50 independent food vendors, there is also the Net Loft Shops and Railspur District where many of Canada’s best artists and designers can be found. Granville Island also has many cultural venues and hosts numerous performing arts and cultural festivals year-round!

Granville Island Entrance

View from outside of Granville Island

7. Visit Stanley Park - Located just outside of the downtown core, Stanley Park is definitely a must see when you visit Vancouver. You can run, walk or bike along the sea wall and get amazing views of different areas of Vancouver - It's a roughly ten-kilometer loop, starting in Coal Harbour, passing by the Brockton Point, the Lions Gate Bridge, Third Beach, Second Beach, and the Lost Lagoon. Inside Stanley Park there is also the Vancouver Aquarium that has the cutest little sea otters.

The Stanley Park Walk along the Seawall

8. Explore all the unique neighbourhoods/areas downtown: The different areas of downtown Vancouver are all so unique and have their own character to them. The best thing about this city in my opinion is that everything downtown is walkable:

-Gastown: The oldest part of the city, Has an old school Montreal/European type feel to it, trendy/hipster, cute cafes,

-Central Downtown: Granville St - entertainment district, night life, and Robson Street - Shopping strip

-Waterfront/Coal Harbour - Marina, lots of high rise condo buildings, parks, good restaurants

-Yaletown: Chique, High-End Area, Hip restaurants and cocktail lounges, many with lively outdoor terraces

-West End/English Bay/Davie Village: Vancouver’s most LGBT-friendly neighbourhood close to Stanley park and English bay, lots of outdoor activities

Gastown, Downtown Vancouver

9. Attend Vancouver’s Free Events: There are so many free things to do in Vancouver - Especially during the summer months. Some of my favourites were:

-The Honda Celebration of Light (the longest running off-shore fireworks festival in the world), pride, the greek festival, dragon boat festival and the fresh air outdoor cinemas.

During the winter there are the Vancouver Christmas market and VanDusen Festival of Lights which aren’t totally free but a very low cost to enter!

Honda Celebration of Light

VanDusen Festival of Lights

As you can tell from how long this post it I am totally obsessed with this city and could spend infinite time here. I can’t wait to move back one day but for now I’ll just have to continue to get my fix from my bi-yearly visits. I can definitely see why Vancouver is consistently voted as one of the best places to live in the world.

Low Tide at Jericho Beach

Next up on my BC bucket list is to go on road trips to explore Vancouver island (Victoria, Tofino, Nanaimo) and Interior BC (Kelowna, Kamloops, The Okanagan, Mount Revelstoke and Glacier national parks).

Let me know of any Vancouver recommendations that you have as I am always looking for new things to try around the city!

-Kristin