Robson Street is often compared to Beverly Hills’ Rodeo Drive. It’s chock-a-block with upscale boutiques, cafés and eateries. It’s also a cultural hub, featuring the Roman Colosseum-inspired Central Library and Vancouver Art Gallery in the old courthouse. Robson ends where Stanley Park’s 1,000 acres begin. Its famous 5.5-mile seawall beckons for a walk, jog or bike ride. Follow it to palm tree-lined English Bay beach and beyond to Granville Island, where you’ll delight in the selection at the bustling public market.

All the way to the west at the Point Grey Campus of the University of British Columbia is the Museum of Anthropology, one of the world’s best collections of northwest native artifacts. The view from the Arthur Erickson-designed building alone is worth the price of admission.

Follow the redbrick road in Gastown, where Vancouver began. It hosts the opening weekend of June’s Vancouver Jazz Festival and July’s Tour de Gastown bike race—Lance Armstrong won it in 1991. Gastown is a tourist hub teeming with visitors from tour buses and cruise ships, so locals prefer the Yaletown warehouse district.

Vancouver’s Chinatown ranks behind New York’s and San Francisco’s in size. Even so, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden offers tranquility and peace close to downtown, just around the corner from the Guinness Book of World Records–validated narrowest building in the world. A few blocks north is the dilapidated Downtown Eastside. City Hall hopes redevelopment of the century-old Woodward’s department store building (beneath the big red W) will rehabilitate an area riddled with open drug use and street crime.

Commercial Drive is dotted with Italian, Portuguese and Cuban cafés, and the city’s best ice cream is at La Casa Gelato, a few blocks west on Venables Street. Warning: There are 208 flavors.

Two bridges span Burrard Inlet, but the 12-minute SeaBus commuter ferry ride is a pleasant alternative. Grouse Mountain, one of three ski/snowboard resorts on the North Shore, is the best place to view the city from afar via the SkyRide; if you’re so inclined, hike the 1.8-mile Grouse Grind vertical trail, open spring to fall. North and West Vancouver trails are among the most popular in the world for mountain bikers. Canoeists and kayakers also rave about area waters. Rentals are available at Jericho Beach, Kitsilano Beach, English Bay, Granville Island and Deep Cove from spring to fall.

Back downtown, city hotels offer a competitive spa scene. If you’d rather unwind with a day trip, drive the Sea-to-Sky Highway to Whistler or hop a ferry, seaplane or helicopter to Victoria, British Columbia’s capital, which residents claim is “more British than Britain itself.”



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Special thanks to the tourism and airport media relations staffs in Vancouver for the information provided in this resource guide.







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