The 10 Best Things to Do in Vancouver

Larger than Central Park in New York City, downtown Vancouver's Stanley Park is one of the city’s best-loved attractions. Beautiful swimmable beaches fringe the park’s massive forest of towering Douglas fir and cedars, and there are plenty of free or nearly free things to see and do here.

Rent a bike and ride the 10-kilomter (six-mile) paved seawall path around the edge of Stanley Park and take in views of snow-capped mountains, skyscrapers, and float planes taking off. While you can drive through Stanley Park, horse-drawn carriage tours and the Stanley Park Train are other sightseeing options.

Packing a picnic and staking out a spot under the stars for live theatre performances and free outdoor movies in summer are some of the most popular things to do in Vancouver. Don’t miss the rose gardens and the First Nations' totem poles, each depicting a story. Kids love the heated outdoor pool at Second Beach. The belugas and touch tanks at the Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley Park are also family favorites during a Vancouver vacation.

Near the south entrance to Stanley Park, the popular English Bay Beach in downtown Vancouver’s trendy West End neighborhood packs out with locals on summer weekends. English Bay Beach's sunsets, sea, and sand are a welcome respite for urban dwellers and Vancouver visitors weary of touring.

Arrive by bike on the seawall path or by taxi and bring your swimsuit. In summer, you can send the kids out to the swim raft and slide while you sunbathe and watch beach volleyball matches. You can also rent a beach chair and umbrella or take a seat on one of the giant driftwood logs washed ashore.

There are hot dog carts and ice cream vendors on the beach, but within a couple blocks you'll also find restaurants with decks overlooking the ocean. Each summer, English Bay Beach hosts the Celebration of Light fireworks competition over three nights with an over-water display synchronized to music. It's one of the best things to do in Vancouver during the summer.

One of the main stops on the hop-on, hop-off bus tours of Vancouver, Granville Island is a peninsula shopping and entertainment district with theatres, artisan studios, a microbrewery, restaurants, and a public market similar to Seattle's Pike Place. You could easily spend an entire day exploring and still not see it all. Granville Island has a festive atmosphere with buskers performing and an area for kids' activities, making it one of the best places to go in Vancouver with children.

Wander the public market's food stalls and pick up delicious locally made treats, or enjoy a meal on a sunny outside patio with views of the North Shore mountains. Vancouver Foodie Tours gives you tastings and insider info at eight of the most popular Granville Island restaurants and producers.

Save time to peruse the artist studios and meet potters, painters, boat builders, and metal fabricators. Granville Island is also well loved for its live entertainment. Arts Club Theatre and Vancouver TheatreSports League improv comedy both perform at Granville Island year-round.

If you like to shop, the Robson Street is one of the best places to go in Vancouver. Lined with major brand name stores and a Starbucks on nearly every corner, Robson Street runs through the center of downtown.

The three-block stretch from Burrard Street to Jervis Street is a runway of fashion with 150 shops that include Guess, J. Crew, Banana Republic, and a two-story Victoria's Secret. The walkability and dense concentration of stores make Robson Street a fun place even for window shopping. On rainy days, you can find shelter and more shops just two blocks from Robson Street at Pacific Centre mall.

Rest your feet at one of several nearby cafes with outdoor patios, where you can enjoy great people watching. Upscale restaurants are on the second floor above the shops. For a quick bite, you’ll easily find food trucks that serve everything from Japanese-style hot dogs to hot smoked wild salmon. Head west on Robson Street toward the West End neighborhood for ramen noodle joints, dim sum, and Korean cuisine.

Venture just outside of the downtown core to experience a few of Vancouver's neighborhoods, each with its own distinctive personality. In Gastown, the city’s first downtown and now a National Historic Site, you’ll see brick streets, vintage lampposts, a steam-powered clock, and some of Vancouver's trendiest boutiques and restaurants.

The West End neighborhood adjacent to Stanley Park is a center for the gay community and diverse ethnic cuisine. On the city’s eastern edge are the traditional gardens, tea shops, historic alleys and markets of Chinatown.

For celebrity spotting, the upscale Yaletown neighborhood is your best bet if you haven’t already crossed paths with an actor on set filming downtown. A-list stars are regularly seen at Yaletown’s prestigious restaurants and luxe lounges.

Olympic Village, at the southeast side of the False Creek inlet, housed athletes during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. It’s now a major player in Vancouver's craft brewery scene. To see the Olympic Cauldron, head to the Coal Harbour neighborhood on the other side of the False Creek inlet.

One of the best things to do in Vancouver (and a great way to catch rave-worthy views of skyscrapers and mountains) is to take a boat ride in the harbor and inlet during the warmer months. Two water taxi companies shuttle passengers around the False Creek inlet—between Granville Island, Yaletown, and the Olympic Village—for less than $10. Or, you can climb aboard a slightly larger water taxi for a narrated mini-cruise.

Paddlewheeler dinner cruises glide past views of the Vancouver harbour, including Stanley Park, the cruise ship terminal, and Gastown, while the four-hour lunch cruises head over to the North Shore mountains and navigate into the remote Indian Arm inlet.

Want to paddle through that same glacial fjord on a kayak or stand-up paddleboard? Tours run from Deep Cove into the Indian Arm inlet, where you’ll see cascading waterfalls and regular appearances by seals and sea lions. For paddling closer to the city, rentals are available at either English Bay Beach or False Creek inlet's Granville Island and Olympic Village.

In a neoclassical courthouse downtown, the Vancouver Art Gallery is one of Vancouver's top-rated museums. There you can see an extensive collection of Emily Carr's West Coast wilderness paintings. On Tuesdays, admission is by donation. Stand at the foot of a totem forest and see other Northwest Coast First Nations art at the University of British Columbia's Museum of Anthropology.

Vancouver's best museum for kids is Science World with countless interactive exhibits and stage demonstrations as well as a domed OMNIMAX Theatre. At the BC Sports Hall of Fame & Museum, you can pose on an Olympic podium or break a sweat playing in the participation zone.

Vancouver's scenic Vanier Park, a quick ferry ride from English Bay, is where you'll find the Museum of Vancouver, H.R. MacMillan Space Centre and observatory, and the Vancouver Maritime Museum.

Just outside of city limits are the Burnaby Village Museum, the Richmond Olympic Experience, and two National Historic Sites: the Gulf of Georgia Cannery and Britannia Shipyards.

There's plenty of free entertainment and Canadian patriotism at Canada Place, home to Vancouver's cruise ship terminal and convention center. The building's five white 90-foot sails have been a Vancouver landmark since the World's Fair came to Vancouver in 1986; Canada Place was the Canadian Pavilion. Each night the sails are a sight to see with different colors and themed designs projected onto them.

Each day at noon on the building's rooftop, horns play the first four notes of Canada's national anthem, O Canada. At Canada Place, you can watch the cruise ships come and go as you walk the western promenade's Canadian Trail and learn about each province.

Inside, see which animals you can spot on the totems at the convention center entrance. Finally, strap in for the FlyOver Canada flight simulation ride across the country from coast to coast. Your seat sways around misty waterfalls and your feet dangle over the tips of glaciers as a cold wind blasts your face.

Vancouver's highest point isn't the top floor of a skyscraper. It’s Little Mountain, a granite outcropping that was once a rock quarry and is now Queen Elizabeth Park, one of the city’s favorite viewpoints to photograph. Enjoy the skyline and mountain views and explore the quarry gardens. On bleak days you can escape to the glassed-in tropical paradise of the park's Bloedel Conservatory.

The University of British Columbia's Botanical Garden spreads across 44 hectares (109 acres) and includes a rainforest garden, medicinal herb garden, food garden, and Asian garden. The Greenheart TreeWalk experience there gives you the chance to walk on a suspended path hanging between the treetops of 100-year-old Douglas firs and cedars.

Chinatown's Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, the first traditional Chinese garden built outside of China, beautifully blends architecture, rock, water, and plants. It took 52 artisans and 13 months to build.

Those mountains you see from downtown Vancouver are less than a 30-minute drive away. You can ski and snowboard three of them: Cypress, Grouse, and Mount Seymour, but Grouse Mountain is a four-season playground.

At Grouse, you can mountain bike the trails, take a gondola ride or zipline tour, and hit North Vancouver's favorite hiking trail: the 2.9-kilometer (1.8-mile) straight-up Grouse Grind. For active travelers, it's one of the best things to do in Vancouver. While you're there, visit the two rescued grizzlies that live in Grouse Mountain's wildlife sanctuary.

After a mountaintop experience, drive five minutes down into the valley to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. This swaying bridge that's 70 meters (230 feet) above the Capilano River is a thrilling way to experience the majestic British Columbia landscape. The cliff walk and treetop adventure course are other great things to do in Vancouver.

For a free and less-crowded alternative, hike the nearby Lynn Canyon Park suspension bridge and trails, or head to the Capilano River Hatchery, where you can watch the salmon running upstream to spawn in the fall.