The hook
One of the most beautifully-sited cities in the world, wedged between the Pacific and a wall of coastal mountains, where you can ski in the morning and sail in the afternoon, gateway to the wild coast of British Columbia.
01Why it's worth it
Vancouver consistently ranks among the world's most livable and beautiful cities, and its setting is the reason: a glass-towered modern city cradled between the ocean and the snow-capped Coast Mountains, laced with beaches, forests, and water. Its heart is Stanley Park, a vast temperate rainforest peninsula ringed by a seawall for walking and cycling, with the mountains and sea on every side, right beside downtown. The city is dynamic and diverse, one of the most Asian-influenced in North America, with a superb food scene, the historic Gastown quarter, Granville Island's market, and a strong outdoors culture. But its greatest asset is what surrounds it: within easy reach lie the world-class ski resort of Whistler (up the scenic Sea-to-Sky Highway), the rainforests and suspension bridges of the North Shore, the ferry to Vancouver Island with its charming capital Victoria and the wild surf and old-growth forests of the west coast around Tofino, and whale-watching in the Salish Sea. As a base that blends a great cosmopolitan city with immediate access to mountains, ocean, and coastal wilderness, Vancouver is hard to beat, and it makes the natural western gateway to Canada.
02How to experience it
Walk or cycle the Stanley Park seawall, explore Gastown, Granville Island, and the food scene, and get out into the setting: up to Whistler on the Sea-to-Sky, across to Vancouver Island (Victoria and wild Tofino), and onto the water for whale-watching. Summer for the clearest mountain-and-sea days; winter adds skiing.