6 Best Sights in Kitsilano, Vancouver

West of the southern end of the Burrard Bridge, Kits Beach is the city's busiest beach—Frisbee tossers, beach volleyball players, and sleek young people are always present. Facilities include a playground, restaurant, concession stand, and tennis courts. Kitsilano Pool is here. At 137.5 meters (451 feet), it's the longest pool in Canada and one of the few heated saltwater pools in the world (open May to September). Just steps from the sand, the Boathouse on Kits Beach serves lunch, dinner, and weekend brunch inside and on its big ocean-view deck. There's also a take-out concession at the same site. Inland from the pool, the Kitsilano Showboat, an outdoor amphitheater, hosts music and dance performances during the summer. Amenities: food and drink, lifeguards, parking (for a fee), toilets, and water sports. Best for: sunset, swimming, and walking.

When the sky is clear, the telescope at the Gordon Southam Observatory is focused on whatever stars or planets are worth watching that night. Admission to the observatory is by donation and it's open year-round Saturday evenings, from 7 to 11, weather permitting.

The interactive exhibits and high-tech learning systems at this center include GroundStation Canada, showcasing Canada's achievements in space, and the Cosmic Courtyard, full of hands-on, space-oriented exhibits including a moon rock and a computer program that shows what you would look like as an alien. You can catch daytime astronomy shows or evening music-and-laser shows at the H.R. MacMillan Planetarium.

Vancouver's short-but-funky history comes to life at this seaside civic history museum. The 1930s-1940s Gallery remembers the Japanese internment during WWII, as well as local stories of the war effort. The 1950s Gallery has a 1955 Ford Fairlane Victoria and a Seeburg Select-o-Matic jukebox. The 1960s-1970s Gallery revisits the city's days as the hippie capital of Canada. Visitors can hear local bands from the '60s and poke around a re-created communal house. The museum regularly mounts intriguing temporary exhibits and hosts lectures and other public events.

Sharing the seafaring history of the Pacific Northwest and Arctic regions, this family-friendly museum houses the RCMP Arctic St. Roch, the first ship to sail in both directions through the treacherous Northwest Passage and the first to circumnavigate North America. You can scramble around the decks and into the St. Roch's cabins, imagining yourself as a sea captain attempting to navigate the Arctic. About a third of this museum has been turned over to kids, with touchable displays offering a chance to drive a tug, maneuver an underwater robot, or dress up as a seafarer. Toddlers and school-age children can work the hands-on displays in Pirates' Cove and the Children's Maritime Discovery Centre. The museum also has an extensive collection of model ships. While you're here, take a moment to look at the 30-meter-tall (100 foot) replica Kwakiutl totem pole in front of the museum. The massive white-and-yellow contraption behind the Vancouver Maritime Museum is the Ben Franklin submersible. It looks like something a Jules Verne character would put to sea but was actually built in 1968 as a marine research tool to, among other things, chart the Gulf Stream. A more fascinating claim to fame is that it was once the largest of its kind in America and was instructional for NASA. The information about how people lived in such close quarters for extended periods of time provided preliminary research data on the dynamics of living aboard a space station.

Home to the Museum of Vancouver, the Vancouver Maritime Museum, and the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, Vanier Park is also known as the best kite flying venue in the city. Every summer, this is also where you'll find the Children's Festival and Bard on the Beach theater—both presented under billowing tents along the water.