West Vancouver

Posh "West Van," as the locals call the North Shore suburb of West Vancouver, has retained its well-heeled character from the time when the Guinness family developed the area in the 1930s. It’s a network of English-style winding country roads and multimillion-dollar homes. Cypress Mountain, which hosted the Olympic freestyle skiing and snowboard competitions, is in West Van. If you have a car, you can drive to the top of Cypress for spectacular vistas of Vancouver and beyond; unlike Grouse Mountain, the views here are free. West Van is also en route to the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal for ferries to Vancouver Island and to the Sea-to-Sky Highway, which continues north to Squamish and Whistler.