36 Best Sights in Vancouver, British Columbia

The dozens of stalls in this world-renowned market sell locally grown fruits and vegetables direct from the farm and beyond. Other stalls stock crafts, chocolates, artisanal cheeses, pastas, fish, meat, flowers, and exotic foods. On Thursday in the summer (July to October), farmers sell fruit and vegetables from trucks outside. At the north end of the market, you can pick up a snack, lunch, or coffee from one of the many prepared-food vendors. The Public Market Courtyard, on the waterside, has great views of the city and is also a good place to catch street entertainers. Be prepared to get roped into the action, if only to check the padlocks of an escape artist's gear. Weekends can get very busy.

Located at the mouth of the Fraser River in the historic fishing village of Steveston, this cannery grew from a single salmon canning line in 1894 to British Columbia's biggest salmon cannery—with 2.5 million cans packed annually until the 1930s. Through the years, production was impacted by the landslide at Hells Gate, the onset of the Depression, and World War II, when much of its activities turned to canning herring for wartime consumption by troops and civilians. Designated a Federal Heritage site in 1987, the cannery now operates as a west coast fishing industry museum with ongoing interpretive programs and tours. You can check out the canning line, learn more about BC's fishing industry, and explore the heritage of the various ethnic groups who worked on-site. The Gulf of Georgia Cannery is a 35- to 40-minute drive from Downtown Vancouver. By public transit, take the Canada Line to Brighouse Station, then change to Bus 401, 402, or 407.

With a steep canyon landscape, a temperate rainforest complete with waterfalls, and a suspension bridge (circa 1912) 50 meters (166½ feet) above raging Lynn Creek, this 617-acre park provides thrills to go with its scenic views. The park has many hiking trails, including a short walk to a popular swimming hole, and another trail leading to a double waterfall. Longer walks in the park link to trail networks in nearby Lynn Headwaters Regional Park and the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve. The park's on-site Ecology Centre distributes trail maps, as well as information about the local flora and fauna. There's also a gift shop and a café. To get to the park, take the Lions Gate Bridge and Capilano Road, go east on Highway 1, take Exit 19, the Lynn Valley Road exit, and turn right on Peters Road. From Downtown Vancouver, you can take the SeaBus to Lonsdale Quay, then Bus 228 or 229 from the quay; both stop about a 15-minute walk from the park.

The suspension bridge here is shorter than the Capilano Suspension Bridge (47 meters/157 feet versus 137 meters/450 feet at Capilano) so the experience is less thrilling, but also less touristy—and it's free.

Part of the University of British Columbia, the MOA has one of the world's leading collections of Northwest Coast First Nations art. The Great Hall has dramatic cedar poles, bentwood boxes, and canoes adorned with traditional Northwest Coast-painted designs. On clear days, the gallery's 15-meter-tall (50 foot) windows reveal a striking backdrop of mountains and sea. Another highlight is the work of the late Bill Reid, one of Canada's most respected Haida artists. In The Raven and the First Men (1980), carved in yellow cedar, he tells a Haida story of creation. Reid's gold-and-silver jewelry work is also on display, as are exquisite carvings of gold, silver, and argillite (a black shale found on Haida Gwaii, also known as the Queen Charlotte Islands) by other First Nations artists. The museum's visible storage section displays, in drawers and cases, contain thousands of examples of tools, textiles, masks, and other artifacts from around the world. The Koerner Ceramics Gallery contains 600 pieces from 15th- to 19th-century Europe. Behind the museum are two Haida houses, set on the cliff over the water. Free guided tours—given several times daily (call or check the website for times)—are immensely informative. The MOA also has an excellent book and fine art shop, as well as a café. To reach the museum by transit, take any UBC-bound bus from Granville Street Downtown to the university bus loop, a 15-minute walk, or connect to a shuttle that scoots around the campus and will drop you off opposite the MOA at the Rose Garden. Pay parking is available in the Rose Garden parking lot, across Marine Drive from the museum. If you're planning to visit several attractions at UBC, a UBC Attractions Pass will save you money. Note that the museum is currently closed for renovations. 

Now a flagship summer event and an experience unmatched anywhere else in Canada, the bustling Richmond Night Market has grown to include more than 100 Asian street food stalls, 250 retail booths, carnival rides, children's amusement area, and family-friendly entertainment. Just steps from the Canada Line's Bridgeport Station beside the River Rock Casino, the market is open nightly Friday to Sunday and holiday Mondays from end of April through mid-October. For those driving, there are more than 1,000 free parking spots available.

Massive floor-to-ceiling windows let you get face-to-face with sea otters, sea lions, and harbor seals at this award-winning research and educational facility. In the Amazon Gallery, you walk through a rain forest populated with piranhas, caimans, and tropical birds. In summer, hundreds of free-flying butterflies add to the mix. The Tropic Zone is home to exotic freshwater and saltwater life, including clown fish, moray eels, and black-tip reef sharks. Other displays, many with hands-on features for kids, show the underwater life of coastal British Columbia and the Canadian Arctic. Dive shows (where divers swim with aquatic life, including sharks) are held daily. Be sure to check out the stingray touch pool, as well as the "4-D" film experience (it's a multisensory show that puts mist, smell, and wind into the 3-D equation). There's also a café and a gift shop. Be prepared for lines on weekends and school holidays. Reserve ahead for timed admission and savings.

An Elizabethan maze, a formal rose garden, a meditation garden, and a collection of Canadian heritage plants are among the many displays at this 55-acre site. The collections include flora from every continent and many rare and endangered species. The Phyllis Bentall Garden area features hybrid water lilies and carnivorous plants (a hit with kids). From mid-May to early June, the Laburnum Walk forms a canopy of gold. In August and September, the wildflower meadow is in bloom. The garden is also home to five lakes, a garden shop, a library, and The Garden Café (serving breakfast, lunch, and afternoon tea) and Shaughnessy Restaurant. Special events throughout the year include the spectacular Christmas-theme Festival of Lights every December. From Downtown, catch the Oak Bus 17 directly to the garden entrance. Alternatively, ride the Canada Line to Oakridge/41st Street, then take the UBC Bus 41 to Oak Street, and walk four blocks north to the garden. Queen Elizabeth Park is a 1-km (½-mile) walk away, along West 37th Avenue. Because this was once a golf course, pathways make this garden extremely wheelchair accessible.

Just off Marine Drive at the foot of 13th Street, this long stretch of sand is West Vancouver's most popular beach. There are tennis courts, volleyball nets, and a water park in the summer, as well as superb views of Stanley Park from all along the seawall. There's also a pitch and putt course and a huge off-leash area for dogs. Just west of the park, the historic Ferry Building is now a small art gallery. A half-hour walk west along the seawall path takes you to another beach at Dundarave. West Vancouver's Marine Drive continues west to several quiet little beaches, including (from east to west) West Bay, Sandy Cove, Caulfeild Park, and Kew Beach. Amenities: food and drink, parking, showers, and toilets. Best for: sunrises, swimming and walking.  

Inside the BC Place Stadium complex, this museum celebrates the province's sports achievers in a series of historical displays. One gallery commemorates the 2010 Winter Olympics that were held in Vancouver; another honors the province's aboriginal athletes. You can test your sprinting, climbing, and throwing abilities in the high-tech participation gallery. As you leave the museum, the Terry Fox Memorial is to your left. Created by artist Douglas Coupland, this series of four statues, each larger than the next, was built in honor of Terry Fox (1958–81), a local student whose cross-Canada run—after he lost his leg to cancer—raised millions of dollars for cancer research. Although Fox succumbed to the disease before he could complete his "Marathon of Hope," a memorial fund-raising run is now held annually in cities across Canada and around the world.

If you can imagine a vast underground library, but instead of books, the stacks are filled with bones, fossils, and preserved lizards, then you can begin to imagine this modern museum on the UBC campus that exhibits more than 2 million specimens from the university’s natural history collections. The most striking attraction hangs in the entrance atrium: a 25-meter-long (82-foot-long) skeleton of a blue whale—the largest on view in Canada (the blue whale in New York’s American Museum of Natural History is 94 feet long). On the lower level, you’ll find animal skulls, taxidermied birds, and other creatures displayed through glass windows (many of which are at kids’ eye level). In the interactive Discovery Lab, you can play scientist yourself. You might compare the claws of different birds or examine animal poop under a microscope. There’s also a family space stocked with books, art supplies, and kid-size furniture. To find the museum from the university bus loop, walk west to the Main Mall and turn left; the museum is just south of University Boulevard. If you’re planning to visit several attractions at UBC, an Attractions Pass will save you money.

Linked to Steveston's historic waterfront, this 8-acre (3.7-hectare) park offers a rare glimpse of life within a once-thriving mix of canneries, boatyards, residences, and stores. Britannia Heritage Shipyard dates back to 1885 and is the oldest remaining shipyard structure on the Fraser River. Weathered to a silver-gray color by a century of exposure, many of the buildings are the last examples of their type on the entire coast. Several buildings have been restored. These include Murakami House, once the three-room home of the 11-member Murakami family; boatworks buildings; shipyard residences; stilt houses; the last surviving Chinese bunkhouse on the west coast; and a board-and-batten First Nations House similar to traditional 19th-century Coast Salish longhouses. Year-round programs include the restoration of wooden boats. 

At Vancouver's oldest tourist attraction (the original bridge was built in 1889), you can get a taste of rainforest scenery, and test your mettle on the swaying, 137-meter (450-foot), cedar-plank suspension bridge that hangs 70 meters (230 feet) above the rushing Capilano River. Across the bridge is the Treetops Adventure, where you can walk along 198 meters (650 feet) of cable bridges suspended among the trees. If you're even braver, you can follow the Cliffwalk, a series of narrow cantilevered bridges and walkways hanging out over the edge of the canyon. Without crossing the bridge, you can enjoy the site's viewing decks, nature trails, and totem park, as well as history and forestry exhibits. There's also a massive gift shop in the original 1911 teahouse, and a restaurant. May through October, guides conduct free tours on themes related to history, nature, or ecology, while fiddle bands, and other entertainers keep things lively. In December, more than 1.5 million lights illuminate the canyon during the Canyon Lights winter celebration. Catch the attraction's free shuttle service from Canada Place; it also stops at hotels along Burrard and Robson Streets.

Chinatown Storytelling Centre, a cultural center on Pender Street, celebrates the Chinese-Canadian community's contributions to Vancouver and Canada with photos, artifacts, videos, and more. Highlights include a phone booth where you can dial a number to listen to personal stories in Cantonese and English, as well as the Yucho Chow photo studio, where you can take a free picture as a memento of your experience. There's also a fantastic gift shop, Foo Hung Curios, filled with stationery, candles, prints, and more.

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.

North America's largest aerial tramway, the Skyride is a great way to take in the city, sea, and mountain vistas (be sure to pick a clear day or evening). The Skyride makes the 2-km (1-mile) climb to the peak of Grouse Mountain every 15 minutes. Once at the top, there are plenty of activities included in the ticket price. From spring through fall, you can catch a lumberjack show, a ranger talk, a documentary video, or a falconry demonstration. Go hiking, ride the chairlift, play disc golf, or visit a pair of grizzly bears in the mountain's wildlife refuge. For an extra fee, you can mountain bike, tackle a ropes course, go zip-lining, or take a helicopter flight. You can even pay extra to ride on top of the Skyride car. Popular family extras include a treetop canopy course and a chance to have breakfast with the bears. In the winter, you can ski, snowshoe, snowboard, sled, ice skate on a mountaintop pond, or stroll through the Light Walk, an illuminated pathway around a lake. A stone-and-cedar lodge is home to snack shops, a pub-style bistro, and a high-end restaurant, all with expansive city views. The Grouse Grind—a hiking trail up the face of the mountain—is one of the best workouts on the North Shore. Depending on your fitness level, allow between 40 minutes and two hours to complete it (90 minutes is an average time). Then you can take the Skyride down. The BCMC Trail is a less crowded, slightly longer alternative. From late May through September, you can catch a free shuttle to Grouse Mountain from Canada Place. Bus 236 from Lonsdale Quay stops at the base of Grouse Mountain year-round.

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.

Home to the Jericho Sailing Centre, this Point Grey beach is popular for windsurfing and kayaking (rentals are available), especially at the western end. Swimmers can use the eastern section, where the expansive sands and a grassy park invite sunbathing. In July, the Vancouver Folk Music Festival brings thousands together over folk, world, and indie bands. Amenities: food and drink, lifeguards, parking (for a fee), toilets, and water sports. Best for: swimming, walking, and windsurfing. 

At this two-level indoor market—less frenzied than its Granville Island counterpart—vendors sell prepared foods, just-caught seafood, and fresh produce. You can also shop for crafts, kitchenware, and toys, or sample the beer or kombucha at Green Leaf Brewing. Outside you can wander the quay and enjoy the views of the Downtown skyline across the water. The market is a short ride from Downtown on the SeaBus and just steps from the Polygon Gallery, MONOVA, and the Shipyards District.

Located right next to Lonsdale Quay and the SeaBus Terminal, this new museum explores North Vancouver's rich history–through the lens of artifacts, documents, and photographs. A definite highlight is the restored British Columbia electric streetcar located in the museum's gift shop. There are also plenty of interactive exhibits for kids.

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.

Opened in 1960 in memory of Japanese scholar and diplomat Dr. Inazo Nitobe (1862–1933), this 2½-acre walled garden, which includes a pond, a stream with a small waterfall, and a ceremonial teahouse, is considered one of the most authentic Japanese tea and strolling gardens outside Japan. Designed by Professor Kannosuke Mori of Japan's Chiba University, the garden incorporates many native British Columbia trees and shrubs, pruned and trained Japanese-style, and interplanted with Japanese maples and flowering shrubs. The circular path around the park symbolizes the cycle of life and provides a tranquil view from every direction. Cherry blossoms are the highlight in April and May, and in June the irises are magnificent. Because the garden is so exotic, it's worth renting an audio guide. Or take a free drop-in tour Thursday at 11 am between May and September. Japanese tea ceremonies, offered  through the Urasenke Foundation, are held the last Saturday of every month, May through September. For reservations, email  [email protected] (C$10). If you're planning to visit several attractions at UBC, a UBC Attractions Pass will save you money.

Vancouver's first store and oldest building was built in 1865 at the foot of Dunlevy Street in Gastown and moved to this seaside spot near the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club in 1930. It's a little wooden structure at the corner of Point Grey Road and Alma Street—west of Kitsilano en route to UBC—and is the only building to predate the 1886 Great Fire. The site is now a museum with displays of First Nations artifacts and pioneer household goods.

Close to the University of British Columbia, on Vancouver's West Side, Pacific Spirit Regional Park has 73 km (45 miles) of multiuse walking, hiking, and biking trails within its 763-hectare (1,885-acre) forest. Open dawn to dusk year-round, it also has access to Spanish Banks and Wreck Beaches.

Lavish sunken gardens (in a former stone quarry), a rose garden, and an abundance of grassy picnicking spots are just a few of the highlights at this 52-hectare (130-acre) park. Poised at the highest point in the city, there are 360-degree views of Downtown. Other park facilities include 18 tennis courts, pitch and putt (an 18-hole putting green), and a restaurant. In the Bloedel Conservatory, you can see tropical and desert plants and 100 species of free-flying tropical birds in a glass geodesic dome—the perfect place to be on a rainy day. To reach the park by public transportation, take the Canada Line to King Edward station. From there, it's a six-block walk to the edge of the park (and a hike up the hill to appreciate the views). Cambie Bus 15, which runs south along Cambie Street from the Olympic Village SkyTrain station, will drop you a little closer, at the corner of 33rd and Cambie. Park activities make for a great family excursion, and unlike Stanley Park with its acres of rainforest, Queen Elizabeth Park is all about the flowers.

Under a gigantic, shiny dome on the False Creek waterfront, this hands-on science center encourages children to participate in interactive exhibits and demonstrations about the natural world, the human body, and other science topics. Exhibits change throughout the year, so there's always something new to see. Adjacent to the museum, and included in the admission, the Ken Spencer Science Park is an outdoor exhibit area focusing on environmental issues. Science World is an easy walk (or mini-ferry ride) from Yaletown or a short walk from the Olympic Village; the Main Street-Science World SkyTrain station is across the street. Limited paid parking is available.

The Spanish Banks and Locarno Beaches form a sandy chain, and feature huge expanses of sunbathing sand backed by wide lawns full of picnic tables. There are also volleyball courts. The shallow water, warmed slightly by sun and sand, is good for swimming. Farther west along the coastline, toward the Spanish Banks Extension, the scene becomes less crowded. Spanish Banks West and Locarno Beaches are designated "quiet beaches," which means that amplified music is prohibited. Amenities: food and drink, lifeguards, parking (for a fee), toilets, and water sports. Best for: its atmosphere, sunsets, swimming, walking, and windsurfing.   

This child-size steam train takes kids and adults on a ride through the woods. In summer, the railway travels a 2-km (1.2-mile) winding journey through Stanley Park. Halloween displays draw crowds throughout October for the annual Ghost Train. And at Christmas, an elaborate light display illuminates the route during Bright Nights. The train periodically runs outside of these special events, too. Call or check the website for details.