Vancouver Downtown, British Columbia, Canada

Lions Gate Bridge, Vancouver, BC

Vancouver is Canada's fastest-growing metropolis, and a city of magical contradictions - from rough-and-tumble Hastings Street, where timeworn brickwork still exudes a wild, beer-for-a-dime, seaport-town atmosphere, to trendy Robson Street, with its futuristic Japanese noodle houses and haute couture. Vancouver has long touted itself as Canada's gateway to the Pacific Rim, and for decades, waves of immigrants have broken on its shore.

Vancouver, its residents are fond of saying, is one of the few cities in the world where you can go skiing and sailing on the same day. How remarkable, then, that it should also be one of the few where, sitting outside a Neapolitan cafe, you can eavesdrop on an impassioned argument in Hungarian and see graffiti in Khmer. Most major cities have a mixed heritage, yet few can claim to have attracted a more diverse cross section of humanity than Vancouver. The city seems living proof that a benign environment will produce an easygoing disposition.

At the time of Captain George Vancouver's first visit, First Nations people lived in the Burrard inlet area mainly on a seasonal basis, their permanent villages being elsewhere. Once white settlement began around Burrard Inlet, more First Nations moved here permanently. The main Squamish village sites were around Stanley Park, Capilano River and Belcarra Regional Park. White settlement began in 1862 with discovery of coal in Coal Harbour, and by the time the 1880s came around, major development was underway, such as the Canadian Pacific Railway transcontinental line. However, it was 'Gassy' Jack Deighton who established a saloon in 1867, in what is today known as Gastown, who was the real pioneer of Vancouver.

To list all of Vancouver's attractions here is impossible to do - we can only provide a sampling of what's in store for the visitor to Vancouver. The unique charm and advantage of this city is the range of things for visitors to do and see from dawn until dusk and through every successive season.

Urbanites can eat at world-class restaurants, attend the symphony, shop at exclusive boutiques along Robsonstrasse and never cast so much as a glance at the surrounding sea and sky scape, and the incredible outdoor recreation available. Those with an appreciation for the outdoors can windsurf at dawn, get in a round of golf after lunch, and take in the city lights at night while skiing atop a North Shore mountain. Vancouver is clean, colourful and friendly, with the open cosmopolitan flair that West Coast cities are known for.

Population: 1,986,965 (Vancouver)

Location: The downtown core is located in the heart of Vancouver.

View map of the area:
Map of Vancouver downtown
Map of Greater Vancouver

Experience the richness and diversity of Vancouver's glorious gardens, where rare and wondrous landscapes inspire your every step. The centrepiece and green heart of Vancouver is the 1,000-acre Stanley Park, the city's most famous landmark, and one of the largest parks in any urban centre in North America. There are wooded trails, open playing fields, secluded lakes, gorgeous gardens, and the Vancouver Aquarium, the largest in Canada. A seawall walkway meanders along the park's perimeter, with beautiful views of the city skyline, the harbour, beaches, and the spectacular North Shore Mountains. For many residents, the park is the green heart that beats in the core of urbanity, the ecological holdout amid glass and concrete. Vancouver's fame as one of the most beautiful cities in the world is tied to Stanley Park's popularity.

Typical of urban green spaces, Stanley Park is dotted with man-made attractions, including the Vancouver Aquarium, a pitch-and-putt golf course, tennis courts, aging totem poles at Brockton Point, as well as monuments to England's Lord Stanley (for whom the park is named), Queen Victoria, and Scottish poet-laureate Robbie Burns, and a cairn that contains the ashes of legend-gatherer Pauline Johnson-Tekahionwake. Natural wonders include towering trees (Canada's tallest bigleaf maple and red alder both grow within the park) and acres of well-kept gardens, including over 3,000 types of roses.

Beluga Whale at the Vancouver Aquarium

Marvel at new marine adventures and wonders at the Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley Park, the largest in Canada. Discover the wonders of the West Coast, explore the secrets of the steamy tropical Amazon, and delight in the unexpected richness of the Canadian Arctic. Experience Beluga whale and dolphin shows, shark dives and sea otter feeds - more than 8,000 creatures from the ends of the earth, and the depths of the sea.

Bordering the south side of Stanley Park, particularly along Denman Street, is an area rife with coffee shops and bike and in-line-skates rental emporiums, occasionally all rolled into one! Among the major routes in the West End that lead directly to Stanley Park are Georgia, Robson, Nelson, and Davie Streets, and Beach Avenue.

Getting to Stanley Park: By car, Stanley Park is best reached from either Georgia Street or Beach Avenue, though finding parking once you get there is often more challenging than it's worth. One alternative is to catch the #19 Stanley Park bus that deposits riders at the Georgia Street entrance to the park. The #3 and #8 buses drop passengers near the park at the corner of Robson and Denman Streets. All these routes connect with the Main Street SkyTrain station. On weekends and holidays from April to October the #52 Around the Park bus provides hourly service between 10am and 7pm to points along the scenic road that circles the park. Call TransLink at (604) 953-3333 for more information on all bus routes.

Chinatown is rich in culture and history, with the streets bustling with colour and energy all day and night. The sights, sounds, exotic medicines, curious foodstuffs spilling onto the sidewalks, and bright red pagoda-roofed phone booths make Chinatown distinctive. A 'must-see' is the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, the only classic Chinese Garden outside of China, and fashioned in Ming Dynasty style.

Shopping: Vancouver has always been bursting with storefronts. In Yaletown, brick warehouses have been transformed into chic shops that are the destination of choice when shopping for exciting and eccentric fashion. Robson Street is the meeting place of cultures and couture, as tout le monde can be found strolling among its many boutiques and restaurants every day. Downtown is full of outstanding shops. In poor weather, head underground for the Pacific Centre and Vancouver Centre malls. Gastown is a restored 1890s precinct, once touristy, now anchored by some really good shops that are of use to locals as well. Book Alley, the 300 and 400 blocks of West Pender, has bookstores specializing in everything from cookbooks to radical politics to science fiction.

Ethnic Vancouver. The oldest and biggest of Vancouver's ethnic communities is Chinatown. Italian commercial and cultural life thrives in the distinctive neighbourhood around Commercial Drive, east of downtown. A second, less-discovered Italian district is on Little Italy's northern border - the 2300 to 2500 blocks of E Hastings. Vancouver's 60,000 East Indian immigrants have established their own shopping area, called the Punjabi Market, in south Vancouver at 49th and Main Streets, where you can bargain for spices, chutney, and sweets. One of Vancouver's longest-established groups of ethnic inhabitants, the Greeks, live and shop west of the intersection of MacDonald and West Broadway.

Music: Over the last decade, the city has witnessed a renaissance in the proliferation of classical, jazz, and world music. The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra has reached new heights of artistic splendor, with the main season starting in October at the Orpheum, an old vaudeville theatre at 884 Granville. The Vancouver Opera puts on five productions a year at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Hamilton at West Georgia; the program is a balance of contemporary and traditional. The sets are spectacular and the artists are of international calibre. The du Maurier International Jazz Festival attracts crowds of more than 250,000 jazz lovers (held in June), and the annual Vancouver Folk Music Festival is extremely popular as well.

Theatre: If you enjoy the performing arts, indulge yourself in the outstanding performances offered at any of Vancouver's acclaimed entertainment venues, the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, the Orpheum and the Vogue Theatre. The Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company explores contemporary and classical theatre, offering six plays each season, October to May, in the Vancouver Playhouse. Contemporary theatre in Vancouver is largely centred in the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, known to locals as The Cultch. Vancouver's home of the megamusical is the Ford Centre for the Performing Arts; its two most striking features are the intimacy of the 1,824-seat auditorium and the visual power of the seven-storey, mirrored-wall grand staircase that unites all levels.

Nightlife: On a warm summer night, the music spilling out from Vancouver's clubs and bars ranges from down-and-dirty R&B at the suitably raunchy Yale Hotel, and the rollicking Blarney Stone Olde Irish Pub, where you see entire families partying together, through local alternative bands at the Town Pump, and disco thump at Richard's on Richards. To find out who's playing where, pick up a copy of the Georgia Straight or Thursday's Vancouver Sun.