Vancouver, BC

The City of Vancouver is a coastal, seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia surrounded on three sides by water. Located on the western half of the Burrard Peninsula, Vancouver is bounded to the north by English Bay and the Burrard Inlet and to the south by the Fraser River. The City of Burnaby lies to the east and the Strait of Georgia to the west. Vancouver Island, across the Strait of Georgia, shields Vancouver from the Pacific Ocean. Walkable neighborhoods, drink-and-dine delights and memorable cultural and outdoor activities framed by dramatic vistas – there's a glassful of great reasons to love this lotusland metropolis. It is a cosmopolitan city right on the edge of nature, making it easy to combine an urban getaway with outdoor adventure. It is the largest city in British Columbia, and the eighth largest municipality in Canada and Stanley Park is one of the largest urban parks in North America.

Downtown is just the start of Vancouver. Walk or hop public transit and within minutes you'll be hanging with the locals in one of the city's many diverse and distinctive 'hoods. Whether discovering the coffee shops of Commercial Dr or the hipster haunts of Main St, the indie bars and restaurants of Gastown or the heritage-house beachfronts and browsable stores of Kitsilano, you'll find this city perfect for easy-access urban exploration. Just be sure to chat to the locals wherever you go: they might seem shy or aloof at first, but Vancouverites love talking up their town. As the city awaits its long-anticipated new Vancouver Art Gallery building, there's already a rich and ever-spreading canvas of cultural action to dive into around the city. Dig deeply and you'll uncover a diverse grassroots scene that operates like a locavore movement for culture-lovers. Mingle with the regulars at eclectic festivals, sparkling theatrical events, toe-tapping live music, waterfront Shakespeare shows and a camera-ready menagerie of public art – as well as the city's independent galleries and a huge, party-like open-house art crawl that lures locals and visitors to East Vancouver every November.

The time zone is UTC/GMT -8 hours.

Don't tell Toronto or Montreal but Vancouver is the real culinary capital of Canada. Loosen your belt and dive right into North America's best Asian dining scene, from chatty Chinese restaurants to authentic izakayas (Japanese neighborhood pubs), or taste a rich smorgasbord of fresh-caught seafood, including seasonal spot prawns and juicy wild salmon. The farm-to-table movement has also revitalized the notion of West Coast cuisine – anyone for succulent Fraser Valley duck and a side dish of foraged morels? And we haven't even started on the nation-leading craft-beer scene, plus the city's emerging craft liquor producers.

Snow depths of greater than 1 cm are seen on about 10 days each year in Vancouver compared with about 65 days in Toronto. Vancouver has one of the wettest and foggiest climates of Canada’s cities. At times, in winter, it can seem that the rain will never stop. Compensating for the wet winters, Vancouver usually enjoys excellent summer weather characterized by very pleasant, warm days with abundant sunshine. Vancouver also differs from most other Canadian cities in that it has a genuine spring and fall/autumn. In many Canadian cities it often seems that warm, summer weather replaces frigid, winter weather in a matter of a very few weeks or even days. Vancouver has a western maritime climate, hence its weather can be changeable throughout the year. Vancouver is less windy than most other Canadian cities.

Vancouver, BC Packages

Vancouver, BC