Unique Points of Interest in Vancouver

An Overview of Vancouver

Ranks as one of the most livable cities in North America, Vancouver is a modern metropolitan with skyscrapers, wide parks and scenic views of the ocean. The area is known for access to diverse landscapes, excellent hiking terrain outside the city and a compelling local history. There are many unique points of interest in Vancouver and around the surrounding area.

Advice While Visiting Vancouver

Vancouver’s climate is notoriously stable and pleasant.  The weather is generally comfortable for the majority of the year.  The rainy season, which isn’t particularly bad, extends from June to September.  

Driving in Vancouver is a notorious nightmare.  The city is crammed with tiny streets and one direction roads.  Only rent a car if you plan on leaving the city and exploring the countryside.  For city-travel, the internal transit system of buses and trains is excellent and easy to navigate.

Vancouver is known as a very safe city for all hours of the day and night.  The city is well-maintained, effectively policed and violent crime is an extreme rarity.  That being said, petty thefts of unlocked bikes and unattended items are somewhat common.

Rideshares are available in Vancouver, including Lyft and Uber.

Canadians tip roughly fifteen percent for a variety of services across the country.  10-15% is expected for restaurants, bars and hotel services.  One or two dollar tips are expected for barbers, taxi drivers, spas and hotel cleaning services.

Vancouver is one of the most “Asian” cities in the Western World.  A large confluence of Asian expats, immigrants and descendents live here.

Vancouver is very tiny and compact.  It is possible to walk practically everywhere within the city limits.  

Free Wifi can be found in various parks throughout Canada.  

Cards are the preferred form of payment in Vancouver and Canada at large.  Cash is fine, but it’s less common to see people using it.  

Unique Points of Interest in Vancouver:

Stanley Park

Stanley Park is actually a portion of a massive west-coast northern rain forest that has remained intact within the city limits.  Aside from long walking trails, there are also authentic totem poles, statues, monuments, recreational beaches, public bathrooms and Prospect Point, overlooking the city and bay.  

Queen Elizabeth Park

This is a tiny garden filled with flowers during the blooming season.  The park is somewhat small and can be explored in fifteen minutes or so.  There’s a pleasant aviary near the center with a shop inside.  

VanDusen Botanical Garden

This is a truly excellent botanical garden showing numerous plant species from the northwest side of the continent.  Its most famous centerpiece is an enormous hedge maze for adult visitors.

Museum of Anthropology

This is an extremely unique structure built in a style reminiscent of America’s First Peoples.  The Museum showcases the unique cultures that called Canada home in antiquity.  There are ancient and modern aboriginal artworks on rotating display here.  

Grouse Grind

Known locally as “Mother Nature’s Staircase” this hiking trail exists just beyond city limits.  The Grind is a strenuous, stunning alpine hike through forests, fog and stones.  The overlooks are compelling and the hike is considered a rite-of-passage for people moving to Vancouver.

Gastown

Known for the controversial figure, John Deighton “Gassy” Jack, this portion of town is an excellent place to find unique restaurants, go window shopping and enjoy bars.  There’s a famous functional steam-powered clock located here.

Chinatown

As an homage to Vancouver’s greater Chinese culture, this portion of the city has many restaurants and incredibly well-preserved parks for visitors.  Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Garden is the gem of this district.  It is an immense Classical Chinese Garden.

Deep Cove Kayaking

This is a day trip outside of Vancouver.  The large bay area follows a shoreline into a picturesque fjord to spot wild animals, standing pines, sweeping beaches and rugged mountains.

Granville Island

In reality, this is a pseudo-peninsula.  However, the site is known as a trendy and art-filled area with numerous cafes, tea shops, fine chocolates, street musicians and quirky stores.

Lynn Canyon Park

This park and the large valley and famous suspension bridge that makes up its center are free access areas for visitors and tourists alike.

Pacific Spirit Park

This is a truly wonderful hiking area which wanders through ancient, unlogged trees.  The old growth and deep bogs with winding boardwalks are particularly beautiful.  

The Shameful Tiki Room

The Shameful Tiki Room is a very popular eatery and bar dressed up unironically in 1960’s Tiki Craze culture.  The results are compelling, with tiki icons spanning the walls and red lights decorating dark corners.

Vancouver Police Museum

This museum displays all the strange things the legal profession deals with in a volatile and weird career.  The museum hosts over 20,000 confiscated objects, including items from the Milkshake Murder, painted skulls, heaps of counterfeit goods and walls of weapons.  The Museum is chilling and has an intact morgue open to the public.  Interestingly, this Morgue offers a movie night occasionally.  This popular event screens horror films within the morgue and is almost always sold out.  The police museum is one of the most unique points of interest in Vancouver.

Neon Vancouver/Ugly Vancouver

During the late 1970’s Vancouver passed laws severely curtailing the use of Neon Signs which were seen as overtly urban in a city attempting to greenify.  The resulting laws banished many neon signs, some of the most outlandish finding their way to this museum where they glow once again.

Japadog

This is a tiny street vendor mixing American hotdogs with Japanese cuisine.  The resulting culinary combinations are strange, but the menu items have a cult following.

Granville Island “Giants” Silos

These are a series of silos are painted in squat, massive figures staring over the nearby boating area.

First Nations Kayak Tours

This is a tour option led by indigionous descendants of Canada’s First Peoples.  The tours include a lot of Native American Storytelling.

Comedy Shows

Toronto is notorious for a very robust comedy culture.  Shows are at different times and places throughout the city, but the following locations are good choices for standup routines. Yuk Yuk’s, Little Mountain Gallery, Vancouver Theater Sport League, Comedy Ring and House of Comedy.

Wreck Beach

Wreck Beach is known as a rather small beach area and also Vancouver’s most well-known nude beach.

Whale Watching

Vancouver is directly near a major whale migration route.  The most common times for whales to be sighted is between April and October. While there are several species that can be viewed during Whale Watching cruises, orcas are among the most popular and well-known.

Iona Beach Regional Park

This is a lovely walking area including a large park extending into the sea allowing for stunning views of the water, nesting birds and stellar sunsets.  

Vancouver Maritime Museum

As a museum dedicated to some of the most glorious and dangerous explorations of the Pacific and Arctic, this museum includes the St. Roch, Douglas fir wood exploration vessel and a famed research submersible known as The Ben Franklin.  

Lonsdale Quay Market

This is a rather popular carnival-style marketplace in the north-shore district.  There are numerous market-wares, local artists and food vendors here.

Nine O’Clock Gun

Considered the sentinel of the Canadian coastline, the 100 year old piece of naval artillery fires at exactly 9 PM every day, a signal to alert fishermen of the end of the workday.  The gun is located on the Stanley Park Seawall.  

The Hatchery

Located roughly fifteen minutes outside the city limits, this massive government project was designed to shore up the Salmon population.  The salmon can be spotted jumping the artificial waterfalls to reproduce and lay their eggs, going “upstream” as they attempt to spawn.

Geekenders : Nerdy Burlesque Show

A rather famous, tongue-in-cheek show placing costumes iconic to Nerd Culture on extremely attractive women.  The most famous of these shows has a Star Wars theme (Star Wars, A Nude Hope).

The Marine Building

This is an Art Deco Masterpiece which has been showcased in many films and comic books.

The Polar Bear Swim

The Polar Bear Swim is a New Year’s Day Tradition.  Thousands of locals gather together, strip down and hop into English Bay’s chilling waters. 

Read more about unique points of interest in Vancouver and seeing the world by visiting Leftfade Trails Blog.

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