Best of Vancouver

It’s Western Canada’s largest city, a magnet for 8.5 million annual international visitors and host of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, but laid-back Vancouver is better known by locals like me as a great chill-out capital, where everyone seems adept in the ways of languid lounging around.

And while fall usually brings equal chances of blue-skied sunny days and relentless autumnal rainfall—there’s a reason for thatCoal Harbour at twilight
(Tourism Vancouver/Tom Ryan) “Wet Coast” nickname—savvy Vancouverites inherently know where to hang out for an hour or two in streetside coffee shops, meander through cool neighbourhoods for the afternoon or just hunker down in the corner of a bar to escape a sudden tempest.

Even culture gets an easygoing spin here. Fall sees the Vancouver International Fringe Festival and the Vancouver International Film Festival—two of the city’s biggest annual events—rolling out their quirky rosters. And if you really must exert yourself, the Stanley Park seawall and the recently opened waterfront perimeter at southeast False Creek are magnets for joggers, walkers and trundling bike and rollerblade fans.

Here then, for locals and visitors aiming to tap into Vancouver’s relaxed vibe, is an insider’s take on the best of the city.

Best breakfast joint | On 4th Avenue in the heart of Kitsilano—a former hippy enclave where the flower children grew up to become bankers—Sophie’s Cosmic Café (www.sophiescosmiccafe.com) is a retro old-school diner with plenty of heart.

Shoppers thrill at all the fresh seafood and
produce at Granville Island Market
(Tourism Vancouver)For the traveller, it’s the ideal spot to spread out your maps and guidebooks and plan your day over a heaping plate of Eggs Benedict and a mug of truck-stop coffee. Try not to be distracted by the pop-kitsch memorabilia cramming the interior and consider coming back for a pit stop later in the day: when I sampled the apple pie—a towering pyramid of fruit and pastry that you have to excavate to eat—I had to take a restorative break halfway through to walk around the restaurant.

Best strollable neighbourhoods | If walking off that bulging breakfast belly seems like a good idea, head for a stroll on the cobbled streets of old Gastown (www.gastown.org). Centred on Water Street, it’s a good place to pick up all your 2010-branded pins, The Gastown steam clock -
actually powered by electricity
(Tourism Vancouver)T-shirts and track pants in one fell swoop, and you can join the crowds snapping the tooting Steam Clock. Don’t tell anyone it’s secretly powered by electricity, though.

It’s a short walk from here to the clamorous streets of Chinatown—one of North America’s largest—where dragon-painted lampposts, ancient apothecaries and buckets of live seafood make for a colourful, sensory immersion. On my visit, I nipped into the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden (www.vancouverchinesegarden.com) for a quick tranquility break.

Best waterfront walk | We all love the Stanley Park seawall but, on sunny days, it seems the entire province is there shuffling around on foot, bike or rollerblades. Luckily, the southeast False Creek stretch between Science World and Granville Island has just been opened, complete with snazzy boardwalks, fledgling trees and public seating in the shape of oversized boat cleats. Give it a try before everyone else notices it’s there.

Stanley Park, walking around
the seawall (John Sinal)Best new reason to visit an old attraction | Grouse Mountain (www.grousemountain.com) opened a series of three ziplines this summer, encouraging all those people who think they’ve been there and done that to go back for another look. The lines—more are being added in the fall—whiz you over old growth forest near the Blue Grouse Lake region. Expect to be terrified the first time you step out into thin air but by the end you’ll be screaming for more (or remembering what you ate for breakfast).

Best off-the-beaten-path attraction | Adjoining Chinatown, the grungy Downtown Eastside is home to some of the city’s last heritage buildings, a clutch of great old-school neon signs and an unusual museum that some regard as the city’s best. The Vancouver Police Centennial Museum (www.vancouverpolicemuseum.ca) charts the area’s murky criminal history, complete with confiscated weapons, counterfeit currencies and a mortuary exhibit that’s not for the faint-hearted. If you have time, the museum’s excellent Sins of the City walking tour escorts curious visitors around the neighbourhood, exploring some eye-popping vice and crime-fighting history.

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden offers beauty
and tranquility (Tourism Vancouver)Best festival | One of the city’s most popular annual events, the 11-day Vancouver International Fringe Festival (www.vancouverfringe.com) colonizes venues large and small on Granville Island and beyond: large means the Waterfront Theatre, small means Aquabus Ferries. Where else can you see around 550 kaleidoscopic mini-plays, ranging from one-man Star Wars recitals to all-singing adaptations of Samuel Beckett? After the show, drop by the Granville Island Brewing Taproom, where the performers hang out, and give them your constructive criticism. If you miss this event, it’s closely followed by the equally excellent Vancouver International Film Festival (www.viff.org).

Best strut-your-stuff promenade | Vancouver’s main shopping thoroughfare, clamorous Robson Street (www.robsonstreet.ca) is packed with posing locals and preening sports car drivers on most sunny afternoons. Alongside the usual chain store suspects, it’s also the home of local favourites Rocky Mountain Chocolate and Lululemon Athletica—the store that made yoga wear an everyday outfit for many Vancouverites, even those who’ve never heard of the lotus position.

Strut your stuff or just shop on Robson
Street in downtown Vancouver (John Sinal)For a break from the beautiful people, slip into the Vancouver Art Gallery (www.vanartgallery.bc.ca) here. Its exhibitions frequently showcase the city’s international reputation for photography and conceptual art.

Best anti-label shopping street | Avoiding the Robson Street crowd, chin-stroking indie shoppers instead head to an area of town that used to be a byword for down-at-heal. South Main—starting at the intersection of Main Street and Broadway—is now known as SoMa and is home to a clutch of alternative shops and designers. Spend the afternoon, checking out Ark, Smoking Lily, Motherland Clothing or Eugene Choo and dip into the independent coffee shops to rub shoulders with Vancouver’s pale and interesting crowd.

The monthly Portobello West Market
is a browsers favourite (Portobello West)Best monthly market | The last Sunday of every month sees a chatty crowd congregating at the cavernous Rocky Mountaineer Station. But they’re not waiting to catch the next train out of town. Instead, the credit cards are out in force for Portobello West (www.portobello.com), a regular bazaar of local arts and fashions created and hawked by Vancouver’s finest independent painters, potters and designers. If you want to get on top of your Christmas shopping before it all spirals out of control, head down with an open shopping bag and a full wallet.

Best lazy sunny afternoon hangout spot | Buskers, take-out bakeries, the city’s best public market and dozens of unusual artisan stores are what Granville Island (www.granvilleisland.com) is all about. Not actually an island—it’s a peninsula joined to False Creek under the iron arches of Granville Street Bridge—it’s a pretty spot for eyeing the busy waterfront and taking photos of the nearby art deco Burrard Bridge. Visitors often make their way back to the “mainland” here on one of the colourful, bathtub-sized ferries that ply the surrounding waters.

The Aquabus ferries offer transport between
Granville Island, False Creek and downtown
(Tourism Vancouver)Best rainy day activity | Even the balmiest Vancouver fall provides occasional reminders of what it’s like here the rest of the year, so it’s best to be prepared with a plan B when umbrella time hits. If you’re still on Granville Island, head indoors to local legend Granville Island Brewing (www.gib.ca), which serves up a tasty tour covering the fundamentals of beer-making, followed by a generous and leisurely taproom sampling session. After extensive testing, I found the Maple Cream Ale to be a worthy tipple for discerning connoisseurs. If it’s still raining after you’ve finished drinking, the Umbrella Shop (www.theumbrellashop.com) is just across the street.

Best out-of-town excursion | With BC celebrating its 150th birthday this year, now is the time to head out to the Fort Langley National Historic Site (www.pc.gc.ca) where James Douglas read out the proclamation that created the fledgling province in 1858. Within its fortified timber perimeter, you’ll find costumed interpreters and working smithies, plus stores and inhabited old homes that bring the pioneer era to life. A great place for kids—they’ll spend most of their time feverishly panning for gold in a little trough—strolling the pretty village outside the walls for an ice cream or three is also recommended.

Commercial Drive coffee shops are the ideal
hangout spot (Tourism Vancouver)Best coffee pit stop | Commercial Drive—known simply as “The Drive” among locals—is Vancouver’s best patio hangout street but it’s also home to the city’s finest coffee. An enclave of independent java shops in the heart of an old European immigrant district, the area is always full of elderly, pot-bellied Italian men gossiping about their families. Best of the bunch is the Calabria Coffee Bar, complete with a kitsch baroque interior that would make Liberace blush.

Best sunset perch | There are few better ways to rest your weary feet than spending a couple of lazy hours at Third Beach in Stanley Park. Take off your shoes, pull up a driftwood log and unwrap that picnic feast you gathered among the market stalls on Granville Island. With the forest at your back, the glassy-calm Pacific ahead and a dramatic sunset unfurling in front of you, this spot often makes visitors seriously consider moving here.

Best gourmet dining | Coming to Vancouver without trying the fish is like visiting Britain without having a cup of tea: you can do it, but the locals will think you’re nuts. Committed to exploring every nook and cranny in BC’s aquatic larder, C Restaurant (www.crestaurant.com) Patio at C Restaurant (John Sinal)offers an ever-changing smorgasbord of seasonal seafood treats, with local wild salmon—the chefs here are on a crusade against farmed salmon—often leading the charge. A popular menu favourite is local scallops wrapped in octopus bacon. While dinner is usually a pricey, high-end affair, lunch is recommended for those on a tighter budget.

Best spot for a BC microbrew | Head to Gastown’s Alibi Room (www.alibi.ca) and you’ll be treated to a frothy collection of 19 on-tap beers from microbreweries across the province—it’s like taste-tripping BC without having to leave the city. Dip into $3 tasting glasses of Back Hand of God stout from Sorrento’s Crannóg Ales plus lip-smacking concoctions from Chilliwack’s Old Yale Brewing, Squamish’s Howe Sound Brewing and Victoria’s Swans Buckerfields Brewery. Yum!

Best live music venue | Everyone loves the Commodore but that only works if there’s something on you want to see. Alternatively, head upstairs to the old-school Railway Club (www.therailwayclub.com) at the corner of Dunsmuir and Seymour. Arrive before 7 p.m. and you won’t have to pay the cover charge and you can sup on a range of beers (served in dimpled pint glasses) while you wait to see who might appear on the grungy little stage. Expect the unexpected, from growling beat poets to guitar-wielding singer-songwriters to eardrum splitting punk. If it’s all a little too loud, retreat to the chatty back bar with your Red Truck Ale.

Opus Hotel, still leading
Vancouver's boutique hotel
renaissance (Opus Hotel)Best bed | With several new hotels opening in Vancouver over the next couple of years, the city’s most popular chichi sleepover is having to keep its eye on the ball. Luckily, attention to detail doesn’t seem to be a problem at Yaletown’s swanky Opus Hotel (www.opushotel.com)—just ask past guests like Michael Stipe and Jim Carrey.

While contemporary designer hotels often make the mistake of removing any semblance of comfort in exchange for slick décor and an aesthetically dramatic appearance, Opus hasn’t forgotten that cool can still mean cozy. Beds here are deep and enveloping, bathrooms are stocked with pricey French amenities, and service throughout is friendly and courteous rather than cold and snooty.

Best of all, the hotel’s on-site bistro is worth a visit even if you’re not staying upstairs. With a menu of Asian-influenced West Coast dishes, it’s a cut above the usual hotel eatery—and you might even spot a star or two propping up the Parisian-look bar: rumour has it that Harrison Ford and Robert De Niro once shared a couple of quiet beers and a chat here.

John Lee is author of the recently published Lonely Planet Vancouver City Guide.