People I know are starting to visit my great city and want me to give them an idea of what to do. I started a list and couldn’t stop writing! So here’s a very long list of things to do in and around Vancouver in the spring/summer/fall.

Must do in Vancouver:

• Walk/bike/rollerblade the entire seawall from Canada Place to Kits Beach, taking in Coal Harbour and Stanley Park, English Bay and Sunset Beach, Yaletown, Science World, False Creek South, Granville Island to Kits Point. You might not want to do this all on one day - I think it is about 23Km in total!
• Walk the trails in Stanley Park making sure to visit the racoons at Lost Lagoon
• Visit Granville Island (not just the public market but all the little independent shops and galleries around there too)
• Go hiking on the North Shore - Lynn Headwaters and Lighthouse Park are particularly recommended
• Don’t visit Capilano Suspension Bridge and pay huge amounts of money - instead get the bus to Lynn Canyon where the suspension bridge is lower but more rickety and, more importantly, free to walk. The trails around there are nicer too - you can link up to Lynn Headwaters from there via 30-foot-pool, lots of stairs and Rice Lake.
• Grouse Mountain - expensive but really worth it if you go on a clear day. There’s the Lumberjack Show and Birds of Prey show, nature walks, huge wood carvings, Theatre in the Sky and if you go early you will also see the 2 rescued grizzlies before they retire to their den. Then you can hang out on the patio with a beer taking in the view, or there is some fairly good hiking. If you are lucky enough to catch a First Nations performance at the Feasthouse, do it.
• Check out what festivals are on - there is always some sort of cultural or musical or film or dance festival happening in town!
• Cirque de Soleil’s new show is on this year from June 12th to July 20th

Highly Recommended:

• Attend one of the Bard on the Beach productions at Vanier Park and/or one of the Theatre Under The Stars productions (or a concert) at the Malkin Bowl (outside venue in Stanley Park)
• Watch some or all of the International Fireworks Festival at the end of July
• Go on a whale-watching trip
• Hire a kayak for a couple of hours from Ecomarine on Granville Island and paddle round False Creek
• Hire a speedboat and go either to Bowen Island or up the Indian Arm river
• Go on a boat lunch cruise up the Indian Arm River if you haven’t speed-boated up it
• Go on a seaplane flight - either a 20 minute scenic flight or over to Vancouver Island
• Bus to Horseshoe Bay (West Vancouver) and get a ferry to Bowen Island (for a day) and/or Langdale (take a car and explore the Sunshine Coast for a couple/few days)
• Go to one or two of the Gulf Islands (recommend Galiano, Pender and Salt Spring) for a couple of days (ferry from Tsawassen (South Vancouver) - from there you can ferry back to Tsawassen or over to Victoria on Vancouver Island).
• If you go to Vancouver Island and have a car, you MUST visit Tofino on the mid-west coast. If you do, the scenery is stunning and the whale-watching, bear-watching, hiking and beaches are superb.
• From Victoria on Vancouver Island you can take the ferry to Seattle or Anacortes and the San Juan Islands, then you can get the train back to Vancouver (or vice versa)
• Go to a BC Lions game at BC Place (Canadian football) - visit a Ticketmaster outlet in person to get the best seats as their online system is very selective in the seats it offers you. Try to get a seat with a good view of the huge replay screen.

Other ideas:

• Hang out on one of the beaches for a day - my favourites are English Bay and Spanish Banks
• Aquarium (Stanley Park)
• H.R MacMillan Space Centre and Planetarium (also check out the laser shows at the Planetarium in the evening)
• Science World
• Marine museum
• Harbour dinner cruise
• Dr Sun-Yet Sen Classical Chinese Garden
• Queen Elizabeth Park (I recommend going to see a Vancouver Canadians baseball game here - it’s really cheap)
• University of British Columbia (Museum of Anthropology, botanical gardens, Japanese garden and the city’s only clothing optional beach - Wreck Beach)
• Van Dusen botanical gardens
• Walk around the neighbourhoods - West End (especially Denman and Davie streets), Kitsilano, Yaletown (best at night), Commercial Drive, Kerrisdale, Gastown (historic bit, still semi-dodgy), Chinatown (personally I don’t like it, but…), Lonsdale Quay and Lower Lonsdale (where you get off the seabus in North Vancouver).
• If you like clothes shopping - Robson Street, Pacific Centre, skytrain to Metrotown (huge mall)
• Pitch and putt at Stanley Park or Queen Elizabeth Park