Vancouver, where the rainforest meets the bus stop
A long weekend in Canada's most quietly extraordinary city.
There is no other major North American city where you can stand at a downtown intersection, look up, and see snow on a mountain that you could be hiking by lunchtime.
Begin with a slow morning at Granville Island. Walk Stanley Park in the afternoon. The seawall is ten kilometres of complete circumnavigation; rent a bike unless you have all day.
Eat dim sum in Richmond, drink coffee in Mount Pleasant, watch a film at the Vancity Theatre. Vancouver is not a city of grand monuments. It is a city of grand conditions — and that is rarer.
Further Reading
Forty-eight hours in Lyon, France's quietest great city
Two rivers, two hills, three Michelin stars and not a single tour bus in sight.
Edinburgh, in the rain, is the best Edinburgh
Why the city's worst weather makes for its most honest postcards.
The Côte d'Azur in October: half the people, double the light
Nice, Antibes, Menton — the Riviera at its most lived-in.