Crack Up at the Laughing Men

Level 9 of the Central Library has a free rooftop garden with downtown skyline views. Most Vancouverites have no idea it exists.

A free Fraser River stroll past the wave-roofed Olympic Oval, with interactive bobsled simulators waiting on the first Thursday.

West Vancouver's front lawn on Burrard Inlet: 24 hectares of beach pointing straight at Lions Gate Bridge, free, and inexplicably better at golden hour.

Grab Denman Street takeout, claim a driftwood log, and watch the sun drop behind the North Shore mountains. Free, always.

A fern lined creek trail running straight through Coquitlam's tower district, with a volunteer salmon hatchery halfway along it.

Port Moody's original main street: false fronts, vintage shops, painted utility boxes and a 1908 railway station at the end of it.

PoCo's riverside park on the Traboulay Trail, where the picnic table is free and the salmon show up in fall.

English Bay's quieter cousin at the mouth of False Creek, where the ferries, the mountains, and the freighters all line up.

The highest point in Stanley Park, straight down the Lions Gate Bridge, and an ice-cream stand to stand at while you stare.

Stanley Park's west-facing sandy cove, where everyone on the seawall cycles past while you watch the real show.

60 stalls, a lake, a coffee truck, and an official 'no plan' plan every Saturday morning in John Hendry Park.

Burnaby's Italian high street: four blocks of delis, a sixty year old bakery, murals, and the North Shore mountains at the end of every cross street.

Vancouver's best kite-flying lawn sits between Kits Beach and Granville Island, with a postcard skyline view and zero admission.

The cliche that earned it. Eight free volleyball nets, a driftwood log, and English Bay going full pink.