See Something New at the VIFF Centre

A Kitsilano tea bar on West 4th that pours rare single-origin leaves like a wine flight, one steep at a time.

Canada's largest aquarium has jellyfish walls, sea otters and a 4D theatre designed specifically to make your date grab your arm.

Ayurveda-inspired couples' treatments inside the Sutton Place Hotel, for the afternoon you both need to stop talking and just breathe.

Steveston's quietly famous little spa, voted best in Richmond seventeen years running, doing organic facials and Thai aromatherapy massage a block off the boardwalk.

The H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vanier Park swaps Vancouver's grey ceiling for a projected galaxy, reclined seats included.

Rain-day grazing at Granville Island: warm cinnamon buns, stinky cheese, mini donuts, and a window seat watching False Creek get rained on.

Mineral pools, eucalyptus steam and cedar sauna on the Fairmont Pacific Rim's fifth floor, while rain does its worst outside.

A tiny downtown shop dealing in used, rare, and slightly bizarre books, with a hand-carved sign and staff who actually read.

A restored 1938 single-screener on the Drive that literally fought BC's liquor board in 2012 so you could drink craft beer during the film.

An Indigenous-owned Chinatown bookstore voted the city's best, where every spine feels hand-picked and a ten-dollar book beats flowers every time.

Canada's first hammam: private steam, a brisk exfoliation, rasul mud and mint tea. Giggling is expected.

A real waterslide, a lazy river, a whirlpool and a sauna at Hyde Creek. Drop in, get warm, forget it's raining.

Vancouver's first micro-distillery, opened in 2013, is still a happy secret near the Granville bridge on rainy Thursdays through Sundays.

Owner Olivia steeps whites, greens and blacks in Chinatown like a wine flight, narrates the goji notes, and charges very little.