Manning Park: An Alpine Stargazing Retreat

A coal town that swapped mining for singletrack, then added a heritage hostel and a brewery to handle the aftermath.

Seventy-five minutes in a lightless, soundless tank buoyed by 1,000 pounds of Epsom salt, the closest thing Gastown sells to switching your brain off.

Walk a wobbling 137-metre bridge 70 metres over a river canyon and discover what your date's face looks like under genuine terror.

Prince of Whales runs heated catamarans out of Granville Island after orcas and humpbacks, with a 95 percent sighting rate and hot chocolate on board.

Paddle a glacial fjord from a sheltered postcard village and earn a legendary Honey Doughnut on the way back.

Ninety minutes east, a mineral-fed pool town where the lake is sandy, the mountains are misty, and your shoulders finally drop.

Harbour Air's floatplane throttles up across Coal Harbour, climbs over Lions Gate and Stanley Park, and lands back on the water like it weighs nothing.

The glacier-fed lake so clear you'll forget there's a Costco 40 minutes away, paddle included.

Six flat kilometres along Burrard Inlet to a sandy beach at Old Orchard Park. Most first-timers never make it.

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

A 25 km river loop around all of Port Coquitlam, almost zero hills, salmon in the water and absolutely no pressure to finish it.

A flat mirror-still lake loop that grows 700,000 lights every November and calls itself Lights at Lafarge.

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

Whistler's cooler, cheaper neighbour sits 45 minutes up the Sea-to-Sky with a gondola, a giant rock, and brewery rewards at every trailhead.