Riverside Walk on the Fort-to-Fort Trail

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.

Two free kilometres of Coal Harbour glamour: the Olympic Cauldron, a LEGO-look orca, floatplanes, and zero spent.

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

Fourteen three-metre bronze men frozen in full hysterical laughter, open 24/7, and required by inscription to bring you joy.

Free colour-coded trails through 5,000 hectares of Douglas firs and old growth that predates Canada. UBC's lab, your date.

One of the world's only steam clocks, cobblestones, gas lamps, and Vancouver's full origin story for the cost of absolutely nothing.

'Beer Island' is a one-acre tidal wildlife refuge off the False Creek seawall that you reach via stepping stones and costs nothing.

The ticketed garden's free sibling: koi, lily ponds, a pagoda, and a full afternoon in Chinatown for $0.

300-plus murals mapped free on the VMF app around Main Street. A treasure hunt with very large prizes.

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

Two five-metre house sparrows stand in Olympic Village square, free to visit, and exactly as uncanny as that sounds.

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

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

Flat South Langley trails through meadow, farmland and heritage barn territory, rated 4.7 by thousands of people who could not stop talking about it.