Lift Off Coal Harbour in a Seaplane

Tiny rainbow ferries, five-minute crossing, Granville Island oysters, and a skyline that glows on the way home.

After 6pm all summer, the Grouse gondola costs $34: ride up at golden hour, watch the sun set over the city from 1,100 metres, drinks on the Altitudes patio.

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

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.

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

South Langley estate winery famous for its bubbles, its vines, its staff who actually know their wines, and no rush.

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

A dead-level wetland trail at the foot of Burke Mountain with herons, eagles, kingfishers and Golden Ears framed across the Pitt River.

Fifty-five acres of themed gardens with a hedge maze designed, architecturally and on purpose, for getting pleasantly lost together.

Former basalt quarry turned sunken flower garden, with a stone bridge that has starred in approximately every Vancouver wedding photo.

Ten minutes through never-logged Douglas firs to warm granite bluffs above the Point Atkinson lighthouse and Howe Sound.

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

One of the most authentic Japanese gardens outside Japan, and the path narrows to single-file, which is actually the point.

The one Vancouver sunset where the sand goes on forever, the crowds go home, and the sky takes its sweet time.