Summer Movie Nights on the Square

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

Free Tuesday-night movies on a forty-foot screen in Stanley Park's Ceperley Meadows: picnic at sunset, film under the stars.

A free oceanside amphitheatre at Kits Beach, been running since the 1930s, still better than most paid dates.

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

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

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

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

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

Mount Pleasant's successor to the Mural Fest street party: car-free Main Street, four free music stages, local vendors and food trucks for one August Saturday.

'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.

North Vancouver's Friday ritual: food trucks, live bands and a beer garden on Burrard Inlet, with the downtown skyline across the water.

A gentle 8 km out-and-back along the Fraser River from Fort Langley village to the original 1827 fort site.

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