Wander the Quarry Gardens at Queen Elizabeth Park

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

West Van's waterfront walk puts Lions Gate, Stanley Park and the whole downtown skyline across Burrard Inlet at your disposal.

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

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

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

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

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.

Sailboats, mountains, evergreens and a flat free walk from Jericho to Locarno. Vancouver's gentlest waterfront at late afternoon.

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

Canada's longest pier stretches 470 metres over Semiahmoo Bay, Mount Baker glowing across the water like it's showing off.

The highest point in Stanley Park, straight down the Lions Gate Bridge, and an ice-cream stand to stand at while you stare.

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

A pocket botanical garden south of downtown Langley with a little tropical greenhouse, a gazebo, and benches made for lingering.