Whale Watching from Granville Island

Grab rentals on Denman, go counter-clockwise, and let 9 km of Coal Harbour yachts and Lions Gate Bridge views do the romantic heavy lifting.

A West Vancouver forest walk past 300-year-old cedars to two waterfalls that make you instinctively lower your voice without agreeing to.

Big-sky dyke-top walking where the Fraser meets the sea, with a 10-metre treehouse that grown adults are absolutely allowed to climb.

Jog off the top of Grouse Mountain with a certified pilot and float over the city for 15 to 20 minutes.

One of Canada's biggest kayak fleets, English Bay, a possible seal, and a sunset that'll make you look good for free.

An 11-km round trip on the Howe Sound Crest Trail delivering clifftop lunch and ferries crawling below like bath toys.

West Van's secret swim spot: 5 km of forest trail, 200 metres up, and a dock built for cannonballs.

The date that earns its smugness: 2,830 steps up, Skyride gondola down, beers and jelly legs at the top.

Locals' pick over Capilano: a free 50-metre suspension bridge over a roaring gorge, with emerald swimming holes and no eighty-dollar admission guilt.

An 8 km Cypress climb past historic log cabins and First Lake to a summit above the Lions and Howe Sound.

Flat, breezy, and bald-eagle-dotted: Delta's Centennial Beach to the dyke, where you set the distance and the eagles set the pace.

A leafy Fraser River island hiding Victorian heritage buildings, bald eagles and a profound lack of other people, right off Highway 99.

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.

A flat forest walk along an emerald creek to a waterfall that roars in spring and turns swimmable by late summer.