Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Sights
As British Columbia's largest city, Vancouver holds an abundance of world-class attrac-
tions, as well as many smaller gems that are easy to miss. Whether you're interested in vis-
iting museums or exploring mountain peaks, you will find plenty to do in Vancouver—the
hardest part will be working out how to best fit them into your itinerary. Luckily, many at-
tractions are clustered around downtown, with others such as Granville Island and the city's
three major museums farther out but easily reached by public transportation. Try to arrange
your sightseeing schedule around the weather. If the forecast calls for a rainy day, concen-
trate on the museums, leaving the North Shore and Stanley Park for a sunny day.
ORIENTATION
Vancouver isn't a particularly easy city to find your way around, although an excellent
transit system helps immensely. Downtown lies on a spit of land bordered to the north and
east by Burrard Inlet, to the west by English Bay, and to the south by False Creek, which
almost cuts the city center off from the rest of the city. Due to the foresight of city founders,
almost half of the downtown peninsula has been set aside as parkland.
The City of Vancouver officially extends south and west from downtown, between Bur-
rard Inlet and the Fraser River, and encompasses the trendy beachside suburb of Kitsil-
ano (known as “Kits” to the locals) and Point Grey, home of the University of British
Columbia. To the east, the residential sprawl continues through the suburbs of Burn-
aby, New Westminster, and Coquitlam, which have a combined population of well over
300,000.
Farther south, the low-lying Fraser River delta extends all the way south to the border.
Between the north and south arms of the river is Richmond, home of Vancouver Inter-
national Airport. South of the south arm is the mostly industrial area of Delta, as well as
Tsawwassen, departure point for ferries to Vancouver Island.
Southeast of the Fraser River lies Surrey, another of those never-ending suburbs, this
one with a population of 360,000. The sprawl continues east from Surrey. With Vancouver
growing at an incredible rate, and as development to the south and north are restricted—by
the international border and the Coast Mountains—there's nowhere to go but east. From
Surrey, the Trans-Canada Highway passes through the Fraser River Valley and towns such
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