Things to do in Vancouver during the Summer
When we heard the good news that TBEX 11 was coming to our hometown of Vancouver we were excited to have our beautiful city welcome the travel blog community.
As host of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games, the city has launched itself onto the world stage and become a tourism hotspot for all types of travel.
It’s easy to love Vancouver
Within a 20km radius you can be skiing in the mountains, strolling on the beach, hiking through temperate rainforest, kayaking secluded coves, dining at world class restaurants or attending an international event. We happen to think its one of the greatest cities in the world, but we’re totally biased!
When we travel to new countries or cities we want to know what the locals do for fun. Don’t get us wrong, we like to visit the popular sights as much as the next traveller, but the best way to experience a city is to follow the lead of its people.
As residents of Vancouver, we thought it would be helpful to go beyond Vancouver’s top attractions and introduce TBEX 11 attendees to things that we like do in Vancouver during the summer (because the event is in June, when the weather for British Columbia is typically warm and sunny).
1. Explore Deep Cove
Deep Cove is a harbour community on the east side of Seymour Mountain, a short drive from downtown Vancouver and accessible by public transit. The waters in the cove are normally calm, making it the perfect place to go kayaking, canoeing, paddle boarding or boating (Equipment Rentals are available).
We put together a short video from an afternoon kayaking the cove last summer – Kayaking in Deep Cove
If water activities aren’t your thing, check out the popular Baden-Powell Trail and hike the 45-minute trail to the stunning viewpoint that overlooks Deep Cove and Indian Arm (its the rock cliff in the photo below – to the right). It’s not a mountain climb but it can be challenging for some, so bring proper shoes and a bottle of water. It’s one of our favourite hikes in Vancouver.
After you’ve had your fill of outdoor adventure, head into the small town and sample its world famous honey donuts with a cappuccino or enjoy a local craft beer on an outdoor patio.
2. Hike the Grouse Grind
Grouse Mountain, often referred as the “Peak of Vancouver”, is one of Vancouver’s top tourist attractions. But what many people don’t know is that it’s much more than a British Columbia skiing destination; it’s also one of the most popular hiking trails for Vancouver residents.
Why do the locals love it so much? Because it’s a kick-ass work out!
Don’t make the mistake of thinking it’s a leisurely hike to a viewpoint. It’s a 3 kilometre trail straight up the face of Grouse Mountain. Every time we do the hike we see tourists with jeans and dress shoes attempting to reach the top. They typically don’t make it past the ¼ mark before turning around in defeat.
There is a reason it’s called “Mother Nature’s Stairmaster”. You will sweat, you will bitch and you will hurt, but there is no better feeling than reaching the top. Don’t worry, you can take the tram down.
3. Catch a ball game at the Nat
Although we don’t have a professional baseball team in British Columbia, we do have the Vancouver Canadians. The minor league team plays at Nat Bailey Stadium, which is the perfect sports venue for a summer ball game.
It’s a small, no frills stadium with traditional metal bleachers, old school scoreboards and foot long hotdogs. Even if you don’t like sports, you’ll enjoy an afternoon at the Nat!
4. Rent a Motor Boat in Horseshoe Bay
On a nice day, the perfect West Coast activity is to rent a small motor boat and explore Howe Sound. A highlight is the colony of harbour seals that inhabit Pam Rocks, pictured below. It’s also likely that you’ll spot bald eagles while on the boat trip.
It’s not that expensive either. For two hours of personal boat time (usually enough to get to the seal colony and back) it’s about $130, and the boats can fit between 4-6 people. To visit marine parks and secluded coves that can only be reached by water, it’s wise to do the 4-hour rate and head to Gambier or Anvil Islands.
5. Bet on the Ponies at Hasting Park
Similar to Nat Bailey Stadium, Hastings Park is a Vancouver icon. The vintage race track has been around since 1947, making it a popular attraction even without the horse races.
We’re not big into gambling but love spending the afternoon at Hastings Park because of its great views and entertaining atmosphere. It’s free to enter, so we don’t mind putting a couple bucks on the ponies, which adds to the excitement of the Hastings experience.
It’s easy to get to the park by public transit and it neighbours Playland, Vancouver’s infamous amusement park, so you can make it a full day by combing the two activities.
6. Whale Watching and Fish & Chips in Steveston
Steveston is a charming fishing village in south Richmond, located south of Vancouver. It’s the departure point for many Whale Watching tours that explore the Gulf Islands and the San Juan islands. We went on a tour last summer and saw a pod of Orcas hanging out in their natural habitat – a very cool experience!
Steveston is an active fishing harbour so you can walk the docks and purchase fresh seafood directly from the fishing boats (you won’t find better prices anywhere!).
On a sunny afternoon, we like to visit the village and indulge in fresh fish and chips, then walk off lunch along the popular pier. As the photos below illustrate, it’s not a bad way to spend an afternoon outside the city and yet another reminder why we love living in British Columbia.
What are your favourite things to do your home city?
Share you thoughts in the comments section below.
We won’t be there for TBEX in June, but save us a spot in August and we’ll do all of these things! Thanks for sharing guys.
You got it! This is just a few things to do in Vancouver, we’ve got plenty more secrets to share.
Vancouver’s such a beautiful and fun city! I really enjoyed it the one time I was there.
It certainly is! We feel very fortunate to live in such a great city 😉
I’m really excited about going to Vancouver for TBEX. Hope I’ll get to do some of the things you’ve mentioned. I’ve only been there once and it was for just a few hours – just long enough to drive around a little walk around Stanley Park a bit. Look forward to meeting you in June!
The Stanley Park seawall is a great walk. We do it at least once every couple weeks.
SO many great places to eat in the area too. We love the Banana Leaf Malaysian restaurant on Denman street.
Thanks for this!! Now I have some ideas for what to do at TBEX! 🙂 I haven’t spent much time on the west coast of Canada. The only place I have been to is Victoria so looking forward to Vancouver.
I am actually coming out with a post next week about travel deals to Vancouver for TBEX! Can’t wait to go and thanks for sharing more about Vancouver and getting me more excited for this trip!
Awesome! Glad you found some value in the post Jeremy. Just let me know if you need a personal tour guide. I’m thinking we should start coordinating some activities for interested parties.
I visited Vancouver a few years ago when my sister was attending University in BC. I also have a few Chinese relatives in Vancouver (I’m 1/2 Chinese), that we visited and ate some glorious food with! On top of the natural beauty and all these great things you guys mentioned, the Chinatown is great as well!
The Chinatown is another popular spot for tourists. We’re not as big of fans of it. Great food, but Nicole is vegetarian (not easy to find vegetarian options in Chinatown!).
Will you be attending TBEX 11?
I can’t wait to get up there for TBEX. So excited about kicking around that part of the world for the first time.
You have never been to Vancouver!? You, Sir, are in for a treat!
Without trying to oversell it, you’re gonna love it! When the weather cooperates their are few cities that can compete (but we’re super biased)
Awesome post guys. I will definitely have to bookmark this for June. Megan and I are thinking about making a 10-14 day trip around TBEX to explore Vancouver and the Pacific NW as we have never been to that region. Very excited, and this post has me even more excited.
Just let us know if we can help in any way! I’m thinking we should probably organize something outside of the conference?
Great post! I was hoping someone would be doing this in anticipation of TBEX! We’re getting excited and will probably need to make it a bit of a longer trip since the airfare from Asia is staggering right now.
I’ve never been to Vancouver but heard amazing things which is one of the reasons we’re coming all the way out for it this year! Looking so forward to meeting everyone and taking in these incredible sights! *Drooling at the fish and chips*
Thanks!
Look forward to meeting at the event. Probably a wise move to spend some extra time, Vancouver is June is quite the place to be!
I won’t be at TBEX ’11, but I love Vancouver.! Other suggestions if you are a gardening nut like me would be to visit the Van Dusen Gardens, Lynn Park, Queen Elizabeth Park and the Bloedel Floral Conservatory. If you visit Granville Island, do stop at PICA (Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts) an excellent restaurant that is run by its students and located at the entrance of G.I. I enjoyed visiting the First Nations museum at the Museum of Anthropology on the campus of UBC as well.
All great choices for sure. We live near Queen Elizabeth Park and try to get to it as much as possible.
For those readers that read this commnet, if you look at the baseball stadium picture you will see a forest in the background – that’s Queen Elizabeth Park. Good idea to visit the park and its gardens before an evening ball game! 😉
Thanks for sharing your tips Renee!
See you all @ TBEX in June. I’ve been to Vancouver a few times, but I haven’t made it over to Vancouver island. Maybe we can organize something for before or after…
Definitely worth a trip to island if you’ve got some time. Some great surfing in Tofino!
Great post! One of our favorite cities. One of the reasons for moving to Seattle was so that we could be closer to BC. True story.
Excellent! Seattle is probably the only US megacity that we could live in. Maybe Chicago. Thanks for stopping by, see you in June!
I wish we could make it up for TBEX. We love Van and everything about BC. We always keep saying that if we were to live in Canada, it would be in BC #1 and Newfoundland #2. I think we realize that we need to be near water for our kayaking obsession. And man do those fish and chips look good.
Kayaking in BC is great, especially in the summer. The fish in chips are fantastic!
Feel like being my tour guide when I come? 🙂
Absolutely! We’ll all have to get together after the conference 🙂
I went to Vancouver last year. Wonderful and beautiful city. I was there a week and didn’t run out of things to do. Plus, my husband was very happy with all the sushi joints all over the city.
So true! Good sushi places are everywhere and very cheap.
aaah great post! I love Vancouver :]
These are all super suggestions.. I feel like I need to make another trip out there to do some more of these! My favorite place in the WORLD (not just Canada) is Bowen Island! Definitely worth the ferry ride if anyone heads over to Deep Cove!
Bowen Island is a perfect place to go hiking and spend a weekend to get out of the city.
Need to bookmark this, great list for visiting.
I have always wanted to see Canada. I have heard Vancouver has a lot of Japanese immigrants, i that true? I thought about going there to practice Japanese!
As for my home town, I miss the St. Louis City Museum more than ANYTHING!
Vancouver is very multicultural…it’s one of the reasons we love it so much.
I´ve spent a bit of time in Vancouver for work but I´m really looking forward to seeing it again for TBEX.
Look forward to seeing everyone in June.
I’ve only been to Vancouver once but loved it! Didn’t do too much on this list but wish we were going to TBEX to see some of these sights.
Next time 🙂
This is a great list. Anywhere you’d recommend for a motorcycle trip starting and ending in Vancouver? 2 to 4 days total? (Vancouver tourism recommended what they call “coast-mountain circle route” with overnights in Harrison Hot Springs, Lillooet and Whistler) If I can arrange to do a motorcycle magazine article while I’m there, it will make TBEX especially productive! Thanks for any advice you may have.
That’s a good choice, probably the best option if you need to return to Vancouver. I would recommend including Kelowna and the Okanagan region also. You could take the #1 TransCanada Highway up to Kelowna in a day, hang out in the Valley for a night, then take it slow through the Coast Mountains back to Vancouver. It would give you good variety and limit your riding to about 5 hours per day. Spend a night in Whistler too!
Hiking the Grouse Grind sounds intriguing to me. I can wait to be there in june, never been there before.
I think you’re gonna like what you see! The Grind is a great hike, not easy, but rewarding once you get to the top.
I love Vancouver. We spent about a month there this past summer and when our year of travel is up, we’re seriously thinking of Vancouver as our next home base. It’s just so darn beautiful.
Glad to hear that you enjoyed your time in Vancouver. The same thing happened to me, I came out for the summer in 1998, haven’t got back to hometown since! We love it here
i can’t wait! i can’t wait! great post guys! i’ve been told SO many times over the years by friends that i would love vancouver but have never been. i’m so excited to be there for TBEX and think i may be driving my new (old) little home on wheels. these places look fantastic and can’t wait to meet you both! 🙂
We also look forward to finally meeting up at Tbex, should be a fun weekend!
Great post that I will definitely file away for my TBEX planning.
I haven’t looked into each spot for location but are they easily accessible even when we don’t have car? I don’t plan to get a car while we are in Vancouver but it might be an option if we want to venture out further.
Also any family-friendly recommendation that locals do? 🙂
They are all accessible by transit but some are not ideal. A car is definitely an easier way to get around. None of these activities are in the downtown core of Vancouver, but not too far away (15-30 minutes).
Lots of family friendly spots – Stanely Park, Science World, Granville Island and the Aquarium to name a few (all within the downtown area, so you wouldn’t need a vehicle)
Thanks for the great tips! I haven’t been to Vancouver since I was a kid, so next time I’ll have to check out the racetrack.
Glad you enjoyed the post! Cheers
Our family loves Vancouver. So, so many great things to do. This is a fantastic list of things that we might not find in the standard travel guide. Thanks!
This is brilliant, thank you! Just moved here, so these are some great ideas for the weekends to come. Looking forward to the Grouse!
Welcome to Vancouver! Let us know if we can help you in anyway 😉
super excited about TBEX in Vancouver. 🙂 my hope is to sign up for the trip to Grouse Mountain, but we’ll see. maybe others will beat me to it.
You can easily do the Grouse Grind on your own. Transit is really easy ($3 each way) and the trail is well-marked.
I think that this is my second time reading this post but I love all of these suggestions! We are staying two extra days after TBEX so I’m definitely looking forward to checking out Steveston! Whale-watching and fish and chips sounds like the perfect day to me!
Thank for the awesome article guys!
Thanks Annie – Hopefully you’ll get a chance to see some Orca’s in their natural habitat!
Many thanks for these insider tips! This will prove very useful, since I’m visiting Vancouver for the first time for TBEX. Excited to meet you guys!
I love this post! A lot of my family is from Vancouver, so it’s near and dear to my heart. I’ve always wanted to run up the Grouse Grind! It looks like a great challenge 🙂 Of course, I’d definitely follow it up with fish and chips 😉 Great post! Have fun at TBEX!
These are great tips! I saw this only after Vancouver though. That said, I needed to see the “hits” first. Spanish Banks was a local secret that I absolutely loved, however.
PS for some reason, your site is saying my website link is “invalid.” My twitter is @nearafar
Does anyone know of a good charter captain that will be able to put a boat on the salmon bite this summer? I would love to make a morning trip one day while I’m out visiting this August. Please let me know of someone you trust is a good, honest captain. Thanks!
It’s a good list of things-to-do in Vancouver.
Hi!I know you haven’t respond to this post for a long time.. But I wanted to ask which whale watching excursion did you use? There are a few, and I really want this to be great!
Thanks
Hi,
My girlfriend and I are traveling to Vancouver for the New Year. I was wondering if you have any recommendations on cool spots to go to in the Winter. Let me know. Thank you!
Thank you for putting together this list. I have been researching things to do in Vancouver and many of the things you mentioned have not been on other Vancouver to-do lists. I’m excited to explore these areas in a few weeks. I did have a question on the Richmond portion. When is the best time for this? When is the fishing the best? When is whale-watching the best? I’ve heard in the fall, but I think that is only for certain types of whales.