Vancouver

Vancouver's beaches are inside the city. English Bay and Sunset Beach line the West End, Kitsilano and the long sandy stretch of Jericho, Locarno and Spanish Banks face the mountains across the water, and Wreck Beach sits below the cliffs at the university. On a warm July or August day the whole city heads to the shore with picnics and volleyball nets, and the sunsets over English Bay are part of local life.

The sea is a different matter. In sheltered bays it reaches about 17-19°C at the height of summer, and it is cold for most of the year, so swimming is a brief dip rather than the reason for a trip. The outdoor saltwater pool at Kitsilano gives a warmer swim. Treat the beaches as a summer pleasure and not the focus of a stay.

Vancouver eats best in Asian cuisines. Cantonese dim sum and seafood restaurants in the city and in neighbouring Richmond rank with any outside Asia, and they sit alongside Taiwanese night-market snacks, Korean barbecue, ramen shops and a very large number of sushi counters, many of them cheap and good. Pacific salmon, spot prawns, oysters and Dungeness crab give the local cooking its character, and the better restaurants build menus around them.

Granville Island's public market is the obvious place to browse produce and snacks. Main Street and Commercial Drive have craft breweries, bakeries and Italian cafés, and wine lists draw on the Okanagan and Vancouver Island. What the city lacks is a cuisine of its own and much historic eating culture. Fine dining is good but has fewer high points, and eating out is not cheap.

This is a young city, and its sights are few but distinctive. The standout is the Museum of Anthropology at the university, where a glass hall full of Northwest Coast totem poles, carvings and canoes sets out the art of the region's First Nations. The totem poles at Brockton Point in Stanley Park, and Indigenous art in galleries across the city, carry the same thread.

Beyond that the list is short. Gastown keeps cobbled streets and Victorian brick warehouses, and Chinatown has the classical Dr Sun Yat-Sen Garden. The Vancouver Art Gallery shows Emily Carr and changing collections, and there are small maritime and city museums. There is little grand architecture and two or three days cover it all. Most visitors come for the setting, not the sights.

Vancouver has a long-standing reputation as an early-to-bed city, and it has earned it. Going out is mostly pleasant rather than memorable: cocktail bars and wine bars in the old brick buildings of Gastown, craft brewery taprooms around Main Street and the industrial streets east of downtown, and patios in Yaletown and Kitsilano that fill on summer evenings.

The late-night club scene is concentrated on the Granville Street strip, which is loud, young and crowded at weekends and quiet the rest of the week. The Davie Village in the West End is the heart of the city's gay nightlife. Plenty of people enjoy an evening out here, but nobody chooses the city for it.

Few cities sit this close to wild country. The North Shore mountains rise straight across the harbour, and Grouse, Cypress and Seymour each offer forest trails in summer and skiing on lit runs in winter, under half an hour from downtown. Stanley Park is a thousand-acre peninsula of tall cedar and fir, ringed by the seawall that runs for about 28km of walking and cycling path. Rainforest canyons at Lynn Canyon and Capilano and the steep fjord of Indian Arm are close by.

The Sea-to-Sky Highway runs along Howe Sound to Squamish's granite climbing walls and on to Whistler's alpine terrain in about two hours. Kayaking in False Creek and Deep Cove, sailing, orca and humpback watching, and salmon runs in autumn add the water. Winters are mild and wet, which keeps everything green.

Most excursions from Vancouver go into the landscape rather than to other towns. The best place to visit is Victoria, the provincial capital on Vancouver Island, with its harbour, Parliament Buildings and gardens. It is a long day, with a ferry crossing of about an hour and a half plus the journey to and from each terminal.

Closer by are smaller outings. There is the fishing village of Steveston at the mouth of the Fraser, the reconstructed fur-trade fort and old main street at Fort Langley, and Whistler's pedestrian resort village about two hours up the coast. Bowen Island is a short ferry ride away, and Seattle is possible but stretches the day. It makes a pleasant list, but a thin one.

Vancouver is easy with children. Stanley Park holds most of a family day in one place: the Vancouver Aquarium, a miniature train, playgrounds, a water park and the flat seawall for bikes and scooters. Science World, in its geodesic dome on False Creek, is hands-on and central, and the little ferries across False Creek go to Granville Island, which has a children's market and water play area.

Suspension bridges and treetop walkways over North Shore canyons, the gondola up Grouse Mountain and calm summer beaches with tidal pools fill out the list. Playland gives a small dose of rides in summer. There is no major theme park and the zoo is far out in the valley. Rain fills many days outside summer, but the city is safe, relaxed and welcoming.

The downtown peninsula, the West End, Gastown, Chinatown and Yaletown are all close together and easy to walk, and the seawall makes a long walk or bike ride the most pleasant way round. The SkyTrain runs driverless from the airport to downtown and out to Richmond and the suburbs, and the SeaBus crosses the harbour to North Vancouver. One tap-on card or contactless payment covers the SkyTrain, buses and SeaBus. The small ferries that hop across False Creek to Granville Island are run separately and need their own ticket.

The limits show beyond the core. Kitsilano, the university and the beaches rely on buses, and the North Shore mountains and canyons mean a bus plus a climb or a seasonal shuttle. A car helps only for trips up the coast or into the valley. Many visitors simply hire bikes.

Robson Street is the main shopping run, with international chains and flagship stores, and the luxury houses gather on Alberni Street nearby. A large underground mall runs beneath the central downtown blocks, useful on wet days. Outdoor and technical clothing is a local speciality, and the city's athleisure brands started here.

The more interesting finds are elsewhere. Granville Island has artists' studios, glassblowers and the public market. Main Street and Gastown have independent fashion, vintage and design shops, and Northwest Coast Indigenous prints, carvings and jewellery are the most distinctive thing to take home. Richmond's Asian malls add a different flavour. The range is decent but not deep, and few visitors come here to shop.

Vancouver is an expensive city to stay in. Downtown hotel rooms cost a lot, especially in summer and during the cruise season, and the city has few cheap places to sleep near the centre. Restaurant meals and drinks become steep once sales tax and tipping are added, and the paid attractions on the North Shore are pricey for a family.

There are real ways to save. Noodle shops, dim sum and casual sushi are good and fairly cheap, Stanley Park, the seawall and the beaches cost nothing, and public transport is reasonably priced. Visiting outside summer brings room prices down noticeably.

The performing arts here are solid but local. The Vancouver Symphony plays in the Orpheum, a richly decorated 1927 movie palace, and Vancouver Opera and Ballet BC perform at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Several professional theatre companies run full seasons. Touring musicals and big concerts stop on their way along the West Coast.

Summer is when the calendar comes alive. Bard on the Beach stages Shakespeare in tents in Vanier Park with the mountains as a backdrop, the Fringe fills Granville Island with independent shows, and the jazz festival and the folk festival on Jericho Beach draw large crowds. There are smaller rock and indie venues around downtown and Main Street, but none with a reputation that brings visitors from abroad.

Vancouver feels calm for a large city. It is green and orderly, there is a long tradition of yoga studios, and a slow walk along the seawall or through the forest is never far away. The hotels have good day spas, and Chinatown and Richmond have plenty of massage and reflexology places.

What it lacks is a bathing culture of its own. There are no historic baths or hot springs in the city, and the large outdoor Nordic-style spas are a drive away, near Whistler. Visitors who want to unwind here do it through the pace and the setting more than through spas.