Vancouver in Three Days

Vancouver's sail-roofed waterfront landmark and cruise ship terminal on Burrard Inlet — worth the walk around its promenade for harbour, mountain and ship views, and as the home of Flyover.

A roughly 25-minute immersive flying-theatre experience at Canada Place, with rides starting every 15–20 minutes, that simulates soaring over Canadian landscapes using motion, wind, mist and scent.

Vancouver's original downtown core, presented by its BIA as a compact 12-block district of cobblestone streets mixing design studios, fashion boutiques, galleries, speakeasy-style bars, live music venues and restaurants.

A 360° observation deck 168 metres up at Harbour Centre, reached by a glass elevator, giving a single panoramic read of Stanley Park, Gastown, the harbour, downtown and the North Shore mountains.

The District's largest park is a temperate-rainforest canyon on Lynn Creek, crossed by its well-known suspension bridge and a network of hiking trails. Start at the Ecology Centre for natural-history exhibits, a park map and advice from park naturalists before heading to the bridge and creek.

A rainforest canyon park built around the suspension bridge over the Capilano River, with the Cliffwalk and Treetops Adventure canopy walkways included in the same single-day ticket.

A year-round mountaintop reached by the Red Skyride or Blue Grouse Gondola, where one admission ticket covers the ride up and whichever mountaintop attractions are operating that day, with views back over the city.

A world-renowned museum of world arts and cultures in an Arthur Erickson building at UBC, holding nearly 50,000 objects, with monumental Northwest Coast First Nations carvings and works by Haida artist Bill Reid at its heart.

A traditional Japanese stroll garden with a tea house, created in memory of educator and diplomat Dr. Inazo Nitobe and designed under Japanese landscape architect Kannosuke Mori. Its carefully placed stones, lanterns and plantings shift with the seasons — cherry blossom in spring, irises in summer, maples in autumn — making it a quiet place for reflection on the UBC campus.

Canada's oldest continuously operating university botanical garden, organised as a series of themed collections — the David C. Lam Asian Garden, an alpine garden arranged by continent, a BC rainforest garden and a food garden. In season, the 310-metre Greenheart TreeWalk lifts you into the canopy above the Asian Garden for a treetop view of the forest.

Founded in 1931 and recognised as one of North America's most innovative visual arts institutions, showing historical and contemporary art from BC and around the world, with special attention to Indigenous artists and the Asia Pacific region.