What a setting for a city! Mountains line the coastline meeting the Strait of Georgia. The scale is so great you may think this is unspoiled wilderness. It is no wonder that Vancouver is the third largest production centre for TV and movies in North America. Most of the Hallmark movies are filmed in the Vancouver area.
Imagine what the Voyageurs (travellers) — the 19th century French Canadians fur traders — would have thought when they discovered the West! Now we are the voyageurs. Fortunately, we do not have to carry two 90-pound (41 kg) bundles of fur over portages. We visited Vancouver many times when we lived in the “nearby” province of Alberta. Nearby for us is 1162 km (722 miles) — the equivalent of driving from Paris to Florence.
Since our son now lives in Vancouver, we have lived here for many weeks at a time. It is one of our favourite cities in Canada if not North America.
For our first post on Vancouver we thought about starting with Stanley Park. It is THE must-see for any tourist. Instead, we decided to talk about some of our favourite spots in our “neighbourhood”, the West End. An added plus is that the activities in this post are free — except for the cost of cafés or restaurants. All the points of interest are shown on our Vancouver West End Map.
Northwest Marine Drive
Spanish Banks
Our day usually starts with a short drive to Spanish Banks with its very ample parking, except on holidays. This was one of our favourite places in all of Vancouver. We would come here to do a flat and relaxing walk with wow views all the way. It is the epitome of Vancouver Shanshui, literally mountains and water. Shanshui was the art style behind Chinese mandarin gardens and landscape paintings, a genre that was invented by the Chinese.
We park at the west parking lot and the first thing you notice is the avenue of weeping willow trees.
On the Beach side, Hugo França transformed several large pieces of 100 year old fallen trees into sculptures. They are called public furniture since you can play, sit, or lie on them. They highlight the existing lines and forms of the wood rather than carve human figures. The city does not move any of the huge logs on the beach.
You will notice you are not alone. Many Vancouverites are walking, playing, biking, sailing or just enjoying the sun and sand in the second most pleasant climate in Canada. One of the most popular pastimes is beach volleyball.
Even the youngest Vancouverites are biking the beach during summer day camps!
Since 49% of its residents are foreign born, Vancouver is the second most culturally diverse city in Canada and fourth in the world. A few times we saw gatherings of different ethnic groups with their instruments playing music.
Sepi’s Place
I do not know who planted the flowers, carved the log, or who is Sepi. Actually, Sepi’s Place is everyone’s place. It is special because you can see into Howe Sound, though it is a distant view. From here it looks like a wall of mountains but there is a sound behind the Lighthouse Point peninsula on the centre right side.
Once you have seen Howe Sound from an airplane, boat, car or hike, it will become a special place in your heart. The magic ingredient is the sprinkling of islands. Howe Sound is a very deep U-shaped valley carved by glaciers and thus should really be called a fjord. In fact, BC is full of fjords but they are so wide and so deep that bridges cannot be built across them. That is why there is no coastal highway in BC.
Our next post, Vancouver Sea to Sky, will describe the beautiful Howe Sound sights in more detail. Highway 99 is one of the best side trips you can take near Vancouver. It is popularly known as the Sea to Sky Highway.
Sepi’s is not just a place we like. One day we saw people preparing to hold a wedding here! Gorgeous flower arrangements were being laid out along the trail, which is bordered by logs with their interesting tree grain.
According to the PictureThis app, this log came from an arborvitae, a type of cypress tree.
Pacific Spirit Regional Park
If you want to extend the walk 15 minutes further, follow NW Marine Drive up the hill to a small parking lot then walk down the hill. Acadia Beach has little sand but comes with picnic benches and views of Howe Sound. It makes a great location to eat take-out from one of the Kitsilano or Granville area cafes. Suggestions are provided in two sections below, Cafés and Bakeries and Restaurants and Snacks.
Acadia Beach is actually part of Pacific Spirit Regional Park, which is mainly on the other side of the road. With an area of 874 hectares (2,160 acres), it is 2.2 times the size of Stanley Park! Here you can imagine what Vancouver looked like before the Europeans came.
The BC coast was a temperate rainforest filled with tall Douglas fir, cedar and hemlock trees. Some trees are over 1300 years old and up to 86 m (282 ft) tall. This land was originally set aside for development which thank goodness never materialized. The trails we liked started from W 16th Ave. Try Huckleberry, Hemlock, Salish and Sassamat Trails.
Back at Acadia Beach, the trail along the shore is very rough and more like an obstacle course. It eventually leads to the nude Wreck Beach, which has easier access from a pay parking lot.
West End Architecture
Alternatively, walk, bike, or drive a bit west to 5550 NW Marine Drive. Here you will find a beautiful Tudor style house built in 1953. The 6,740 sq ft home has five-bedrooms and an acre of gardens with mountain views. No, we did not enter the property. The gate was wide open and I simply used a zoom lens and cropped the photo for a closer view.
This home is located in the UBC Endowment Lands, an unincorporated town on land UBC sold to set up a fund to pay for the university. Don’t even ask how much this house is worth. Ok, I’ll tell. It was recently listed in Feb. 2022 for $19 million.
Ranked as the 5th most livable city in the world by the Mercer Quality of Living Ranking 2022, it should not be surprising that Vancouver has some of the most desirable real estate in the country. Some of the pleasures of the modern voyageurs are to see magnificent homes and buildings in the city. For architecture fanatics there is a self-guided West End Architectural Walk pamphlet.
West Point Grey
The neighbourhood next to Spanish Banks is West Point Grey, one of the most affluent areas of Vancouver. You can see some of these houses from the NW Marine Drive at the Spanish Banks parking lot. This neighbourhood is also the site of the private West Point Grey Academy, where Prime Minister Trudeau once taught. You can see some of the attractive houses in the neighbourhood on W 8th Ave., the road that parallels the Academy.
There is yet another coastal walk east of the Spanish Banks. First it crosses Locarno Beach, named after a lakeside city in Switzerland. Then it crosses Jericho Beach and ends at the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club, which is near Breka Café.
Cafés and Bakeries
Forget about chains like Tim Hortons and Starbucks. Vancouver has some of the best home grown cafés and bakeries. There are too many to list here — use the Google Map ratings to find one near you. These are shown on our Vancouver West End Map. Note that Streets go north-South and Avenues go East-West in most western cities.
Some examples from west to east are Breka Café (W 4th Ave.), COBS Bread Bakery (W Broadway), Thomas Haas (W Broadway), Plaisir Sucré (Arbutus St.), and That’s It (W 1st Ave.) Cafés.
Point Grey Road
Located to the east is Point Grey Road, which is actually in Kitsilano. In 1859 Vancouver was established to support the Gold Rush. Point Grey was the original neighbourhood of the wealthy. The house at 2530 Point Grey Rd. has an interesting combination of stone veneer, wood siding and stucco. The half-timbered façade is typical of Tudor revival style homes.
The home was built for Matthew Logan, a businessman in 1910 at a cost of $9000 or $1.9 million in today’s dollars. Actually, Vancouver house prices have far exceeded inflation. In 1928 it became Brig. Gen. Victor Odlum House, who was not only a Brigadier-General but also a newspaper publisher, politician and philanthropist.
This is the last Canadian fur trade post, which only closed in 1951! Fort St. James in Northern BC is now a Parks Canada site and well worth the visit. The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) controlled and administered 40% of the land area of present day Canada! That is the size of Western Europe!
The province of British Columbia (BC) is 2.2 times the area of California, 1.2 times the size of Turkey, or about the same size as Great Britain, Ireland and France combined. However, BC only has 5.3 million people! Eat you heart out!
So what does the HBC have to do with Vancouver? Everything. James Douglas, who was the Factor (head) of Fort St. James and then Chief Factor of the HBC, became governor of Vancouver Island in 1851 and founder of Fort Victoria, now the capital of BC.
In the 19th century, it was not sure that BC would become part of Canada. Gold was discovered in the Fraser River valley in 1857 and there were more American prospectors living in BC than Canadian. Governor Douglas, who realized the danger, had Queen Victoria declare all of BC a colony. In 1869, the British government pressured HBC to reject an American government offer of $10,000,000 and sell Rupert’s Land to Canada for $1.5 million. The land was probably worth $40 million then, but HBC had never paid for it. The British government intervened as they wanted to contain the power of the USA.
Shaughnessy Heights
Named after the CPR president, the Shaughnessy neighbourhood is only 447 hectares or nine blocks long by 10 blocks wide — bordered by 16th Avenue, East Boulevard, King Edward Avenue and Oak Street. The tree-lined streets are named after the CPR’s board of directors. It is so quiet here, you do not feel you are in the bustling metropolis of Vancouver.
In 1871, BC agreed to join the confederation with a promise of a railway link to eastern Canada. The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) built the first trans-Canada railway line, which was completed in 1886.
The CPR became very wealthy and powerful. They invested in real estate. In fact, they were once the largest real estate developer in Canada. The CPR was helped by the Indian Act (1867), which allowed the Federal Government to displace the indigenous Tsleil-Waututh, Musqueam, and Squamish people from their ancestral lands — Vancouver!
CPR used its power and influence with the city to create an upper class neighbourhood. The CPR ensured its exclusivity by requiring that all houses cost at least $6,000 (worth $1.1 million in today’s dollars) on lots up to 1 ½ acres in size. The homes were surrounded by lush lawns, gardens, hedges, cast iron fences and/or stone walls.
The Crescent is a superb small arboretum containing 47 species of rare and unusual trees, a few of which appear nowhere else in the city. There are many rare evergreens from England and ornamental trees from Asia. The landscaping was inspired by Frederick Olmsted, the designer of Central Park, New York.
Constructed in the Tudor Revival style, the houses and gardens bear a strong resemblance to old English manors. This was a deliberate attempt to transmit a feeling of wealth and status. This house at 1699 Matthews Avenue was built in 1911 and is worth $7.7 million.
Canuck Place
Originally called Glen Brae, this house is located at 1690 Matthews Avenue. The wrought iron fence was imported from Scotland. The house was built in 1910 by retired lumber baron and real estate developer William L. Tait. Note the columns with capitals, the wood dentil work, and the round turrets reminiscent of the castles of Tait’s native Scotland.
It was used in 1925 as the Vancouver headquarters of the Klu Klux Klan, which is a reminder of the racial intolerance of that era, especially against Chinese immigrants.
It was bequeathed to the City of Vancouver in 1991 and re-opened in 1995 as Canuck Place Children’s Hospice, which provides palliative care to children with terminal illnesses.
Kitsilano Beach
Kitsilano Beach is the neighbourhood focal point. There are many restaurants just off the park, especially on Yew St. and Cornwall Ave. Fireworks are held throughout the summer. There is a young person vibe.
Vanier Park
Vanier Park is sparsely treed, so it’s not my cup of tea. But there is a pleasant walk along the shore. This is the place to go to get photographs of the Vancouver skyline with a mountain backdrop. Vancouver is hemmed in by the sea, the mountains and the American border.
Vancouver has the highest population density in Canada and the fourth highest in North America. Most people live in high rise condos. Metro Vancouver has 2.6 million people in an area of 2,879 km2 (1,111 mi2). This area is slightly larger than Ottawa but, unlike Ottawa, the various cities have never been amalgamated.
Major Canadian organizations – such as Lululemon, Aritzia, Purdy’s Chocolatier, Mountain Equipment Co-Op, and Greenpeace – were founded and/or are headquartered in Vancouver.
From Vanier Park, the Sea Wall trail goes under the Burrard Bridge to Fir Street. Here you will find a wide choice of eating options.
Restaurants and Snacks
By now you must be a hungry voyageur. Thanks to its cultural diversity you have a wide choice of cuisines. Vancouver is the sushi capital of North America and, in fact, introduced sushi to the North America. Sushivan on Granville Ave. is a good place.
See the Vancouver West End Map for locations and Google ratings. Near to Kitsilano Beach and Vanier Park is a potpourri of cuisines such as:
Fir St. Area: That’s It café, Suika Japanese, Apollonia Greek, Mexican Carnitas El Rolys, and Beaucoup Bakery.
Burrard & W 2nd Ave.: Belgian Patisserie Lebeau and les Amis du Fromage to buy BC and international cheeses.
You can even sail to downtown. Vancouver is the largest port in Canada and 4th largest in North America. Often Burrard Inlet looks like a cargo ship parking lot.
Sunsets
What city has the best coastal panorama in the world? Many say it is Istanbul, but I believe it is Vancouver. Like Istanbul, Vancouver is split into two parts by a wide strait. However, Vantastic Vancouver offers vantastic views. Unlike highly urbanized Istanbul, the extent of the vista in Vancouver is so vast that you sometimes cannot believe there is a big city here.
Spanish Banks (or Kitsilano) is a great place for sunsets. We would come here at the end of the day for beautiful sunsets or to just relax after a hard day working as Voyageurs.
For more fun facts see Fun & Interesting Facts about Vancouver.
