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| A
view from Stanley Park's active
sea wall trail |
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Vancouver! There's
little doubt that the Vancouver Coast and
Mountain region (Map of
the Region)
is the world's premier outdoor
destination. |
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| With green
winters in the city and huge snow accumulation in
the surrounding mountains, it has it all. Go scuba
diving in the morning, hiking in the afternoon and skiing in the evening, all within the greater
Vancouver area. If you love to eat, Vancouver is
a world of flavours. Thai, Vietnamese, Szechuan,
Belgian, French, Mongolian - you name it. The
city has the second largest Chinatown in North
America and it's just bursting with restaurants. If Japanese is what you're looking
for, there are Sushi bars everywhere. It's hard
to find a bad restaurant in this city so don't
hesitate to try something new. |
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| Granville Island is an excellent area to
visit, especially on a sunny day
when you can hang out on an
outdoor terrace by the water and
just enjoy the view. |
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| Vancouver's
mountainous backdrop |
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| If you're looking
for some great nightlife, take a stroll through
Yale Town. This former warehouse district has
gone up-scale and you'll find a variety of
places, many with excellent local beers to
sample. The area's atmosphere makes it a natural.
Robson Street
and Gastown are
also worth a look, particularly if you're a
shopper. Vancouver also
has a domed IMAX (a hold over from the World's
Fair), which is much better than the flat screen
versions. This is definitely worth checking out,
if theatre ("Everest", perhaps) is of
interest to you.
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| One
of the many mountain
vistas on the Sea to Sky
Highway. |
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Enough about the
city. This region of B.C.
is really all about going
outside and getting into
the backcountry. |
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| Regardless of
your direction, you don't have to go far from the
city to enjoy winter sports like, backcountry / telemark or cross country skiing, snow boarding,
heli-skiing & boarding and dog
sledding. For sports
like mountain
biking & cycling you don't have to leave Greater
Vancouver at all, with the best areas to the east
and the north of the city on Burnaby Mountain and
the world famous "North Shore". |
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If hiking and backpacking are what you're
looking for, there are
endless numbers of trail
systems in and around
Vancouver, up and down
the coast and east to
Hope. Big wall climbing in Squamish is
amongst the best in North
America. Mountaineers will find
challenges in Garibaldi Park, behind the
mountains of Whistler,
with more demanding
routes along the
Pemberton Icecap and
further up in the coast
mountains. If you love
climbing but can't get
into the backcountry, the
areas rock gyms should keep you
happy for a long time. |
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| For water lovers,
there is some of the best sea kayaking and diving in
Canada, as well as routes and lakes for canoeing. When the mountains meet the oceans
their watersheds often provide tumulus white
water for paddlers and rafters. |
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| The
Coast and Mountain region
can essentially be
divided along the main
highways in the region.
Like most things BC, the
road system is
geographically
constrained. In other
words, roads follow lines
of least resistance which
translates roughly into
"where ever there's
a way through the
mountains". This
breaks down to the Lower
Mainland/Fraser Valley
a.k.a. Hwy 1 to Hope, the Sea-to-Sky
or road to Whistler also know as
Hwy 99 or the only other
route from Vancouver up
the Sunshine Coast along
the Sechelt Peninsula to Powell River and Desolation
sound. The latter
requires some ferry time
as do many of BC's road
routes. |
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Provincial
Parks in Vancouver Coast & Mountain region:
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Visiting from
outside British Columbia:
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Visiting from
outside Canada:
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