Our route

Vancouver - Banff - Jasper - Penticton - Kelowna - Vancouver

Our route - Canada 2015-2017

Transportation

Skytrain and buses in Vancouver - www.translink.ca

Favourites

Jasper:

Useful links

National Parks in Canada - www.pc.gc.ca

Vancouver:

Jasper:

Banff:

Penticton

Greater Vancouver activities

Kerrisdale

  • Kerrisdale is an affluent neighborhood on Vancouver's West Side - it features a shopping district running generally along West 41st Avenue between Larch and Maple Streets and West Boulevard between 37th and 47th Avenues.

Queen Elizabeth Park

  • Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver’s horticultural jewel, is a major draw for floral display enthusiasts and view-seekers, and as a popular backdrop for wedding photos.
  • At 152 metres above sea level, it’s the highest point in Vancouver and makes for spectacular views of the park, city, and mountains on the North Shore. The 52-hectare park is home to the stunning Bloedel Conservatory.
  • There is also a gorgeously landscaped quarry garden, the arboretum with its collection of exotic and native trees, sculptures including one by internationally renowned artist Henry Moore, and diverse recreational offerings such as tennis, lawn bowling and pitch & putt.

Van Dusen Gardens

  • Named for local lumberman and philanthropist Whitford Julian VanDusen, it has been a public garden since its opening on August 30, 1975.
  • The garden is open to the public every day of the year except Christmas. There are admission fees. The Garden covers 22 hectares (55 acres) and displays plants gathered from all over the world.
  • Special features in the garden include carved totem poles, large stone sculptures, and a Korean Pavilion at the edge of the Asian plant collection. 

South Granville

  • South Granville is where you’ll find something for everyone—the aspiring interior designer, the power-shopper, the spa lover, the food and wine connoisseur—the list is endless.

Granville Island

False Creek

Olympic Village

  • The Olympic Village, developed by the Millennium Development Group, is one of the greenest communities in the world, making Vancouver a leader in sustainable development.
  • In keeping with Vancouver's Greenest City targets, the Olympic Village uses innovative energy efficiency and sustainability systems like solar heating and green roofs.

Yale Town

  • Formerly a heavy industrial area dominated by warehouses and rail yards, since the Expo 86, it has been transformed into one of the most densely populated neighbourhoods in the city. The marinas, parks, high rise apartment blocks, and converted heritage buildings constitute one of the most significant urban regeneration projects in North America.

 Gas Town

  • Gastown was Vancouver's first downtown core and is named after "Gassy" Jack Deighton, a Yorkshire seaman, steamboat captain and barkeep who arrived in 1867 to open the area's first saloon. The town soon prospered as the site of Hastings Mill sawmill, seaport, and quickly became a general centre of trade and commerce. It fell victim to the "Great Vancouver Fire" that same year, losing all but two of its buildings. The area was completely rebuilt and continued to thrive. 
  • The Gastown was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2009.

Canada Place

  • Canada Place is the home of the Vancouver Convention Centre, the Pan Pacific Vancouver Hotel, Vancouver's World Trade Centre, and FlyOver Canada. The building's exterior is covered by fabric roofs resembling sails. It is also the main cruise ship terminal for the region, where most of Vancouver's famous cruises to Alaska.

Robson Street

  • Its name honours John Robson, a major figure in British Columbia's entry into the Canadian Confederation, and Premier of the province from 1889 to 1892.

Kits Beach

  • Kitsilano Beach is one of the most popular beaches in Vancouver, especially in the warm summer months.

Vancouver Harbour Cruse

Stanley Park

  • Explore the 400-hectare natural West Coast rainforest and enjoy scenic views of water, mountains, sky, and majestic trees along Stanley Park's famous Seawall.
  • The Seawall is a scenic 22 km path that lines Vancouver’s waterfront. Perfect for a walk, cycle or jog, it is the most popular recreational spot in the city.

English Bay  

University Endowment Lands / Pacific Spirit Park

UBC Botanical Gardens Tree Top Eco Walk

Spanish Banks

  • Spanish Banks are a series of beaches in the city of Vancouver.
  • Although the first European explorers in the Strait of Georgia were the Spaniards Juan Carrasco and José María Narváez, who sighted Point Grey in 1791, the Spanish Banks were named in commemoration of the meeting of the English under George Vancouver and the Spanish under Galiano and Valdés in June 1792. While Vancouver's maps do not show the bank, Galiano's charts of 1792 and 1795 do. The Hudson's Bay Company came to call the area Spanish Banks for these reasons. The name was bestowed upon them by Captain Richards of the HMS Plumper during his survey of Burrard Inlet in 1859.
  • Although technically just one bank, the Spanish Banks beaches are divided into three sections: Spanish Bank East, Spanish Bank Extension, and Spanish Bank West. These beaches are backed by grassy fields, which make them popular for walks, family gatherings, picnics, soccer and volleyball

Commercial Drive

  • Commercial Drive has a large number of local ethnic stores and community groups, Edwardian-style heritage buildings, European-style cafes, bars, and alternative shops and entertainment venues.

Downtown

  • Besides the readily identifiable office towers of the financial and central business districts, Downtown Vancouver also includes residential neighborhoods in the form of high-rise apartment and condominiums, in Yaletown and Coal Harbour. Other downtown neighborhoods include the Granville Mall and Entertainment District, Downtown's South, Gastown, Japantown, and Chinatown.

Museum of Anthropology

  • The Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia (UBC) campus in Vancouver,  is renowned for its displays of world arts and cultures, in particular works by First Nations peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast First Nations.
  • As well as being a major tourist destination, MOA is also a research and teaching museum, where UBC courses in art, anthropology, archaeology, conservation, and museum studies are given. MOA houses 38,000 ethnographic objects, as well as 535,000 archaeological objects in its building alone.

Vancouver Museum

Dr. Sun Set Garden

  • Breathtaking, rain or shine… Step into our door and out of your daily life as your heart and mind relax and energy renews. Journey back in time to 15th Century China and enjoy this “window to another world”.

China Town

  • Chinatown remains a popular tourist attraction, and is one of the largest historic Chinatowns in North America. However, it went into decline as newer members of Vancouver's Cantonese Chinese community dispersed to other areas of the metropolis. It has been more recently overshadowed by the newer Chinese immigrant business district along No. 3 Road in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond, which had been an Anglo-Saxon bastion until the 1980s. 

Science World

Nitobi Memorial Gardens