Greater Vancouver is viewed as a staging area for adventures in the wilder territories of the province. This region contains one of the most urbanized areas in Canada, yet teems with parks, beaches, and cycling and walking destinations. On every corner, it seems, there is a pocket of green space.
On a clear day, few skylines can compete with the one composed of the North Shores' six mountain peaks. After a rainstorm, the brilliant black-green hue of the North Shore shines with freshness. When snow coats the slopes, they sparkle so perfectly your heart sings at the sight.
The wide, fertile Fraser Valley is spread between the Coast and Cascade Mountains, parallel with the Canada-US border. The valley runs more than a hundred miles inland from the Pacific to the small town of Hope at its eastern end. You can drive from one end of the Fraser Valley to the other in about two hours.
Intensely scenic, the Sea to Sky Highway crosses paths with two historic routes, the Pemberton Trail and the Gold Rush Heritage Trail, which linked the coast with the interior in the past. Along these ancient pathways, generations of Coast Salish people traded with their relations in the Fraser Canyon.
A secluded world of beaches, bays, islands and fjords overlooked by B.C.'s majestic Coast Mountains, the Sunshine Coast stretches 180km along the Strait of Georgia, from Howe Sound to Desolation Sound. The Sunshine Coast lives up to its name, with bright days outnumbering gloomy ones by a wide margin.
