city

The Ultimate, Hyper-Specific City Guide: 25 Itineraries for Entertaining People in Vancouver

There's no one-size-fits-all way to enjoy Vancouver. So here are 25 different options for you.

By the Editors /

We all might joke about how everyone here is obsessed with umbrella etiquette and craft breweries, but the truth is that no two Vancouver visitors (or Vancouverites themselves, for that matter) are exactly alike… which means creating a one-size-fits-all guide to the city is an impossible task. So instead, we’re taking the opposite tack and getting intimately, excruciatingly specific, with 25 bespoke itineraries designed to particularly please. Whether you’re entertaining your book-nerd cousin in town from Saskatoon or planning a birthday weekend for your Japanophile new girlfriend, we’ve got your game plan covered.

25 Hyper-Specific Vancouver City Guides

  1. An evening with… your outdoorsy, bike-riding ex (whom you’re still secretly in love with)

  2. A checklist for… your green-thumbed grandma who’s auditing an archeology course

  3. A birthday weekend with… your new Japanophile girlfriend, who’s turning 40

  4. A day with… your brother who wears a suit everywhere except the gym and likes to infuse his own gin at home

  5. A rainy Saturday with… your cousin and his toddlers who can’t have screen time

  6. A day with… your mom who is a former screen racer and a lifelong Parrothead

  7. A morning with… your crunchy-granola roomie who brings their dog (and reusable cup) everywhere

  8. A weekend with… your culture-vulture millennial sister who won’t stop talking about Ali Wong’s latest special

  9. A day with… your former bandmates, who have grown up into cool adults with awkwardly disparate incomes

  10. A checklist for… your Double Income No Kids couple-friends from culinary school who are eternally in the honeymoon phase

  11. A day with… your marathon-running, architecture-loving sister who is single and ready to mingle 

  12. An afternoon with… your cane-wielding grandpa who will be absolutely furious if you pay more than $10 for a sandwich.

  13. A weekend with… your sober, Drag Race-quoting Gen Z skinfluencer nephew

  14. A checklist for… your friend who summers in Greece and lives in linen and is so elegant that it’s never annoying when she talks about her “fragrance journey.”

  15. A night out with… your too-cool DJ friend who moved away five years ago and this is your last chance to convince her Vancouver is cool too so she’ll move back (oh god, don’t blow it).

  16. A checklist for… your board game designer brother who hasn’t initiated a conversation with you in six years

  17. An afternoon with… your aunt who stopped in on her way to Aspen, draped in Chanel as always.

  18. A weekend with… your preteen nephew who wants to feel cool but still sleeps with a stuffed dinosaur

  19. A checklist for… your overly caffeinated Prairie bookworm cousin who has never seen the ocean

  20. A day with… your gluten-free BFF who loves vintage clothes and starts every anecdote with “One time, at Coachella…”

  21. A day with… your parents, who have the steam clock on their to-do list and are disappointed to learn the revolving restaurant is overbooked

  22. A day out with… your college drinking buddies who get more nostalgic with every pint

  23. A checklist for… your vegan cousin who’s finishing up her urban planning masters—and is totally broke

  24. A day with… your relatives from India who took 4,000 pictures in Tofino but are feeling a little homesick

  25. A checklist for… your whisky-swilling, motorcycle driving father who listens to Olivia Rodrigo on repeat