Survey Results: The Best Beach in Vancouver Is Spanish Banks

Last week, we asked you to tell us your favourite beach in Vancouver. That survey is now closed, and the results are in. Read on to find which beach stole voter’s hearts, as well as stats on the most popular beach activities, beach issues that matter and our respondents’ beach-related pet peeves.

The Best Beach in Vancouver Survey Results

Spanish Banks was voted the best beach in Vancouver.

With a solid 22 percent of votes, Spanish Banks takes the crown in this battle of the beaches. In fact, it was a bit of a landslide win: while the second and third place beaches had a similar number of fans, Spanish banks easily took the number one spot.

Third Beach, Jericho and Wreck are also popular.

Third beach earned 16 percent of the votes, and Jericho scored 14 percent of voter’s hearts. And in an incredible underdog move, Wreck beach also got 14 percent of votes—through write-in entries alone. Despite not having its own place on our ballot, Vancouverites proved that Wreck is unforgettable: it’s tied for third place.

Trout Lake Beach got the least number of votes.

Okay, including this one was a judgement call anyway… we love Trout Lake, but do we really think of it as a beach? The City of Vancouver does (and that’s the reference we used for this survey). But if you’re a beachgoer that prefers a quieter, lesser-visited locale, Trout Lake is the beach for you.

The most popular thing to do at a Vancouver beach is “laying/sitting.”

We’re tired, ok? Simply lounging around got the most votes when it came to beach activities. Eating and drinking earned second place, and swimming came in third.

More than half of our survey respondents go to the beach at least once a week.

52 percent of the folks who answered our survey said they go to the beach 1-2 times per week in the summer. So we think it’s fair to say that we polled a pool of experts—or, at least, Vancouverites who have very strong opinions about beaches.

Scenery and views were voted the most important factor when determining the quality of a beach.

49 percent of our survey respondents said that “Beautiful scenery/views” is important to them when deciding which beach to visit. 47 percent said that “How busy the beach is” is important to them, and 43 percent indicated that “Cleanliness of the water” was a major factor.

(Respondents could pick up to three important factors, which is why these numbers add up to more than 100 percent).

Rules for Proper Vancouver Beach Etiquette

In addition to the questions above, we asked our survey respondents for Vancouver beach etiquette they think everyone should know. This was a write-in question, so answers varied, but here are the standout rules:

1. Don’t litter.

Come on, it’s 2023—put your trash where it belongs. Some version of “Clean up after yourself” was our most popular answer (choice verbatim votes were more graphic; “stop fucking littering” was one of our favourites).

2. Don’t play your music too loud.

This was our second most popular answer when it came to beach etiquette. Responses included “No loud music,” “Don’t play music tooo loud,” and “Keep your music to yourselves, you’re not the main character, you don’t need a soundtrack.” It’s one of the only things that everyone surveyed seems to agree on: be respectful of others when playing your tunes.

3. Don’t be an asshole.

Rule three is a summary of a variety of voter’s opinions: “Don’t ogle,” “Don’t stare or gawk,” “Don’t kick sand” and “Respect others.”

4. Don’t smoke.

There were quite a few responses to the tune of “don’t smoke” or “no smoking.” Not quite what we were expecting from our notoriously 4/20-friendly city. “Marijuana smells awful. I don’t know why people smoke it,” was a standout answer. “No smoking or vaping near kids” was a more diplomatic one.

5. Do smoke.

Ah, there it is. “Weed is ok” was also noted by one survey respondent. “Beer ok” was another answer (from a different person—maybe these two should get together sometime).

One last note: some survey responses were too unique to put into a specific statistic, but we wanted to shout out the funniest, grumpiest and most ridiculous entries. Here they are:

“T*ts out.”
“Stay home so I can have it to myself.”
“Don’t break up with someone at the beach.”
“Leave your kids at home.”
“Slay all day.”