Kitsilano Beach, UBC Campus & Pacific Spirit Regional Park
Kitsilano ('Kits') — the neighbourhood on the south shore of English Bay in Vancouver — is the most desirable residential neighbourhood in Canada, combining beachside living (the Kitsilano Beach with the outdoor saltwater pool), a vibrant restaurant and yoga culture on West 4th Avenue and Broadway, and proximity to the University of British Columbia (UBC — the university ranked among the top 40 universities in the world, with a spectacular campus on the Point Grey peninsula, adjacent to the 763-hectare Pacific Spirit Regional Park).
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Kitsilano — The Beach Neighbourhood and Organic Food Culture
Kitsilano (the West Side neighbourhood bounded by Burrard Bridge, 16th Avenue, Alma Street, and the Burrard Inlet shore, the neighbourhood known as 'Kits' locally, the origin of Vancouver's organic food and outdoor lifestyle culture since the 1970s counterculture movement settled there) centres on Kits Beach (the Kitsilano Beach Park, the most-attended beach in Vancouver, the outdoor swimming pool — Kitsilano Pool, the largest outdoor salt-water pool in Canada, 137m, open May–September, ¥7) and West 4th Avenue (the commercial strip of outdoor equipment retailers — MEC Mountain Equipment Co-op, the original Vancouver location, and Arc'teryx, the Vancouver-founded technical outdoor brand, concept store at 1A-1155 West Broadway) that define the neighbourhood's retail character.
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UBC Campus — The West Point Grey Cliffs and Botanical Garden
University of British Columbia (the main campus on the University Endowment Lands, 10km from downtown Vancouver, bus 4, 44, or 84, 30–40 minutes) occupies a peninsula on West Point Grey with the Pacific Ocean on three sides — the UBC Botanical Garden (6804 SW Marine Drive, ¥11 adults, daily 9am–5pm, the oldest university botanical garden in Canada, 1916, 70 acres, the alpine garden and the Asian garden are the most important collections) and the Nitobe Memorial Garden (the Japanese garden adjacent to the Museum of Anthropology, ¥7 adults, the most authentic Japanese garden in Canada outside Japan) are the horticultural highlights; the Museum of Anthropology (Arthur Erickson, 1976) is the architectural centrepiece.
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Pacific Spirit Regional Park — The Urban Old Growth Reserve
Pacific Spirit Regional Park (the 763-hectare forested park surrounding UBC on three sides, the largest urban greenspace on the Lower Mainland) contains 73km of trails through second-growth and occasional old-growth Douglas fir, western red cedar, and western hemlock — the park (established 1989 on the former University Endowment Lands reserved forest) acts as an ecological buffer between UBC and the City of Vancouver; the Camosun Bog (the only remaining raised sphagnum bog in Vancouver, accessed from Camosun and 19th Avenue, a 20-minute trail to the bog boardwalk) is a 5,000-year-old ecosystem that has survived urbanization; the park's trail system connects the North Arm Trail (Fraser River views) to Wreck Beach (the clothing-optional beach at the base of the UBC cliffs, the largest nude beach in Canada).
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Commercial Drive — The Italian-Then-Latin-American Neighbourhood
Commercial Drive (The Drive, the street running north–south from Venables Street to Grant Street, East Vancouver, the neighbourhood that was Italian from the 1950s–1980s and is now the Latin American cultural centre of Vancouver) is the most politically left-leaning commercial strip in Canada — the annual Carnaval del Sol (the Latin American festival on Commercial Drive, June, the largest Latin American festival in Western Canada), the remaining Italian social clubs (Veneto Club, the oldest continuing Italian social club in Vancouver), and the independent cafés (JJ Bean Coffee, founded on Commercial Drive 1993, the Vancouver specialty coffee company that is the correct alternative to Starbucks, founded the same year in Seattle) define the street's character.
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Gastown — The Original Vancouver and the Steam Clock
Gastown (the neighbourhood on Water Street, the historic core of Vancouver, the district that gives Vancouver its founding narrative — Gassy Jack Deighton's saloon established 1867 near the Hastings Mill, with the townsite that became Vancouver growing around it, designated a National Historic Site of Canada 1971) is Vancouver's most visited neighbourhood — the Steam Clock (Water Street at Cambie, the 1977 steam-powered clock that whistles the Westminster Chimes every 15 minutes using the Vancouver district steam heating system's pressure, the most photographed object in Vancouver, but a 1977 tourist attraction not a heritage building) and the Gastown heritage buildings (the 1910–1930 commercial buildings, cast-iron facades, the densest concentration of preserved Edwardian commercial architecture in Western Canada) are the principal attractions.
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Richmond — The Hong Kong of Canada
Richmond (the municipality immediately south of Vancouver on the Fraser River delta, 20 minutes by Canada Line SkyTrain, ¥4 one-way) is North America's most ethnically Chinese suburban municipality — the Richmond Night Market (the largest night market in North America, 8351 River Road, May–October, Friday–Sunday 7pm–midnight, free admission, ¥1–5 per item, the 500+ vendors serving everything from Hong Kong-style egg waffles to Taiwanese stinky tofu) and the Aberdeen Centre (3779 No. 3 Road, the Chinese mall with a Hong Kong-style food court, the siu mai and har gow quality here exceeds most restaurants in Hong Kong) represent the dense Chinese commercial culture; the Steveston Fishing Village (the 1880s salmon cannery town, the most complete fishing heritage site in BC) is on Richmond's southwestern corner.