Best Day Trips from Vancouver

Vancouver's real advantage is how quickly you can leave it. Some of these trips take half a day on public transport, others need a car or an early start. Here they are, from closest to furthest.

Grouse Mountain

Twenty minutes from downtown on the North Shore. The Skyride cable car climbs to the top, where you get a view over the whole city, the Lions Gate Bridge and, on clear days, Mount Baker in Washington State. In summer there's a lumberjack show and a refuge for orphaned grizzly bears. Fit locals walk up instead, on the Grouse Grind, a brutally steep trail of rocks and roots that closes in winter. Take the SeaBus and a bus, or the seasonal shuttle from downtown.

Capilano or Lynn Canyon?

Two suspension bridges over North Shore canyons, and people often ask which to choose. Capilano Suspension Bridge Park is the famous one: a long, high bridge, plus treetop walkways between Douglas firs and a cliffside walk bolted to the granite. It's polished, busy and has a hefty entry fee. Lynn Canyon Park has a shorter, narrower bridge about 50 metres above Lynn Creek, and crossing it is free. It feels wilder, with forest trails and swimming holes (the currents are dangerous, so don't jump). For families and anyone on a budget, Lynn Canyon. For the full show, Capilano.

The Sea to Sky Highway and Squamish

Highway 99 runs north from Horseshoe Bay along the edge of Howe Sound, a fjord with the mountains dropping into the water. Stop at Porteau Cove and at Shannon Falls. Just outside Squamish, about an hour from Vancouver, the Sea to Sky Gondola lifts you to a summit lodge with viewing decks and a suspension bridge. Across the road, climbers work the granite walls of the Stawamus Chief.

Whistler

About two hours from Vancouver, the ski resort of the 2010 Winter Olympics. In winter it's all skiing. In summer, take the Peak 2 Peak Gondola between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains, swim in Lost Lake, or cycle the Valley Trail. As a day trip it's long but doable, and buses run from Vancouver. It's better with a night.

Victoria

The provincial capital sits on Vancouver Island, with a pretty Inner Harbour, the Parliament Buildings and the Royal BC Museum. BC Ferries sail from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay in about an hour and a half, through the Gulf Islands, but each terminal is a long way from its city centre, so the whole journey takes most of a morning. The quicker option is a Harbour Air seaplane from Coal Harbour to Victoria's Inner Harbour, downtown to downtown in under an hour. We'd fly one way and sail back. Check the BC Ferries site for current schedules.

Which one?

With one spare day and no car, choose Grouse and Lynn Canyon. With a car, the Sea to Sky Highway. With two days, Victoria. Our three-day itinerary includes the North Shore, and our getting there guide explains the ferry terminals.