A weekend in Vancouver
18 h route4 stopsBest: March or April if you want both on the same dayUpdated July 2026
You can ski in the morning and walk the beach in the afternoon, and it isn’t brochure copy: the North Shore mountains are half an hour from downtown on a city bus, and the English Bay beaches are ten minutes on foot. In March or April, when there’s still snow up top and sun down below, it genuinely works. In other months it doesn’t, and that’s worth saying.
The rest of the weekend is decided by water: ferries leave from here to Victoria, the provincial capital, which is on another island, and the Sea to Sky highway climbs towards Whistler, one of the best drives in the world. With two days, one is city and the other is leaving it, and the only question is which direction.
The route, stop by stop
4 STOPS- 01
Saturday: Grouse or Cypress
The mountains you see from downtown aren’t scenery: Grouse Mountain is half an hour away on public transport and a cable car lifts you to twelve hundred metres in ten minutes. In winter there are ski runs. The rest of the year there are trails, a view of the whole city with the ocean behind, and two orphaned grizzly bears in a large enclosure who have been there since 2001.
The other option is the Grouse Grind: two thousand eight hundred steps and eight hundred metres of climb in under three kilometres. Locals go up it against the clock and there’s a public leaderboard. The average is a long hour and a half and the record is under thirty minutes.
You walk up and take the cable car down, because descending it is banned. It’s the kind of thing that only exists in a city where the mountain is part of public transport.
- 02
Saturday: the beach, the same day
You come down off the mountain, cross the bridge and in forty minutes you’re on sand. English Bay, Kitsilano and Jericho are genuine city beaches, with people swimming in summer and playing volleyball, and the snowy range behind, a combination that throws you in a photograph because it looks composited.
Notice the enormous logs lying on the sand, laid out in rows: they’re real and they’ve been there for decades. They come from the timber industry, logs were floated along the coast in booms and the ones that escaped washed up, and the city, instead of removing them, lined them up and left them as backrests.
Today they’re the signature of the beaches here and everyone sits leaning against one. It’s industrial rubbish converted into street furniture by the method of doing nothing.
- 03
Sunday: Victoria by ferry
Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, sits on Vancouver Island, which isn’t where Vancouver is, a fact that confuses everyone. It’s a large town, deliberately very British, with colonial buildings, gardens and an afternoon tea tradition taken seriously.
But what makes the day is the crossing: the ferry runs across the Strait of Georgia and threads Active Pass, a narrow channel between the Gulf Islands where the ship passes metres from the shore, among pines, isolated houses and seals. It takes ninety minutes and there are resident orcas in these waters: they aren’t guaranteed and we won’t promise them, but it happens.
Go on deck and stay there. The boat is the trip and Victoria is the excuse to catch it.
- 04
Sunday: the Sea to Sky
The alternative to the ferry, if you prefer mountains: highway 99, which runs hard against Howe Sound fjord with water on one side and granite walls on the other, and climbs from sea level to a thousand metres in two hours. It was rebuilt entirely for the 2010 Games and today it’s one of the most spectacular roads in the world, and that’s said by lists that aren’t Canadian.
Two stops on the way are worth it: Shannon Falls, a three-hundred-and-thirty-five-metre waterfall visible from the hard shoulder, and the Sea to Sky Gondola at Squamish, a cable car up to a viewpoint with a suspension bridge.
At the end is Whistler, an Olympic venue that in summer is mountain biking and in winter is the largest ski resort in North America.
But the road is the plan: if you stop halfway and turn round, you’ve already done the trip.
Frequently asked
Can you ski and hit the beach the same day in Vancouver?
Yes, and it isn’t marketing: the North Shore mountains are half an hour from downtown on a city bus and the English Bay beaches ten minutes on foot. The window is March and April, when there’s still snow up top and sun below. Other months, no.
Is the ferry to Victoria worth it?
Yes, and above all for the crossing: ninety minutes across the Strait of Georgia, threading Active Pass, a narrow channel between the Gulf Islands where the ship passes metres from the shore. There are resident orcas in these waters, though they aren’t guaranteed. The boat is the trip.
Why are there logs on Vancouver’s beaches?
They come from the timber industry: logs were floated along the coast in booms and the ones that escaped washed up. Instead of removing them, the city lined them up in rows and left them as backrests. Today they’re the signature of these beaches and everyone sits leaning against one.