Vancouver Travel Guide

Vancouverites aren't much given to introspection -- too much time spent outdoors -- so it's perhaps a bit unfair to expect it of visitors. But if you really want to understand Vancouver, stand at the edge of the Inner Harbour (the Canada Place pavilion makes a good vantage point) and look up past the floatplanes taking off over Stanley Park, around the container terminals, over the tony waterfront high-rises, and then up the steep green slopes of the North Shore mountains to the twin snowy peaks of the Lions. Working indoors, Vancouverites have all fallen in love with the outside: mountain biking, windsurfing, kayaking, rock climbing, parasailing, snowboarding, and back-country skiing, plus skiing-kayaking, mountain biking-snowboarding, and snowshoeing-paragliding.The rest of the world has taken notice of the blessed life people in these parts lead. Outside magazine voted it one of the 10 best cities in the world to live in. It's also one of the 10 best to visit, according to Condé Nast Traveler. The World Council of Cities ranked it second only to Geneva for quality of life. And in 2003, the IOC awarded Vancouver the right to host the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Heady stuff, particularly for a spot that less than 20 years ago was routinely derided as the world's biggest mill town.