Downtown Vancouver Favourites: Canada Place and Vancouver Waterfront

I lived in Vancouver for nine years before moving to the East Coast. My husband was born and raised in Montreal but lived in Vancouver with me for almost four years during the early part of our marriage. I consider Vancouver as my home city in Canada and for my husband, it is his second home. Now, we have a new home in Ottawa.

Our son was born in Ottawa and frequently visits Montreal with us. However, Vancouver, for him, is something unfamiliar and far away.

When we took him there when he was a still a toddler, we made sure that we brought him to some of our favourite places. On some trips, it was just the three of us, and on some, with my family in Vancouver.

I am sure that our son will not remember everything, but there will be plenty of opportunities to go back and rediscover the city I that I have come to love (and greatly miss).

We visited the mountain resort in Whistler and falls in Squamish, hiked and crossed hanging bridges in Capilano and Lynn Valley in Vancouver’s North Shore, went on rides and walked along the lake in Chilliwack, and wandered around a park in Abbotsford.

In downtown Vancouver, we brought him to kid-friendly attractions, along with his second cousins, and we, the adults, got the chance to once again enjoy these places we had overlooked for years. We realized you can never be too old for these things.

Canada Place and Vancouver Waterfront

Located in the heart of Vancouver's downtown harbour front, Canada Place is an iconic national landmark. You can’t miss it if you are in the waterfront area – it’s the structure with the interesting architecture of a giant ship topped with five white pointy sails, called “Sails of Light.”

At night, it illuminates Vancouver’s waterfront with seasonal colours and offers a vibrant celebration of light visible from both the east and west sides (and you can make lighting request for awareness causes selected at the sole discretion of management, usually highlighting industries related to the marine community or to public safety; requests for personal occasions or commercial interests are not entertained, however).

Built as the Canadian pavilion for the Expo ’86 world’s fair, Canada Place is now part of Vancouver’s main convention centre along with the modern Vancouver Convention Centre building next door. It is also the docking terminal for many of Vancouver’s visiting cruise ships, hence, also the location of the finest hotels. We, in fact, saw two cruise ships about to sail off and our son enjoyed waving to the passengers while screaming, “Bon voyage!”

The outside deck at Canada Place goes all the way around (including some stairs). It makes for a pleasant walk with its views of the Port of Vancouver, Stanley Park, Coal Harbour, Burrard Inlet, and the beautiful North Shore mountains. This trail, called The Canadian Trail is like an outdoor exhibit. Along the building’s west promenade is a walkway divided into 13 equal sections to represent Canada’s 10 provinces and 3 territories, distinguished by tiles and coloured glasses.

Our walk was like a lesson in history as the trail features different photo exhibits that include spectacular images representing national historic sites, national parks, and national marine conservation areas from each province and territory. Our then five-year-old son was able to identify famous Ottawa and Montreal landmarks from the pictures!

There are also art installations – Indigenous and modern, historic plaques, and hockey-related photo stand-ins. I think these were the only ones where my husband and our son agreed to have a photo shoot.

Just walking distance from Canada Place and adjacent to the Vancouver Convention Centre is the Jack Poole Plaza, a vast space often used for festivals, special events, and community gatherings. It has two famous landmarks – the Olympic Cauldron and the Digital Orca.

The Olympic Cauldron, the 10-meter-tall steel and glass structure originally lit during the opening ceremony of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, officially resides in this plaza. Its flame is lit on special occasions and events (and like the Canada Place sails, can be switched on when requested, for a fee, of course.)

The Digital Orca is a 2009 sculpture by Canadian author and artist Douglas Coupland. It stands just a few steps away from the Olympic Cauldron. Made of powder-coated aluminum on a stainless-steel frame, it depicts a pixelated killer whale and is the perfect photo op in the city, with stunning North Vancouver in the back. Our son thought it was a giant LEGO orca!

Nearby is the Burrard Landing, a glass building with a vibrant collection of shops, restaurants with amazing patios, fitness centres, bike rental services, offices, and parking. We had lunch at Tap and Barrel, a restaurant-pub that has their own brewery. My husband had their roasted steel-head salmon with potatoes, our son had double-pepperoni pizza, and I had the prawn and scallop spaghettini. My hubby tried one of their craft beers and I had a glass of B.C. wine.

Afterwards, we followed the Seaside Greenway Path, a 28-kilometer waterfront path that stretches from the Vancouver Convention Centre all the way to the Spanish Banks. It is the world’s longest uninterrupted waterfront path.

I had taken this path a few times with friends when I was still residing there, but on this visit, we just walked towards Coal Harbour, the area known for glass skyscrapers overlooking the Burrard inlet, as well as luxury hotels, high-end restaurants, and green spaces ideal for jogging, cycling, or walking your dog.

From there, we watched the Harbour Air seaplanes take off and land (our son was fascinated by the aircrafts that could float in the water and fly) and the Harbour Cruises boats that departed for scenic cruises going to the North Shore, around Stanley Park, or into English Bay.

How I’ve missed this place! This was one of the areas where I often hung out for leisure walks or dinner with friends.