I, sadly have never been to Calgary, though I want to go there a lot... man proposes Wife disposes.
I have been around Vancouver a bit though. Few Places to visit in Vancouver, IMHO, are :
1. Gastown. Its sad that they have removed old gassy but still, this area of Vancouver is fun and hip. If you are there eat at "Meet@Gastown". Try their Bowl fulls. Super delish!
2. Take sea-bus to North Van. Cheap way for 15 minutes boat ride. Return with same sea-bus in evening.
3. If you are an X-File or 90s general horror film fan, remember, a lot of out door forest scenes have been filmed at Lynn Valley Lower Saymor Conservation Reserve (
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/one-vancouver-forest-played-just-about-every-wooded-locale-x-files-180955686/). Its a nice wooded place. Be sure to take some advice from locals. Lynn valley and northern mountains are bear grounds.
4. While in North shore, go for Grouse Grind, a really fun hiking trip, try out Lynn Canyon suspension bridge, take a dip in lynn canyon puddle. Its clear and cold, very refreshing in summers.
5. If you have 100 dollars to spare go for Capilano Suspension Bridge. Else Lynn Valley Canyon bridge is a cheap way to get similar experience.
6. If you enjoy a cheap ride in on sea with possible food, take Ferry to Vancouver Island. For a on-foot guy, its just 20 dollars and views are worth every penny. BC ferry typically used to have restaurants on the ship but I do not know what has happened post pandemic. The food was freshly made and really really nice. If you want a full-fat experience, take BC connector bus.
7. Another place to try out is Sun Yat Sen chinese garden. My wife liked it a lot.
8. I used to like Vancouver Aquarium as well. It was sold to sea world due to pandemic and lack of money. I do not know what has happened to it.
9. There is science world near aquerium. Though its more of a family thing or atleast if you have a partner with you. You know one of those things you do together with someone else.
10. If you like teal coloured lakes, there are many around Vancouver (
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/bc-turquoise-lakes-summer-2018). I will recommend Joffre lakes
https://bcparks.ca/parks/joffre-lakes/. It requires little amount of hiking but its worth every effort. Not to mention, these are glacial fed lakes. Icy cold and often emerald coloured.
11. Since its summers, you might want to take one of the whale watching trip. It could be little expensive though.
12. Again, if you can pony up for some money, there is this sea plane, which takes off and lands in Burrad Inlet. Its fun and they do a sight seeing trip. If sea plane feels too shaky and not so fun, there is Heli jet which gives a fun ride around vancouver for same experience.
13. Visit Vancouver Lookout. Before Seattle Space Needle came into being, it was one of the few high points to see around vancouver. Its cheap to visit and quite some experience.
14. People often visit Whistler too, for suspension bridge and Gandola but IMHO, biggest value is in skiing there... which is a winter thing.
15. If you are in down town and its afternoon, try out food trucks. Some of them are really unqiue. Like Japa-Dog near waterfront sky-train station.
16. If you are coming from Seattle or going to Seattle, take the AmTrack train instead of bus or flight. Its a longish train but the views are worth every penny. There are special cars dedicated for viewing. Its like a cheaper alternative to more expesnvie touristy trains.
17. Speaking of touristy trains. If you have money to burn --an I mean good money-- take the Rocky mountaineer. (
https://www.rockymountaineer.com/). Its one heck of an experience but it comes at a steep price.
18. I am giving options for a summer time but if you are in town during winters, you need to see Stanley Park Christmas decoration and christmas train. Its a 30 minutes experience of the most wonderous kind. (
https://www.google.com/search?q=Stanley+Park+Christmas+decoration&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X).
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The above are touristy things. But if you want to get a feel of city itself, in the sense how people live here. Do one thing. Take a three zone day pass and just travel using sky train. Most of businesses are in downtown core. One may live in downtown core but it is not worth it. Its clastrophobic, noisey and above all, at times uncomfortable due to all the pan-handlers (meaning poor homeless people who ask for alms).
Start from say waterfront station and go to Coquitlam and possibly to Port Coquitlam and Maple Ridge. This is one axis in which a lot of people live and travel daily to the work. Get a feel of vibe of individual suburbs. Once you cross down town, you will see places start getting less densly populated. You will also get an idea of travelling time as well. If you can, take a ticket of West Coast Express and travel the same route again. It is a quicker way to reach downtown core. I never tried it but it can be worth looking into.
Second. do the same from Waterfront to Surrey. This is one more axis. This is the old skytrain line. You will pass through Joyce St, New Westminister and into Surrey. These places tend to be more house friendly than apartment friendly like Downtown. They are less dense. Surrey is essentially Chandighar with colder climate and Aemrican housing. You will feel at home here. They say to avoid Newton area as it is shady. I never ran into anything shady here, even roaming at night with my friends and once with my wife. YMMV.
Third take Canada-line skytrain from Vancouver waterfront St into Richmond. This is a Chinese dominated neighborhood. It is / used to be somewhat economical place to live with low travelling time to Downtown core. Its moderately dense.
Next, travel by bus to Vancouver West (NOT West Vancouver)L Kitslano, UBC etc. These are affluent areas of vancouver. Very expensive to live but really really nice and have great schools. Its also university area of UBC. They don't have connectivity with skytrain (last I visted).
Next, take the bus and travel to Vancouver South. I have not lived here or travelled here much but is moderately expensive area connected with moderate travel time to down town core.
Next, try out Burnaby. Burnaby is home to few hi-tech firms in IT and a lot of in Pharma. Its a mixed houses and condo neighborhood. It used ot be economic, but not anymore. A healthy community of south Indians and Marathi lives here. There are few temples as well.
Next, try North shore. Take seabus from waterfront station up to north van. Take up a bus on the lonsdale ave. I lived in this part of vancouver. It has a sizeable iranian population, it has a walmart, a whole food and lots of amerinites. A solid place to live. It is also close to mountains. It has a mosque and a small pakistani community as well. The western part is called West Vancouver. All I will say is, if you are west vancouver type, you will know it. I won't have to tell you. Its rich as hell.
I left Downtown core for the last. Downtown has few interesting parts. It has infamous Downtown East Side in the south eastern part. This place is unfortunate as it can be very prime location to live but it has a massive homeless and druggie problem. That being said, it quickly leads to "Sunrise" which is very liveable. It also hosts Gastown, a very hip and touristy part. I wont recommend to live here as it is noisy. On the North east part of downtown is the forested stanley park and rich and expensive parts like coal harbour. I never lived here so I don't know much. Then there is south west part that is home to what is called as "west end" and english bay. This is Gay part of down town, literally speaking but its just a nice and clean neighborhood to live. It has quite a few rental towers which can be economical.
That would be my whrilwind tour of vancouver.
