Granville Island
A former industrial site turned public market, with artists' studios and theatres.
Duration
1 hr 30 min – 3 hrs
Best time
Weekday mornings
Open
Every day
Entry price
Free
It is not an island but an industrial sandbank, filled in 1916 to take factories. The site collapsed economically in the 1960s and the federal government converted it in 1979, keeping the sheds and the steel frames.
The public market occupies the old wire works: growers, fishmongers, bakers, and counters where you eat on the quay. Around it, artists' studios, theatres and an art school are still working — which is what keeps the place from being just a food hall.
Getting there
The small Aquabus and False Creek Ferries cross from downtown in five minutes, and that is the best way to arrive. Bus 50 also serves it.
What to bring
- Dry bag
Rules on site
Parking is very limited and paid: come by ferry or on foot. The market closes in the early evening, earlier than the theatres and restaurants.
Other places in Vancouver
Stanley ParkFour hundred hectares of forest ringed by a ten-kilometre seawall, with the mountains opposite.
Capilano Suspension BridgeA hundred and forty metres of walkway, seventy metres above a canyon.
Grouse MountainTwelve hundred metres above the city, reached by cable car or by the Grouse Grind.
Kitsilano BeachSand facing the mountains, with the longest saltwater pool in the country.