3-Day Itinerary for Vancouver, Canada, How to Make the Most of Your Time

Welcome to Focus on the Journey with Wild Meadow Studio, where we are excited to talk travel with you and share our detailed itineraries in hopes that they can make your adventures more enjoyable and easier to plan! In this three-day detailed Itinerary, we’ll be exploring, the impressive Stanley Park, the Capilano Suspension bridge, False Creek, Gastown, Granville Island, a classical Chinese garden, the Vancouver Aquarium, English Bay, Yaletown and Coal Harbour.

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*** For a two-day Itinerary option, combined Day 1 and Day 3 and either walk or rent a bike, starting from Coal Harbour, continue around Stanley Park, (omit the Aquarium), next along the water, through English bay, stopping to take in the views, continue around False Creek to Granville Island, (approx. 15k in total) Have lunch on Granville Island and then explore the shops and Public Market. For Dinner choose a restaurant in Yaletown, then walk around and enjoy the atmosphere.

Table of contents:

1. Itinerary Day 1 False Creek, Granville Island, Kitsilano Beach and English Bay
2. Itinerary Day 2 Capilano Suspension Bridge, Chinese Garden and Gas Town
3. Itinerary Day 3 Coal Harbour, Stanley Park Sea Wall Walk, Vancouver Aquarium
4. References
5. The Wrap up

1. Itinerary Day 1 – False Creek walk, Granville Island with lunch, Kitsilano Beach and a Sunset dinner at English Bay

Let’s get started on Day 1. Depending on where you’re staying, head to George Wainborn Park where we will start our False Creek Walk. The walk is approx. 5 kms and will likely take you an hour to an hour and a half to complete depending on your pace and the number of photos you take! From the park head east along the water enjoying the many parks, marinas and sites along the water. You’ll also pass B.C. Place and Science World with its interesting sphere-shaped building. Then you’ll end at Granville Island.

Granville Island is a very popular tourist destination, they have lots of shops, restaurants, cafes, brewery, a great art scene  and the famous Public Market, well worth the visit. You would likely want about 2 hours to explore the island, depending on your interest level. We are suggesting you have lunch here when you’re done exploring, our suggestion is the Tap and Barrel Bridges (they have a few locations around the city). It’s located at the north tip of the island and is open from 11:00am to 11:00pm Monday to Thursday, 11:00am to midnight Fridays, 10:00am to midnight Saturdays and 10:00am to 10:00pm on Sundays. They have a good selection of food and great drinks; they have indoor and outdoor seating with a great view of False Creek. If you decide on this restaurant, we recommend making reservations. Otherwise, you can see if something else piques your interest while exploring the island. After you’re ready to move on, head to the dock near the Tap and Barrel to catch the False Creek water taxi.

There are two different companies, False Creek Ferry and Aquabus, but I believe that the False Creek Ferry is the only one that goes to Kitsilano Beach. Just verify before you get on the ferry. The stop you’re looking for is the Maritime Museum stop, which is also takes you to Kitsilano Beach. You can get your tickets online, at some docks or on board, they prefer credit/debit. Once you get off the ferry at the Maritime Museum stop it’s less than half a kms to reach the Kitsilano Beach. Relax, sunbath, swim, enjoy! When you’re ready to move on, head back to your accommodations, you may need to hop back on one of the ferries to get to the other side of the creek, the David Lam Dock would be the closes to where you started your day. Once back, freshen up and get ready for your night out.

We are suggesting having dinner at English Bay, here you can start out by walking the beach, perhaps choose a place to sit and watch the sunset, click here to see the sunset/sunrise times for Vancouver 2025, just select the month you’ll be there. Then head to dinner. We like the Cactus Club Café (English Bay), there are a few of these around the city as well, reservations are recommended. This restaurant had really good food with lots of options, great drinks too and the view here is beautiful! After dinner, walk up Davie St about a block to Bella Gelateria (at 1752 Davie St) for some award-winning Gelato you can enjoy for dessert! We hope these suggestions helped you have an enjoyable day.

2. Itinerary Day 2 – Morning at the Capilano Suspension Bridge, then Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden and dinner in Gastown

Day 2 Morning – Head to the Capilano Suspension Bridge, It’s open daily from 10:00am to 5:00pm. If you have a car, take W Georgia St. which runs through Stanley Park, after you cross the Lions Gate Bridge, turn right onto Marine Dr. then left onto Capilano Rd. follow for about 2 kms and it will be on your left (about a 10 to 15mins drive from town). If you don’t have a car, you could take a taxi or the #247 bus, which you can catch along W. Georgia St. starting at Homer, the one bus takes you there in approx. 20-30 mins depending on where you got on. Or they have a free shuttle with pick up from Canada Place or the Hyatt Regency Hotel, for more on that, click on the link above. The Capilano park area includes the 140-meter-long suspension bridge as well as a tree top adventure area and Cliffwalk, well worth the visit, lots of fun for kids and adults, plan for a few hours here. There is a gift shop, restaurant and café, so you could eat here before heading back into town.

Day 2 Afternoon – Spend a couple of hours wandering around the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, open from 9:30am to 4:00pm, Wednesday to Sunday. This tranquil and relaxing spot in the middle of Vancouver was the first Chinese Garden built outside of Asia and designed in the Ming-Dynasty style. It’s located at 578 Carrall Street in the Chinatown area. In this garden there are ponds with bridges, willow trees, beautiful flowers, amazing architecture, blue herons, ducks, koi fish and pathways, just so nice to stroll around or sit and relax and soak it all in. They also have different exhibits and Events throughout the year. So, check out the website above before you go.

After you’re done here, walk north on Carrall Street, turn left onto W. Pender, then right onto Cambie St. and follow for 3 blocks until you come to the Gastown Steam Clock, this historical landmark is a design from the Victorian era, but built more recently in 1977. It was built as a monument acknowledging Gastown as the original townsite of Vancouver established in the 1870’s and was placed over a steam grate. The Gastown area has lots of shops, restaurants, cafés, and is a great place to explore before enjoying dinner. Afterwards, get a good sleep so you’re ready for Day 3!

3. Itinerary Day 3 – Coal Harbour, Stanley Park Sea Wall Walk, Vancouver Aquarium and Dinner in Yaletown

Day 3 – Today we have you starting at the Vancouver Convention centre, it’s an interesting place with shops, restaurants and great views. Walk (or rent a bike) west along the water with views of Coal Harbour and the marina. Continuing the path around brings you into Stanley Park, where you can pick up the sea wall, this is a beautiful 10k walk along the water on one side and woods on the other, you past two lighthouses, totem poles, Lions Gate Bridge, beaches and with a little 5 mins detour the Vancouver Aquarium. If you’re interested in the Aquarium, you could check it out here. We really enjoyed it, they have everything from Jelly Fish and Giant Pacific Octopus to Harbour Seals, Sea Lions and Sloths! They also have touch pools and a 4D movie experience. They are open from 10:00am to 5:00pm.

Afterwards or instead of, continue along the sea wall. The last time we were here, we saw several harbour seals swimming along the wall at different points. Just after you reach Third Beach, you have another option, you could stop for tea and perhaps lunch here at the Teahouse in Stanley Park. It’s open Monday, Thursday and Friday 11:30am to 10:00pm, Saturday and Sunday 11:00am to 10:00pm and closed Tuesday, Wednesday. There is indoor and outdoor seating with great views and great reviews on food and atmosphere. After you’re refreshed complete the walk. Once you’re done, you can head back to your accommodations and freshen up before heading out for dinner.

Yaletown used to be the old warehouse district and is now home to a large number of trendy shops, restaurants, bars, cafes and bakeries, set in renovated brick buildings. This is a great place to relax for dinner and a drink. There is lots of choice here, from Japanese, Greek, French, Moroccan, Thai, Mexican, Italian, Steak houses, Pizza, Sushi and more. You can go high-end fine dining, the Keg Steak house, more average priced at Cactus Club and casual less expensive Tacofino, one of my favorites, at 1025 Mainland St. If you have something in mind, you should make reservations, so you’re now disappointed, esp. on Friday or Saturday nights.

**All pricing, opening/closing hours and days listed here are as of Jan. 2025 and are subject to change, so be sure to check before you go. I like these websites: VancouverAttractions or DestinationVancouver  for all your current information.

4. References:

All this information, research and suggestions came from our own experiences we had while enjoying this interesting city and the itinerary we followed while we were there. In addition, we spent countless hours reading travel books, like DK Eyewitness Top 10 Vancouver and Vancouver Island. We read multiple Travel blogs and Vancouver tourism websites too, like DestinationVancouver and Vancouver Attractions. We also used Google maps to check out directions and distances between sites.

5. The Wrap up:

 I hope you enjoy this suggested itinerary for this beautiful city, as much as we did and find this information helpful. I have added a website link to most of the major sites so you can check them out and see what piques your interest! If you have any questions, ask away. Feel free to comment, give advice, join our mailing list, follow, like, pin, share with friends, anything goes. Let’s talk Travel!

Thank you,

From Focus on the Journey,
with Wild Meadow Studio
A Travel and Photography Blog

By: Beth de Verteuil