Rides in Vancouver

Rides in Vancouver start from the geography: the city sits between an inlet and a mountain wall, so the interesting routes go over it rather than through it. The Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre on Coal Harbour is a working seaplane base, from which Harbour Air's de Havilland Beavers and Otters fly to Victoria and Whistler. Up the Sea to Sky Highway the Sea to Sky Gondola at Squamish, open since May 2014, takes about ten minutes over 2 kilometres to a platform 885 metres above sea level, beside the 95-metre Sky Pilot Suspension Bridge. Shannon Falls, a drop of 335 metres, is a stop on the same highway. The slowest ride is the oldest idea: a horse-drawn carriage through Stanley Park, about an hour long.

Vancouver rides tours are private, with a car and driver to reach the ride. Three use a seaplane. One trip of about five hours flies 20 minutes over the city to Snug Cove on Bowen Island for dinner, then takes the 20-minute ferry to Horseshoe Bay and a car back downtown. A city tour of five and a half hours ends with a flight over Coal Harbour and Stanley Park, and a shorter one pairs the city with a one-way flight to Whistler in a classic de Havilland. On the highway, gondola days with Squamish run seven and a half to eight and a half hours, Whistler days up to ten, and a family day of eleven adds Porteau Cove and the Britannia Mine. A winter version swaps the summit for snowshoeing or tubing at Cypress Mountain.

Practical. A ride is a view, so it needs a clear day. Vancouver receives about 1,160 millimetres of precipitation a year, but Squamish receives 2,344, with 383 of them in November, and averages 4.5C in January against 24.5C in July. Seaplane flights wait on visibility. Take a warm layer for the gondola summit.