Vancouver Guide
The City
North Vancouver
North Vancouver – or North Van, as it's known – embraces most of the mountains, forests and residential districts that you see as you gaze across the Burrard Inlet from Vancouver's Downtown peninsula. The area contains some compelling sights, but the journey to North Van itself – especially by SeaBus catamaran – is almost as alluring as anything you'll see when you get there, thanks to the views of the Downtown skyline and teeming port, a side of the city that's otherwise easily missed.
If you've no time or heart for longer trips to North Van, then you should at least make this crossing, spending an hour or so at Lonsdale Quay before catching the SeaBus back to Downtown. Lonsdale Quay is the SeaBus terminal on the north shore, home to a fine food and general market.
Most of North Van is residential – the population of the incorporated city and district is about 48,000 – as is neighbouring West Vancouver (West Van), the district roughly west of the Capilano River, an area whose cosseted citizens boast the highest per capita income in Canada. North Van's eastern limit is the vast inlet of Indian Arm. Together they make up the so-called North Shore.
Few people cross the Burrard Inlet to view these leafy suburbs, however, choosing instead to sample North Vancouver's outstanding areas of natural beauty – Lynn Canyon Park, Grouse Mountain, the Capilano River and its environs, Mount Seymour Provincial Park, Cypress Provincial Park, Lighthouse Park and the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve. All offer fine hiking in summer, as well as skiing and winter activities on a range of good trails.
North Vancouver's most advertised sight is the Capilano Suspension Bridge, a commercialized and overrated affair – it's a busy footbridge across a gorge – which you might catch on your return from Grouse Mountain. You might also ignore it completely in favour of the scenery – and an interesting salmon hatchery– elsewhere on the Capilano River.
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