Vancouver is the largest city in British Columbia, surrounded by water on 3 sides and nestled alongside the Coast Mountain Range. As well as spectacular scenery, it boasts a bustling metropolitan core and one of the mildest climates in America. It is home to a multitude of stylish shops and sports opportunities galore. Catch the ferry across to trendy Granville Island, an oasis in the middle of downtown with theatres, art studios and craft shops. For cobbled streets, late-Victorian architecture and superb stores head to historic Gas Town.

If you really want to understand Vancouver, stand at the edge of the Inner Harbour (the Canada Place cruise-ship terminal makes a good vantage point) and look around you. To the west you'll see Stanley Park, one of the world's largest urban parks, jutting out into the waters of Burrard Inlet. To the north, just across the inlet, rise snow-capped mountains. To the east, right along the water, is the low-rise brick-faced Old Town. And almost everything else you see lining the water's edge will be a new glass-and-steel high-rise tower. As giant cruise ships glide in to berth, floatplanes buzz in and out, and your ears catch a medley of foreign tongues, you may wonder just where on earth you are. Vancouver is majestic and intimate, sophisticated and completely laid back, a bustling, prosperous, world-class city that somehow, almost miraculously, manages to combine its contemporary, urban-centered consciousness with the free-spirited magnificence of nature on a grand scale.

Vancouver is probably one of the "newest" cities you'll ever visit, and certainly it's one of the most cosmopolitan. I can guarantee you that part of your trip will be spent puzzling out what makes it so unique, so livable, what gives it such a buzz. Nature figures big in that equation, but so does enlightened city planning and the diversity of cultures. Vancouver is a place where people want to live. It's a place that awakens dreams and desires.

Time difference: -8 hours GMT

VANCOUVER	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Rainfall (mm)	145	121	102	69	56	47	31	37	60	116	155	171
Rainfall (inches)	5.7	4.8	4.0	2.7	2.2	1.9	1.2	1.5	2.3	4.6	6.1	6.8
Min Temp (°C)	0	1	2	5	8	11	13	13	10	6	3	1
Max Temp (°C)	5	8	10	13	17	19	22	22	18	14	9	6
Min Temp (°F)	32	34	36	41	46	51	55	53	50	43	37	34
Max Temp (°F)	41	46	49	55	62	67	71	71	65	56	48	43