Vancouver is the city the rest of Canada loves to hate (and would move to in a minute if they could). The snow, it seems, falls mainly on the ski slopes, sandy beaches are a tie-loosening stroll from the office towers, chic cafés a quick rollerblade from wilderness parks, and no one seems to work very much. If this country has a hotbed of hedonism, idleness and unfettered hippiedom, Vancouver is it.

Well, not entirely. Culturally, Vancouver is as much Asian as North American, channelling West Coast liberalism, Hong Kong style, frontier nerve and Canadian propriety.

Dominating it all is the city’s stunning natural setting: mountains and fjords form a dramatic backdrop to downtown’s little copse of highrises. Raw wilderness is never more than a bus ticket away.

Downtown

Downtown Vancouver, home to the central business district and to the older neighbourhoods of Chinatown, Gastown, and Yaletown, is bordered by Burrard Inlet (the city’s harbour) to the north and by False Creek (actually an inlet) to the south. The western half of the peninsula is home to the Stanley Park, a thousand acres of public wilderness abutting the downtown core.

Unlike other North American cities, Vancouver’s urban heart is booming as new residents move in and fill the cafés and the seaside pathways with people-watching, pram-pushing, cappuccino-sipping life.

Gastown, where Yorkshireman Gassy Jack opened a saloon and thus founded a city in 1867 (ancient history in these modern parts), is worth a stroll for the insights it offers into Vancouver’s Wild West roots. If you’re there during the summer, take the free walking tour of the area, which meets at 2pm daily at the statue of Gassy Jack in Maple Tree Square (+16046835650, www.gastown.org). Storyeum (142 Water Street, V6B 1B2, +16046878142, www.storyeum.com, $22), an underground multi-media attraction, opened in 2004 beneath the cobblestones of Water Street. The 75min show relays vignettes from British Columbian history via actors and audio-visual effects. Chinatown, founded by railway workers and gold prospectors in the late 19th century, is a few blocks south along Keefer and Pender streets (though it’s best not to walk there from Gastown unless you’re doing a study of public drug use). The area’s serene centrepiece is the Dr Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden (578 Carrall Street, V6B5K2 +16046623207, www.vancouverchinesegarden.com, $8.75), the only Ming Dynasty-style scholar’s garden built outside of China. Bakeries, dim-sum houses, herbal apothecaries, teashops, greengrocers and fishmongers fill the lower floors of the neighbourhood’s older Cantonese-style buildings.

About a mile southwest of Chinatown, once deemed too far through the forest for the Mounties to police, is Yaletown, Vancouver’s newest bit of gentrification. Trendy restaurants, boutiques, and home decor shops fill the old brick warehouse space; the old loading docks make great café terraces. From here you can take the Seawall Path (see top 5) or a foot passenger ferry to any point on the False Creek shore.

Stanley Park

Originally set up as a military reserve to protect Vancouver from an American invasion, this mix of beaches, old growth forest and gardens fills half of the downtown peninsula. A free bus shuttles visitors around the main sites, though a hike or bike ride around the park’s 9km Seawall Path (see top 5) is the most popular way to see the park.

At the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre (845 Avison Way, Stanley Park, V6B 3X8, +16046593474, www.vanaqua.org, $17.50) on the park grounds, you can catch a whale show or bump noses with belugas through tank-side windows.

Granville Island and South Vancouver

One of North America’s most successful urban redevelopment schemes has seen this erstwhile industrial site in False Creek blossom into an urban park. A public market, arts and crafts studios, theatres, ships’ chandlers, and cafés fill the tin plate warehouses; boats, marinas, and ocean views surround the lot.

From Granville Island, a 20min bus ride west will take you to the University of British Columbia and its renowned Museum of Anthropology (6393 NW Marine Drive, V6T 1Z2, +16048223825, www.moa.ubc.ca, $9), home to one of the world's leading collections of Northwest Coast First Nations (Canadian Native) Art. Don’t miss the atmospheric longhouses and totem poles on the clifftop behind the museum.

North Vancouver

Across Burrard Inlet, the northern suburbs run abruptly into the wilderness of the mountainous North Shore (bears occasionally wander into local gardens). Here is the Capilano Suspension Bridge (3735 Capilano Road, V7R 4J1, +16049857474, www.capbridge.com; $21.95). Since 1889, Vancouver’s oldest and arguably most touristy attraction has charged folks to cross a wobbly suspension bridge hanging 230 feet over Capilano Canyon. A newer series of suspension bridges – called the Treetops Adventure – takes you to viewing platforms high in the trees.

Lynn Canyon Park (3663 Park Road, at the end of Peters Rd, V7J 3G3, +1604981103, www.dnv.org/ecology; admission by donation) has its own suspension bridge hanging 166 feet above raging Lynn Canyon. Heading north, the Grouse Mountain Skyride (6400 Nancy Greene Way, V7R 4K9, +16049809311, www.grousemountain.com, $29.95 ), a gondola whizzes a mile up the mountainside for great views of the ocean and city below.