Justin McElroy

#11: Maple Grove Park

While so many of Vancouver’s great parks scream their Vancouverness, Maple Grove has a more universal feel, as though it could be dropped in any growing city in the 1950s and suddenly be packed with families enjoying its pleasures.

#12: sθәqәlxenәm ts’exwts’áxwi7/Rainbow Park

It is Vancouver’s newest park, Vancouver’s most expensive park — and it absolutely lives up to the hype.

#13: New Brighton Park

And in many ways, all of New Brighton is East Vancouver’s version of Kits Beach: less busy, less celebrated, slightly grittier but nearly as beloved.

#14: Douglas Park

Douglas Park has the best playground, bar none, of any park in Vancouver, and if you have kids under 10 and live in or around Vancouver, you should go there.

#15: Charleson Park

Yes, ridiculous views like the ones at Charleson are ridiculously common in Vancouver. It still takes work to make everything around it work though.

#16: Grandview Park

At the heart of Commercial Drive is a park that beats to the same drum as the neighbourhood: a little bit discordant, but full of heart and intoxicating, authentic energy.

#17: VanDusen Botanical Garden

It’s sprawling, peaceful, cut off from the rest of the city, and definitely a place worth exploring for an hour or three.

#18: Clark Park

The main thing Clark Park means for today’s generation is a lovely place to catch the sunset on a blanket with friends or family.

#19: David Lam Park

It’s the type of modern mix of green space, glass towers and ocean people associate with Vancouverism.

#20: English Bay Beach

It’s so populated by tourists, and so beloved by people in the West End, that there’s always a vibrant energy to it — a great historic beach with atmosphere galore. It’s also, objectively, the least essential of all Vancouver’s major beaches.