Kitsilano | South Granville | Vancouver South | UBS | East Vancouver

Vancouver Districts

Vancouver is the largest metropolitan area in Western Canada, and third largest in Canada.

Located at the southwestern corner of the coastal province of British Columbia, it is well known for its majestic natural beauty, as it is nestled between the Coast Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. It is frequently ranked as one of the "best cities to live in" and is certainly a beautiful destination to visit and live in.

Roads in Vancouver

Vancouver's road network is generally a grid system with a "Street" running north-south and an "Avenue" running east-west. Arterial roads follow the grid fairly well (although not perfectly), but side streets frequently disappear for blocks at a time and then reappear.

Most of the "Avenues" are numbered and they always use East or West to designate whether it is on the East side or the West side of Ontario Street. Some of the major avenues use names rather than numbers (Broadway would be 9th Avenue, King Edward Avenue would be 25th Avenue).

Downtown Vancouver has its own grid system and doesn't follow the street/avenue format of the rest of the city. It is also surrounded by water on three sides, so most of the ways in and out require you to cross a bridge.

This can cause traffic congestion, particularly at peak times (morning and evening commutes, sunny weekend afternoons, major sporting events), so factor that into any driving plans, or avoid if possible.

Vancouver Districts

For simplicity, the city of Vancouver is separated into a number of districts. These do not correspond to the legal divisions of the city, but are instead a convenient way of sub-dividing Vancouver for travellers.

City Center - The downtown peninsula that has many of the city's attractions, restaurants and high-end hotels. It includes the West End, Coal Harbour, Yaletown, Gastown, Chinatown and Stanley Park.

Kitsilano - Residential area with nice views, some well established commercial areas and some of the city's most beloved beaches (Jericho, Spanish Banks, Locarno).

South Granville - Restaurants, shopping, art studios and Granville Island.

Vancouver South - A mostly residential area that includes the Kerrisdale, Dunbar, Oakridge and Marpole neighbourhoods.

UBC - University of British Columbia, Pacific Spirit Park and nearby areas.

East Van - A large, mostly residential area of the city. Commercial Drive has many ethnic restaurants; Main Street is an up and coming artsy part of the city.

While Vancouver is a comparatively young city, at just over 100 years, its history begins long before. The indigenous peoples (First Nations) have lived in the area for thousands of years, and Vancouver's namesake Captain George Vancouver sailed through the First Narrows in 1792.

The first settlement on the downtown peninsula was Granville, located on the spot of today's Gastown. In the year of Canada's confederation a saloon was built on this site and gave birth to a small shantytown of bars and stores adjacent to the original mill on the south shore of what is now the city's harbour.

A seemingly endless supply of high quality lumber was logged and sold through the ports of Gastown and Moodyville, across the inlet. Some of the trees were gigantic beams which were shipped to China to construct Beijing's Imperial Palace, and one account maintains that the world's windjammer fleets could not have been built without the trees of Burrard Inlet.

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