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The Summer Print Issue of Visitors’ Choice Is Here!

Sun, 30 Nov 2025 06:16:15 GMT

Your best Vancouver summer starts here

The new summer edition of Visitors’ Choice has officially arrived — packed with fresh ideas, local favourites, and everything you need to make the most of your time in Vancouver. From iconic attractions to hidden gems, seasonal events, neighbourhood guides, and insider tips, this issue is your go-to companion for exploring the city.

Pick up your copy at hotels, visitor centres, and key locations across Metro Vancouver, or browse highlights online. Whether you’re discovering the city for the first time or revisiting old favourites, this summer’s issue is filled with inspiration to help you see more, do more, and enjoy more.

Your best Vancouver summer starts here.

Art Under Foot

Sun, 30 Nov 2025 06:04:12 GMT

A Hidden Gallery Beneath Your Feet

Whether a long-time resident or a visitor, the next time you are walking in downtown Vancouver, take a moment to look down. An exciting discovery is literally at your feet and provides an impressive visual tour of historical and contemporary Vancouver through beautiful mosaic tiles.

A Project 15 Years in the Making

Back for its 15th year anniversary, the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association (DVBIA) launched the mosaic public art project aimed at beautifying downtown streetscapes.

Artists Behind the Vision

In partnership with the City of Vancouver and the Creating Employment Through Art co-op (CETA), the DVBIA commissioned accomplished mosaic artists Liz Calvin and Bruce Walther to spearhead the design and production of the mosaics. Calvin became passionate about mosaics traveling through Europe where she attended a mosaic art school in Italy for one year.

Craftsmanship and Community

Walther, a self-employed artisan for more than 15 years, has done numerous stained glass commissions for private residences as well as public art projects, residential tile work, and community mosaic workshops.

Designs Inspired by Downtown Vancouver

The concepts behind the twelve original tile mosaics — each measuring nine square feet and containing between 3,500 and 4,500 hand-cut ceramic pieces — reflect the culture, history, and geography of downtown Vancouver.

Months of Work in Every Piece

Each mosaic took approximately 160 hours to create. Calvin and Walther worked with CETA, a collective of artists who are residents of the Downtown Eastside, some of whom are challenged with addictions or mental illness, to develop the mosaics. The group’s purpose and philosophy is explained on its website:
“Just as CETA pieces broken tile together into a beautiful mosaic, CETA also strives to act as a catalyst for putting lives back together through art and enterprise.”

Honouring Vancouver Icons

One of the mosaics tributes Dal Richards — a Vancouver legend. With a career spanning over a half century, and with all of the charisma and style it takes to be a Big Band leader, Dal is an icon of Vancouver’s music scene. The success of his impressive orchestra, boasting an amazing five-night-a-week 25-year run at the Panorama Roof of the Hotel Vancouver and 25 years of live CBC National Radio broadcasts, has led to friends and fans affectionately dubbing him “Dr. Swing.”

Snapshots of the City’s Past

Some of the other mosaics feature historic Granville Street’s entertainment district awash in the neon glow of the 1950s, the Hudson’s Bay Company circa 1670, tributes to notable architecture including the 1929 nurse from the Art Deco Georgia Medical Dental Building, and the Princess Marguerite II, a historic steamship, passing under the Lions Gate Bridge.

Stanley Park’s History: A Green Jewel in an Urban Setting

Sun, 30 Nov 2025 05:17:34 GMT

How Vancouver’s Iconic Park Came to Define the City Around It

The Birth of a City Landmark

Stanley Park has been Vancouver’s favourite urban playground for as long as the city itself has been in existence. When members of city council convened for their second meeting on May 12, 1886, just five weeks after the city was incorporated, high on the agenda was the matter of a civic park. Council drafted a petition asking the government of Canada to hand over the 1,000-acre military reserve located on the peninsula of land jutting into Burrard Inlet at the “First Narrows”. The federal government complied, and in October 1888, Governor General Lord Stanley came to town to dedicate the park. In the rest of the country, Stanley is best known for donating the silverware that became the National Hockey League’s championship trophy. Here in Vancouver, he is known for the park that bears his name.

Early Decisions That Shaped the Park

The city’s founders prided themselves on their farsightedness. Urban parks were, and still are, considered the hallmark of a progressive community. But more than community spirit motivated these pioneer politicians, who were mainly merchants and land speculators. By forestalling the possibility that the military reserve might ever be sold off as real estate, they were protecting the value of their own property investments elsewhere in the city.

Before Stanley Park Became a Park

Stanley Park, the jewel of Vancouver, is a popular oasis for locals and visitors alike. Horse-drawn carriages have always been a favourite way to explore the park’s thousand acres, see the sights, and learn the history. Horses have done many different jobs for humans right here in Vancouver’s Stanley Park. Horses were already a part of this area’s history some time before the park’s official opening in 1889. It may well be that the first horses in Stanley Park accompanied miners seeking gold in the late 1850s.

Early Workhorses of the Forest

Then, the park was designated a Government Military Reserve in 1859 in preparation for an expected American attack. Horses would have been used for related logging and building. Between the 1860s and the 1880s extensive private logging took place in Stanley Park. Some of the trails in the park were first cleared for logging. Oxen were used to remove the logs, but horses carried humans and supplies. Stanley Park is a wonderful place for horses to live and work.

Touring the Park Now

Discovering Stanley Park by horse-drawn tram (an open carriage, easily accessible from both sides, with rows of seats facing forward) is a unique and memorable experience. Sitting in the open air, protected from rain by the tram’s forest-green canopy and from cold by red plaid wool blankets, the visitor relaxes while learning about the historical and natural features of the area, listening to the clip-clop of the Gentle Giants’ hooves and inhaling the fresh scent of cedar and the sea.

Before the Park: Logging, Labour, and Horses

In the early 1980s, AAA Horse & Carriage, then a fledgling company, reintroduced horses to the park after a thirty-year absence. Through the fifties, sixties, and seventies, transportation around Stanley Park was limited to cars and buses. Gerry O’Neil, recently moved from Quebec City, where horse-drawn carriages are popular among both tourists and locals, and his wife, Kathryn, saw the need for an alternative.