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The Whistler Pemberton areas have so many amazing trails to hike, but one that is less known lies about 20km north of Pemberton. You can get to the trailhead off of the Hurley River forestry access road. In my books, I think this hike offers the biggest payoff for the least investment, relatively speaking: it only takes a couple hours to hike up to the base of the mountain, it’s a well marked easy trail (not technical at all), and the views at the top are sensational. There are some good scrambles in the area for more adventurous hikers. The only down side is the horse flies can be pesky, bring bug spray.

Birkenhead Provincial Park is located about 15 km down a fairly well-maintained forest service road north of Pemberton, British Columbia. The Park is about 90 minutes from Whistler and three hours from Vancouver. We went in June, early in the summer season, and we were the only canoe out on the lake. The park was blissfully silent, with only the birds and the occasional flopping fish making any noise. The park has a number of great campsites and several hiking trails, but the main attraction is its pristine lake. The beach is great for picnics and you can bring your own canoe or rent one from the park ranger, who comes out to the boat shed at noon every day. This a fairly remote park, but it’s well maintained and well worth the drive. We saw black bears and a bobcat on the drive in, and it is well known as being an active bear area.

Vancouver’s most famous urban space, the thousand-acre Stanley Park, epitomizes everything that locals here love about the outdoors, and visitors have many ways to explore the expansive grounds. Hiking trails weave around totem poles and hemlock trees, while at the beaches, you can swim, people-watch and picnic. Rent a bike or a pair of in-line skates for a scenic ride along the Seawall, or wander through the many gardens where rhododendrons, azaleas and roses bloom.

An hour’s drive from downtown Vancouver along the scenic Sea to Sky Highway, just a little past Squamish, you’ll find the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it community of Brackendale. Hidden away down a bumpy logging road is one of my favourite places to get away from it all, Sunwolf. There’s a surprising about to do in the middle of nowhere: you can rent a cosy cabin by the Cheakamus River, drop in to eat one of the world’s best breakfasts (have the hash!) at Fergie’s Cafe, in the summer you can join them on a white water rafting trip along the Elaho river, or in the winter take part in a float down the Cheakamus, which is where you’ll find one of the world’s largest populations of bald eagles from November till February, who come to feast on the salmon who spawn and then die in the river.