I’ve lost count of how often I’ve made this final approach. Since 1979, the plane has changed: once a 747 Jumbo, it’s now a Boeing 777-300ER banking to starboard for the final time on our flight. For a moment it’s as if we could reach down and touch the Patullo Bridge or grab timber from the log booms on the Frazer River like you’d pick a match from its box.

Our downwind leg delivered perfect views south over Tsawwassen – where I’ve spent many happy holidays – and the sunlit San Juan Islands between Canada and the USA. Then we’re on finals and the view changes again.

Now, reaching out would get us a piece of the North Shore mountains or Downtown’s shining seafoam-hued towers. No wonder Douglas Coupland titled his literary ‘love letter’ to Vancouver, ‘City of Glass’.

Arrival is always special

Back home in Gloucestershire, ‘Hi Vancouver!’ – a decades-old print by revered Vancouver artist Raymond Chow – has faded with time. Nevertheless, I recall its little black-haired girl looking north across the water to Downtown with every landing. If you know Vancouver, you’ll understand exactly why arrival here is so special. And if you don’t, it’s always a good time to discover the city.

The Beatles celebrated being back in the USSR. My soundtrack for returning to ultra-
liveable Vancity is more Blue Rodeo’s ‘English Bay’, Heart in their ‘Dreamboat Annie’ era or something by Bryan Adams – he’s a North Shore boy – than anything by the Fab Four.

Stay downtown for a week, venture no further than False Creek or the Lions Gate Bridge, and Vancouver still delivers. It’s also the perfect base for driving the Sea-to-Sky Highway north to Whistler, following the Trans-Canada into the Rockies, or riding a leisurely Amtrak ‘south of the line’ down the shores of Puget Sound to Seattle.

There’s no bad weather on the west coast

Landing on our most recent trip, as is often the case, the Lower Mainland was impressively sunny, but it can also be seriously wet, particularly in fall and winter. Even more so on breathtaking Vancouver Island, just a short hop across the Strait of Georgia. As Vancouverites say, there’s no bad weather on the west coast, just bad equipment, so go prepared!

After years of visiting Vancouver, it now feels strange continuing onto the Island, but things change over a half-century; not just popular music and airliners. Yet the magic of another YVR arrival – and the ‘coast-meets-mountains’ city at flight’s end – remains as extraordinary as ever.

Greater Vancouver is a wonderfully liveable, cosmopolitan city that’s consistently delighted since my first visit. Now it waits – as always – to delight you too.



Al Hidden is a seasoned traveller and retired writer, delivering snapshots of the world to Gloucestershire 400 words at a time.