Vancouver is not a typical vacation choice for me, I’m more of a sun chaser, bikini wearing, lay by the pool kind of gal. Don’t get me wrong, I love traveling to unfamiliar places and experiencing new cultures but for some reason, Vancouver was not on my radar.




So, how did I end up in here? Well, one of my girlfriends who lives in Cabo San Lucas decided she wanted to celebrate her birthday in Vancouver. I am so glad she did because I had such a great time exploring all of what Vancouver had to offer.

We stayed in Vancouver for a total of six days, and these were my highlights:

Grouse Mountain Grind

I love a good hike! I’ve climbed Elephant Mountain in Taipei, Taiwan and CamelBack Mountain twice in Scottsdale, Arizona, but those hikes were nothing compared to the Grouse Grind.

The Grouse Grind is a 2.9 Kilometer (1.8 miles) with an elevation gain of 2,800 feet, trail up the face of Grouse Mountain. Most people call this climb “Mother Nature’s StairMaster”. I completed the hike in 1 hour and 5 minutes.




Once you get to the top, there is a beautiful view of the city, food and beverage (Lots of vegan options!), and a varitey of activities like zip lining, lumberjack show, helicopter ride, and “The Eye of the Wind”

The Eye of the Wind

After our sweat dried off, we did a small hike further up the mountain to “The Eye of the Wind”, which is the world’s first and only wind turbine that allows you to stand in a clear glass viewPOD at the top of the tower, three metres from its massive, rotating blades. (Warning: If you’re afraid of heights this may not be for you)

Electric Bicycling around Stanley Park

Visiting Stanley Park is a must do and highly recommended by everyone who has visited Vancouver. Stanley Park is a 1,001 acre of public park that is almost entirely surrounded by waters of the Vancouver Harbour and English Bay. Stanley Park has approximately 8 million visitors annually who come to enjoy Vancouver’s first and largest urban park.

Ben and I rented an electric bike (The guy at the rental shop said it’s a “game changer”) to explore Stanley Park. These bikes were so FUN and easy to ride. So easy that I didn’t even break a sweat and there were a lot of hills. I would highly recommend an electric bike for any leisurely stroll around a large park, you see more in a shorter amount of time.

Granville Island

We visited Granville Island on a beautiful sunny day in Vancouver. We took the short 5 minute ride on the “Aquabus” ferry boat over False Creek to get to Granville Island.

Sapa Power Salad

Midnight Swim Bowl

Granville Island was buzzing with people, shopping for fun gifts, fresh fruits and vegetables, and grabbing lunch. We grabbed yummy healthy veggie bowls at Chau Veggie Express and enjoyed our lunch outside facing the Burrard bridge.




After lunch, we walked around the peninsula, and found really cute unique shops. We stopped in an interesting broom shop, there were two women hand making brooms that look like witches (or harry potter) brooms.




Before heading back, we stopped and grabbed lots of delicious fresh fruits and veggies and fresh sourdough bread. YUM!

Vancouver Vegan Eats

I was surprised that Vancouver had a lot of vegan restaurants! There were so many great places to check out with so little time! I’m very happy with the ones we did end up checking out and these were my favorites:

Vegan Dim Sum at Sun Bo Kong

“Eat right - for the love of animal friends and our beautiful planet” - Sun Bo Kong.






Sun Bo Kong was my favorite find in Vancouver. I grew up eating a lot of dim sum and now that I'm vegan, there are not a lot of dim sum options. Finding this gem was a dream come true for me. I was able to eat all the same dishes that I would normally have meat in it. They handed me the paper menu to check off what we wanted to order and I pretty much checked all the boxes. They had to expand our table to fit all of our dim sum. I wanted to come back every morning for dim sum. No regrets. I’d do it again and again and again.

House Special is Pho Lovers

If you’ve read any of my other travel posts, you’d know that Ben and I are vegan pho connoisseurs. House Special had the most delicious vegan spring rolls, string beans, and of course the pho. We loved this place so much that we came back one more time before we left Vancouver. House Special is located in Yaletown, which was my favorite area that I visited in Vancouver and was a quick 10 minute walk from where we were staying.

Meet me on Main in YaleTown

I had a lot of recommendations to eat at Meet On Main from local vegans, so of course we had to check it out. Also located in Yaletown, this place was so hip and trendy. Meet had a fairly large menu and had such variety that it was hard to choose. We started with the spinach and artichoke dip, and I ordered the Mac N’ Cheez bowl with spicy sausage and Ben ordered the Macro bowl (which was a bit healthier than my choice) Everything was so delicious but I felt very full and very heavy afterwards. No regrets. It was so worth it.

SoulCycle Vancouver

You all know I love a good sweaty workout and SoulCycle always does the trick for me. I was super excited to find SoulCycle when we were exploring Yaletown. I booked a bike for the morning after the Grouse Grind (crazy?). I brought my friend who’s never been to SoulCycle and had just watched “I Feel Pretty” so she was familiar with the workout. We took the Beyonce Vs. Drake ride and it was amazing! Great workout with great friends is the best combination for a great trip.

Have you guys been to Vancouver? What was your favorite part? Let me know in the comments!