Granville Island to Coal Harbour via Stanley Park

I'm using this as the trail head because, if you do this guide in the opposite direction, its bar is an excellent place to reward yourself while enjoying dockside views down False Creek.

It's also a good accommodation option. The rooms have had a makeover in recent years and while it's still not the best hotel in Vancouver, it could be regarded as the best value. Rooms here may be half the cost of the Downtown upmarket options. Telephone: (604) 683-7373.

If your reward drink starts to turn into dinner, the restaurant here is reliably good, but Sandbar is a more exciting option if you are into your West Coast seafood. You'll pass it on the trail (it's a couple of minutes walk up Johnston St between the market and the Granville St Bridge). Go for a table of the roof deck (sheltered and warmed by a huge fireplace) for the best views. Reserve ahead: (604) 669-9030.

This place is foodie heaven and where to stock up for a picnic lunch in Stanley Park. You'll find everything from blueberries to goats cheese in the dozens of regular stalls. Open every day from 9am to 7pm, but the earlier the better to beat the crowds.

Continue around the island's shore path as you leave the market for the best boating views, or cut through the streets if you are tempted to see what shops you might return to on another day.

Just one more foodie (kind of) option before we get to the walk's natural highlights. This microbrewery has been doing its own thing since the '80s and it succeeds for good reason.

It's a very worthwhile alternative for the end-of-walk reward if you do this trail in reverse. The bar has a good atmosphere but lacks the views of the Granville Island Hotel. The hotel has many of the brews on tap anyway, so maybe only stop here for the 'sample taster' of several ales to work out your favourite.

The path that skirts down the south side of False Creek provides an instant reminder of why Vancouver always scores near the top of those 'best city to live in the world' surveys.

You'll be walking through pleasant foreshore parkland (with fantastic colors in autumn) with city skyline views above the harboured boats. The only bit of graffiti I could see was a smiley face - says it all really.

They appear more like bathtubs than boats, so your designer sailing gear is going to look a little over the top on these vessels. But they cross False Creek to various stops every few minutes so they are a convenient and fun way to see the city from the water.

For this trail, I'm suggesting you board at Stamps Landing and get off at the Aquatic Centre wharf about a mile downstream. Depending on which ferry you get, you may need to swap boats at Granville Island but you won't have to wait long. The drivers are good at explaining the options.

In case you were wondering, False Creek is so called because it's an inlet, not a creek. Just like Granville Island isn't really an island - it's more of a mini peninsula created from mud dredged out of Vancouver Harbour on the other side of the city in the early 1900s. The 'island' remained predominantly an industrial site until it was rejuvenated in the '70s.

Parts of Stanley Park might look like virgin rainforest, but the reality is that even the most mature sections have regrown since the area was logged in the 1860s. A tree growing on the roof terrace of the 17-storey Eugenia Place building marks how tall the original forest would be today.

Office of the Stanley Park Ecological Society (see 'tips').

The popular Seawall trail fills with walkers, joggers, cyclists and rollerbladers most days, but those on wheels get their own path so things remain fairly relaxed. It's popular for good reasons - the beaches and coastal scenery on the west side of the park, and the views of North Vancouver and distant mountains when you trek the path on the park's east side.

This guide tries to grab the best of both, while also cutting inland to get the more tranquil experience of walking with fewer people through marshland and dense rainforest.

Look out for great blue heron (not hard to spot with their two-metre wingspan) fishing among the coastal rocks.

You'll pass Second Beach, then Third Beach (there is no First) before cutting slightly inland at Siwash Rock (using the Siwash Rock Trail) to work your way to Prospect Point Lookout at the park's northern tip.

On the inland trails you'll see fewer people and more wildlife. If you're doing this walk in summer months, you'll come across large sections of colorful wildflowers when the forest clears. Another common sight is bald eagles and crows fighting their territorial battles.

This wetland area is a perfect spot to break out that Granville Market picnic if it has survived this long. The lake is carpeted with water lilies and is home to a range of water birds including mallards and wood ducks. Don't expect to see beavers - the lake was named after the SS Beaver which was shipwrecked off the northern coast of Stanley Park in 1888.

After viewing the Stanley Park wildlife in the wild, it might feel slightly strange to see their aquatic cousins in captivity. But it is the park's main attraction, with more than a million visitors a year coming to see its Beluga whales, seals, beavers and another 600 or so species.

Open 9am - 7pm daily. Adults $27, discounts $21, kids $17.

For international visitors, perhaps the only thing more surprising than discovering Stanley Park has beaches is that it has a cricket pitch.

It's tempting to think of this as a historical legacy from a time when Canada was one of the British pink bits on the map, but apparently the thwack of leather upon willow is heard regularly here. It's also a favourite feeding ground for flocks of geese, and the surrounding trees are a colorful spectacle in autumn.

No trip to Stanley Park would be complete without a stroll past these dramatic artworks, even if most are replicas. One is by the Haida art legend Bill Reid (who also did the killer whale sculpture outside the aquarium).

The final leg of this trail towards Coal Harbour is a photo opportunity a minute. You may have thought that False Creek filled your quota of marinas with city backdrops, but think again.

Coal Harbour is arguably the most visually stunning part of Vancouver - and that's saying something in this city. Finish your walk with a drink at one of the harbour's bar/restaurants (or sit on the grass at Harbour Green Park) while watching the float planes landing in front of you. To your left is Stanley Park, to your right is the modernist conference and exhibition centre Canada Place and in front of you, beyond the planes, is North Vancouver and its mountain backdrop.

A perfect spot for doing this is Cardero's - a casual bar and restaurant on the wharf at Coal Harbour Marina (where I have placed the POI marker). Excellent seafood and a broad selection of BC wines. Great views if you can get one of the outdoor tables. Telephone: (604) 669-7666. If that's full, or you just fancy a drink and a pizza, try the alfresco Mill Marine Bar a couple of minutes walk further along in the middle of Harbour Green Park.