Vancouver’s Family Vacation Attractions

I’m at the Vancouver Maritime Museum, mesmerized over scribbled letters intended for ill-fated Titanic recipients. My kids nearby are dressing up as sailors and deck hands, swaggering at the wheel of a life-like ship re-creation, bunks and everything. The museum is small in size, but boy it bangs a wallop in terms of interest for all ages. And that’s what I find in general about Vancouver. It’s a city of broad appeal with big delights in small places, a city that doesn’t try to awe but draws you and the kids in subtly, enchanting with seemingly quirky attractions that go far beyond the expected.

I run down my list of Vancouver attractions that might interest my family for a compromise between my children—girls aged 8, 6 and 4—and the adults. No small feat, but Vancouver delivers.

• A young visitor at the Maritime Museum takes the helm.
• Anne Kazel-Wilcox

From Sea to Space

The Vancouver Aquarium is where we got face-to-face with graceful Beluga whales, playfully flipping their stark white tails, and a giant Pacific octopus that looks large enough to eat the entire family. My girls soon insisted on having colorful sea creatures painted on their cheeks, compliments of the Aquarium, which has an arts and crafts area to further enthrall young ones with aquatic wonders.

We found the Maritime Museum, a testament to this port city’s maritime history, particularly enthralling and satisfying for the family. Here, I learned about the first arctic explorers while my children perused pirate life, as previously mentioned; the two types of explorers are not so different I found, in their wandering spirits and misadventures.

• Pacific Space Center, formerly known as the H.R. Macmillan Planetarium, is popular with kids.
• Arbron

Next door is the Pacific Space Center, formerly known as the H.R. Macmillan Space Center. Upon entering, I consider the center somewhat ordinary at first. But once explored, I find many tantalizing bits. I grab my girls, excited at a piece of rock from the moon, dating 3.75 billion years old that we can touch, one of only a few such artifacts in the world on exhibit. “How cool is that,” I tell my kids, pretty sure that I’m more excited than them, the kids more interested in a station where they can design their own spaceship. But that means mission accomplished—an attraction for the whole family.

Science at Its Finest

The Capilano Suspension Bridge, just 20 minutes from downtown, is especially fun. The swaying bridge teeters over a gorge with river rapids churning below. My family crossed the swaying planks and meandered treetop walkways amidst the British Columbia rain forest until we were all out of breath. Then we shared in the secrets of the living forest exhibit and examined native First Nation totem poles.