Vancouver Canada: 5 Day Itinerary

This 5-day itinerary builds on our 4-day plan , adding a North Shore mountain day back near the city before you fly onward. It nests inside our 6-day and 7-day Vancouver, Canada itineraries.

Book these before you go

Day Focus Distance/time from Vancouver
Day 1 Richmond and Steveston Canada Line 25-30 min, 55 min total
Day 2 Victoria and Butchart Gardens BC Ferries 95 min crossing, 3.5-4h door to door each way
Day 3 Squamish and the Sea to Sky Gondola 60km, 45-60 min drive
Day 4 Whistler via the Sea-to-Sky Highway 120-125km, about 2 hours, no rail
Day 5 North Shore mountains 20-40 min (SeaBus + bus, or drive)

Day 1: Richmond and Steveston, your first CAD lesson

Land at YVR and take the Canada Line straight downtown, noting the fare before you tap in: a trip originating at the airport carries a mandatory AddFare on top of the base zone fare, roughly CAD 9.35 total to downtown. Ride back out to Richmond for the afternoon for dim sum around malls like Aberdeen Centre, then Steveston’s fishing harbour and the Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site.

Day 2: Victoria and Butchart Gardens, the edge of the country

Book an early BC Ferries sailing from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay, about 95 minutes through the Gulf Islands. Budget honestly: door to door from downtown Vancouver to downtown Victoria runs 3.5-4 hours each way, meaning 8-plus hours round trip before Butchart Gardens enters the picture. Harbour Air’s floatplane covers the same crossing in about 35 minutes each way for about $99 CAD one way booked ahead, more for flexible fares if you’d rather fly than sail.

Day 3: Squamish and the Sea to Sky Gondola

Drive or bus 60km up Highway 99, 45-60 minutes from Vancouver. The Sea to Sky Gondola lifts non-hikers to a ridge above Howe Sound for CAD 73.95 online, CAD 81.95 at the gate, and the Stawamus Chief granite dome next door draws climbers from around the world. Shannon Falls, a free 335-metre waterfall right off the highway, costs nothing on the way through.

Day 4: Whistler via the Sea-to-Sky Highway

Continue another 60km past Squamish, about 2 hours total from Vancouver, no passenger rail, self-drive or a tour only. Spend the afternoon on lift-accessed hiking or biking in summer, or the ski-town atmosphere without an actual ski day; the drive and lift lines make a single-day round trip the wrong shape for actual skiing.

Are Whistler and the Canadian Rockies the same trip?

No. Whistler sits in the Coast Mountains, a day trip from Vancouver; Banff and Jasper sit roughly 800-850km further east in the Rockies, reached by the official Rocky Mountaineer or VIA Rail networks, both genuinely multi-day journeys, not a fifth day tacked onto this trip.

Day 5: The North Shore mountains, city-adjacent Canada

Cross Burrard Inlet by SeaBus plus a local bus, or drive over the Lions Gate or Second Narrows bridge, 20-40 minutes either way. Pick one paid mountain experience, Capilano Suspension Bridge Park at CAD 75-80 or Grouse Mountain’s Skyride at CAD 86-89, or take the free Lynn Canyon suspension bridge instead; our Vancouver city guide has the full price comparison. Avoid driving back across either bridge between 4pm and 6pm.

Is this Vancouver or the one in Washington?

This one is British Columbia, Canada, on the Pacific coast, not the smaller Vancouver, Washington near Portland, Oregon, a different country and currency roughly 300km south. Worth a last check before your flight out, since airline search boxes conflate the two more often than you’d expect.

Base yourself downtown or in Gastown for all five nights. Check current downtown Vancouver rates on Booking.com before a summer trip, since hotel rates and BC Ferries reservations both tighten together in peak season. Five days is a genuinely complete gateway week, the island, the corridor, the ski town, and your own backyard mountains, all inside one CAD budget.