Summer Activities in Vancouver

Visitors to Vancouver are always impressed by the beauty that surrounds our city. With the Pacific Ocean to the west and the mountains to the north of the city, we have the best of all worlds. So, what do we do with it all? Well, it might be cold outside now, but if you are lucky enough to be here in the summer time, I have two fantastic activities that will allow you to see both the water and the mountains!

The Water
Each year in June, Vancouver hosts the annual Dragon Boat Races. Recognized as North America’s biggest and best, the annual Vancouver Dragon Boat Festival is a true celebration of our beautiful city, attracting over 100,000 people and close to 200 dragon boat teams from the local area and around the globe.

Teams are made up of various companies and organizations who compete for three days to see who is the fastest. One year, we had a St Giles Director involved as a team captain! It is free to come to the races, and while you are there you can sample food from over a dozen food trucks and be entertained by acrobats and other entertainers.

The Mountains
If you enjoy hiking, you must try the famous Grouse Grind. Located in North Vancouver, Grouse Mountain is one of our most popular places to go skiing. In the summer, however, it becomes a place where people compete to see who can climb the mountain the fastest!
Grouse Grind is a trail of stairs that ascend the mountain. There are 2,830 stairs, which climb 2.9 kms vertically up the side of Grouse Mountain. The climb generally takes about 1 ½ hours for most people, but in 2010, a man climbed it in 23 minutes 48 seconds!! So far this year, the fastest time for a man is 28 minutes and the fastest time for a woman is 33 minutes.

Each year, approximately 200,000 people climb the Grind between June and September. One weekend a year, they hold a fundraiser. This year, people climbed up and down the mountain non-stop for 19 hours in a row!! A man completed the climb, both up and down, 16 times on that day!

You may even meet someone famous on the hike, like Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau!
If you want to try the grind, be sure to bring good shoes and plenty of water!