Concrete crawl: The best scenic urban walks in Vancouver

Vancouver, BC, a city known for its natural beauty and expensive housing prices, has plenty of forests and green spaces to explore, but it’s also a great city for urban walks.

From areas bustling with pedestrians and cyclists, filled with breweries and fun places to eat like Mount Pleasant, to locations that highlight Vancouver’s unique blend of natural and urban aesthetics like the Yaletown Seawall area, there is no shortage of places to get moving and have a scenic experience without having to drive into the mountains.

These are some of the best urban walks you can take in Vancouver that aren’t too touristy.

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Main Street to Downtown

The best walks are the ones that make one hour feel like ten minutes. A great place to experience that is Main Street.

From the Riley Park area, around Main and 33rd Avenue, to Mount Pleasant, near Main and Broadway, there is so much to see as you stroll: coffee shops, restaurants, bars and neat shops like bookstores and record stores.

A bonus is that if you are starting from the Riley Park area and heading towards downtown, it’s all downhill and will take you just over an hour, depending on how quick of a walker you are.

One of the best parts of this walk is that on a nice day, you’ll get a gorgeous view of the mountains all the way down.

Downtown to Queen Elizabeth Park

So now we’ve gone downhill to downtown from the Main Street area, but there’s a gorgeous walk you can do that leads you the opposite way.

Queen Elizabeth is one of Vancouver’s most stunning parks, and there’s a nice walk you can talk from downtown to get to it.

This specific route starts near the Vancouver Public Library branch on West Georgia Street. It takes you over the Cambie Bridge, which is stunning on a sunny day in Vancouver. From there, it’s a straight walk up Cambie Street, through the quaint Cambie Village, and up to the gorgeous Queen Elizabeth Park.

Bring a frisbee with you if you’re into disc golf.

Yaletown Seawall

Everyone and their mother knows about the seawall, but when talking about it, we usually focus on the part of the seawall that surrounds Stanley Park.

A gorgeous, shared pedestrian and cycling route is part of the seawall near Coopers’ Park under the Cambie Bridge in the Yaletown area.

This is a great spot to explore because it’s way less touristy and has lots of shade and amenities, like a basketball court, a beautiful playground, and even public ping-pong tables.

Jericho to Kits Beach to Granville Island

Beach weather has finally arrived, and there are some bright spots in Vancouver to stroll along the water to get to some of Vancouver’s premier destinations.

Granville Island is the perfect spot to visit this time of year, but you can hit up some beaches along the way, starting from Jericho Beach.

You can get from Jericho Beach to Kits Beach to Granville Island in about an hour.

A walk through Shaughnessy

This next walk is a perfect option for lovers of real estate they can’t afford.

Shaughnessy is one of Vancouver’s most breathtaking neighbourhoods, with stunning mansions valued at ungodly prices.

Not only are the wide tree-lined streets stunning, but the homes you’ll have the opportunity to view are often mind-blowing. You can’t go wrong walking through any of these neighbourhoods, particularly around the Oak and West 20th area.

Strathcona to Chinatown

It’s a shorter walk with more neighbourhood vibes, but Vancouver Chinatown to Strathcona is a quaint, short stroll.

Depending on how deep into Strathcona you want to go, this walk is around 20 minutes long. A good one to do if you’re grabbing a coffee in Chinatown and need a little mental relaxation.

Downtown to Prospect Point, at night

If you haven’t visited Prospect Point at night, do yourself a favour and do it!

If you head from the core of downtown Vancouver at Granville and Georgia streets, you can get to Prospect Point in about one hour.

Heading down to Prospect Point from downtown Vancouver elevates the scenic nature of the views at this destination as you escape the bustling noise and traffic of the city, heading to the gorgeous sights and serenity of Prospect Point.

These seven walking routes merely scrape the surface of some of the best urban walks you can take in and around Vancouver.

What are some of your favourites? Let us know in the comments.