Mountains, monsoons, and Hollywood's stand-in
Vancouver, British Columbia is wedged between the Coast Mountains and the Pacific, a temperate rainforest city that gets more rain than reputation. Built on Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh land, it grew from a 19th-century sawmill town into one of the most livable — and expensive — cities in North America. Its skyline of glass towers doubles as a film backdrop for a huge share of Hollywood's output, earning it the nickname "Hollywood North." Beyond the postcard views of Stanley Park and the North Shore mountains, Vancouver is a genuinely international city, with Chinatown, Punjabi Market, and Commercial Drive each carrying their own distinct culture and food scene.
