I've visited Vancouver five times over the past few years and love the place. It's a huge city with about 2m people living there but in many ways it feels like a much smaller town. The locals are very friendly and relaxed. You'll get great service in restuarants and bars too.

In the summer the beach is a nice place to chill out with some beautiful sunsets to watch, as well as the beautiful rollerbladers and joggers! There's lots of outdoor activities in the surrounding forests and mountains - mountain bikes, hiking, zip lining. You can go for a ride in a seaplane too.

In winter you have 3 mountain ski resorts on your doorstep that even offer night skiing with amazing views over downtown Vancouver. Cypress is the best by far. Then you have Whistler 2 hours away - the best snow resort in North America - and NHL ice hockey with the Vancouver Canucks in town. You may have to work hard to get hold of a ticket though - the locals are very passionate about their team!

I always stay with friends so I can't comment on the local hotels, but they certainly look new and clean form the outside just like the rest of downtown. Flights are expensive - try Canadian Affair for charter flights that are cheaper than BA or Air Canada.

Overall I love the city and would recommend it to anyone wanting a different kind of North American city visit with more outdoorsy stuff on offer.

Vancouver is a great city. They have put a lot of work into their infrastructure to host the Winter Olympics, making transport around the city much easier and also getting to and from the airport (which is one of the nicer airports i've seen!) as easy as possible. Vancouver is a beautiful city which seems to have lots of parks and green spaces, and of course there is the beach. It seems quite a child friendly city (although the few times i have been there it has been with friends who have children and so we have been focused more on this type of thing). There seems to be something for everyone, lots of outdoor activities, lovely restaurants and some good nightlife (we went to Sky Bar which was open until 2 i think). There are also some great shops. All in all, i'd definitely go back. It's also a great base for further exploration - not far from Whistler and whale watching expeditions are readily available. It's fairly expensive to fly there from the UK, but if you are planning a trip to other Wast Coast cities then Vancouver fits in perfectly (it's only a 3 hour drive from Seattle).