06-07-2025
Vancouver serves up opposite of Trump's America
When you swirl in vaulting mountains, lashings of ocean, swathes of history and a youthful buzz, Vancouver delivers well beyond the Michelin accolades it so richly deserves.
'We're a very welcoming city, not typically North American,' continues Shaun. 'Canadians now play more soccer than ice hockey and when the Old Firm are on, we always show that ahead of the hockey.'
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I don't doubt him, not when I've just seen a toilet festooned with an improbable blanketing of Panini football stickers. Hundreds and hundreds of them in a city that constantly surprises, constantly engages and constantly delights.
My Vancouver base is a cracker, the boutique Opus hotel ( Here Taiwan-born Jessica Hsieh tells me: 'We are a truly international city. Immigrants have come over the years for mining, for fishing and now new technologies. And they are welcome. Vancouver is that sort of city.'
I certainly feel welcome. And at home. Familiar names abound – I see signs for Aberdeen, Grouse Mountain, Burnside Gardens, the Douglas Campbell theatre and Dalhousie University. Then in Stanley Park, one of the world's great urban parks, an oasis larger than New York's Central Park, I find a vaulting statue of Rabbie Burns enjoying a prime spot. He peers across the water to the impressive forest of glass and steel skyscrapers that is dynamic Downtown.
I'm keen to hit streets that buzz with life and a palpable youthful exuberance thanks to the myriad people who continue to find safe haven here and the large student population. I've got help with Preethi. She is a guide with Vancouver Food Tours, who offer myriad tour options.
I plump for the Asian Eats Tour, which brings a lip-smackingly fine sweep of dim sim in a Chinese old timer restaurant, citrusy Japanese ice cream in an off-the-wall wee shop, a Korean family-cooked feast and a delicious Boba tea that transcends anything I've endured at home just to keep my youngest happy.
The food tour reflects the diversity of the top-notch restaurants that ignite my stay. ¿CÓMO? Taperia (below) brilliantly reinvents the tapas wheel, while Michelin-starred Published On Main hones in on ultra-local produce from the British Columbia hinterland and the bountiful treasure trove of local Pacific seafood. Sublime and well-deserving hopefully soon of a Michelin star. As is Miku Waterfront, where epic harbour views accompany the best Japanese lunch I've ever had outside Tokyo and Osaka.
The food scene reflects Canada's most cosmopolitan city, a welcoming oasis, which feels the polar opposite of Trump's neighbouring America. On the food tour, Preethi talked about the mistakes Canada has made over the years, the difference being, 'Canada cares and wants to make things right for everyone who lives here'. I tell her this reminds me of the best of Scottishness – our 'we're all fae somewhere' inclusive mentality. She smiles that she wants to visit.
Vancouver sweeps me along for four glorious days. I hear parallels between First Nations people and cleared Scots at Vancouver Museum (where they draw a distinction between British and Scottish settlers) and delve into this massive Pacific port at the Maritime Museum. Then Sea Vancouver hurls me off at 30 knots around the sprawling harbour on a thrilling RIB ride.
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I also enjoy a bird's eye view from atop Vancouver Lookout. This 168m-high tower peers over the grid-like mini-Manhattan of the core, then eases over cobalt waters, emerald tree-shrouded islands and peaks that soar above Munro height. The scale is dizzying. I make out the Highlands-esque peaks of Vancouver Island, a wild oasis of 800,000 inhabitants that is bigger than Belgium. If you were looking for a setting for a city, you could scarcely pick a more spectacular one.
Things were not always so rosy for Vancouver. By the 1970s, much of its core was blighted with polluting industry, port activities and sprawling railyards. Then came serious urban renewal that reminds me of projects in Glasgow and Dundee.
In the 1970s, Granville Island and False Creek showed what could be done, closing factories and opening craft breweries and restaurants. Brick-clad Gastown followed suit, as did the old warehouse district of Yaletown, where my hotel is very handily located. The World Expo in 1986 and Winter Olympics in 2010 sealed the deal, the purpose-built cruise terminal right on the Waterfront the symbolic new face of a newly – and deservedly – popular tourist city.
As I reluctantly head for my return flight, I revel in how at home I feel here despite being a continent and an ocean away. Back in ¿CÓMO? Taperia, Shaun tells me as he waves a cheery goodbye: 'I really hope the Scots qualify for the FIFA World Cup next year, it would be lovely to have you all here.' At the airport, I toast a last deliciously hoppy British Columbia craft IPA to that and to one of the most thrilling, engaging cities in North America.
For tourist information see Destination Vancouver
TRAVEL TIP OF THE WEEK
Greenaway magic at the Caley
Mark Greenaway, the celebrated TV chef and cookbook writer, is back at the Caledonian, where he once had a restaurant, in the city where his eponymous eatery was once one of Edinburgh's best. He has curated a creative menu in the lavish The Court themed around 'Progression', the title of his latest cookbook. You can go a la carte, but I thoroughly recommended the six-course tasting menu at £65; £40 for paired wines. It's decent value for a foodie feast and will be a Festival winner come August, so best get in now for a serious treat.
