The first part of our couple’s trip to British Columbia meant a few days to ourselves exploring Vancouver – a place neither my partner nor I had been to before.

West Coast Canada is very different from what I’m used to as a Torontonian. While both Toronto and Vancouver are big cities, they definitely both have their own unique vibes. Things definitely seem a lot more relaxed in Vancouver.

My partner, Brandon, and I didn’t really plan too much—the “plan” was to have a low-key vacation, wander the city, eat at restaurants chosen by spontaneous searching on Google Maps, and lounge by the ocean at least once. And we did that.

Here are some of the activity highlights from Vancouver!

Near the beginning of our trip, we actually did organize an outing – Brandon and I are big animal people, so we had to go visit the Catfe. That’s Vancouver’s cat cafe. I didn’t know what to expect, but it was so much fun being able to basically just sit in the room with a bunch of cats and have them crawl in your lap and let you pet them. Were I not on vacation, I totally could have taken this little guy home; all of the cats at the Catfe are there in hopes of finding their forever homes.

After a long day of wandering around the town, spending an hour with a coffee and some cats was a nice relaxing way to spend the afternoon.

Another thing that we definitely planned ahead of time was grabbing tickets to Bard on the Beach.

I’m a huge Shakespeare nerd, having specifically studied a lot of his work in university, so when I heard we could watch As You Like It on the beach, with the sunsetting in the background, I was very eager to buy tickets.

What made the show even better was that it was set to Beatles songs. The Beatles. Plus Shakespeare. Plus a gorgeous summer night. It was incredible. One of my favourite moments on this trip, for sure.

It was actually right after the show that Brandon and I met up with my friend in Gastown and got a couple of drinks.

A few people asked if I would be visiting the Gastown neighbourhood, and I didn’t really understand why, or what the appeal was, but once our cab turned onto one little street, I was suddenly all about this excursion.

Everything covered in fairy lights, all the cute hipster bars waiting to be filled with people out on the town. Oh yeah.

The Gastown nightlife was a side of Vancouver I hadn’t seen yet – especially after only having been walking in the heart of downtown and along the beach near Stanley Park.

Which, by the way, I can’t go without mentioning.

It was a long walk around Stanley Park, but also extremely gorgeous – taking in the beach and the ocean on one side, and the forested park on the other. It took a few hours to make it all the way around, but it was honestly one of my favourite things to do. Brandon may disagree, as he has a perpetual fear of the sun and needed to stop every half hour to reapply sunscreen. But I thought spending three hours strolling around the park, absorbing the sun, feeling the ocean breeze was a beautiful way to spend a day.

So much so, we did it twice.