Having visited Vancouver for 10 days in 2007 (thoroughly enjoying it, of course), we felt that we needed only 2 nights on 2014’s go-round. In this instance, we guessed both right and wrong on the duration. As we visited familiar sites — Stanley Park, downtown — we were pleasantly reminded of adventures past, if not fully inspired. Where we were wrong, however, was in discovering just how great the neighbourhood of Mount Pleasant (near the Main Street District) was. Staying in a friendly little AirBnB we were surrounded by beautiful 2 and 3 storey homes, amazing landscaping, and shops and restaurants that reminded us very much of parts of New York and Toronto (with a bit of a hipster vibe but no shortage of other flavours to choose from). In fact, we ended up stretching out our final travel day by a few hours just to spend more time on the strip, where we stopped for tasty Lucky Doughnuts at 49th Parallel, and were taken in by a neatly organized stationery shop called The Regional Assembly of Text (it didn’t hurt that the staff was incredibly friendly). – Tyler + Jessie