North Vancouver

Beautiful scenery with great views of downtown
Word to the wise: After a 10-minute SeaBus trip across the bay from downtown, it's just a further 15-minute bus ride to North Vancouver's beautiful lakes, mountains and forests.

Noteworthy for: Like West Vancouver, North Vancouver is considered a separate city, complete with its own mayor.
This mainly-residential area is popular with downtown city workers who like to escape across the harbor at the end of each day, though it's no cheaper to live on this side of the water. Roughly comprising of the area east of Lions Gate Bridge, North Vancouver also encompasses the wider 'district', including Grouse Mountain and Mount Seymour National Park.

The busy market, shopping area and many neighborhood bars and restaurants offer a very local ambiance, but despite the expanding urban sprawl and increasing number of high rises, the pace is much slower here than the rest of Vancouver, probably due to the number of forest parks, lakes and islands on its doorstep. North Vancouverites are a family-friendly bunch, and many visitors choose to base themselves here for that very reason.