Tourism Vancouver’s “insider” blog, InsideVancouver.ca, has compiled the top 10 most Instagram-friendly locations in the city.
For locals, some of the most Instagrammed spots will be cause for derision — that damned steam clock again, really? Platefuls of food?! — but it offers a glimpse into what the millions of tourists who come through our city are most likely to seek out and photograph.
Here’s the list, plus an Instagram example from each popular spot and a little bit of context.
10. PUBLIC ART INSTALLATIONS
The Vancouver Biennale has spawned dozens of beloved, bewildering and controversial public art pieces around the city in recent years, including English Bay’s hysterically laughing bronzes called A-Maze-Ing Laughter, by Yue Minjun of China. (That one has proved so popular the city decided to make it permanent, and the thousands of Instagram photos taken in front of the grinning guys indicate that was a good idea.)
Other well-documented art pieces around the city include Douglas Coupland’s Digital Orca outside the convention centre and Ken Lum’s social-activism inspired East Van Cross.
9. RAINBOW CROSSWALK AT DAVIE
Vancouver’s reputation as a gay safe haven goes back decades, but the Davie Street rainbow crosswalks commemorating that heritage are relatively new. They weren’t made permanent until just before Pride Week in 2013. But they’ve since become a regular feature on Instagram, along with similar LGBTQ-friendly crosswalks around the world.
8. GASTOWN STEAM CLOCK
The much-maligned tourist trap at the heart of Gastown looks Victorian, but wasn’t actually installed until 1977 after local merchants raised the money to create a neighbourhood centrepiece. Oh, and as most locals know, that steam is mostly for show; the clock requires three electric motors to run. Still, gazillions of tourists have said “Cheerio!” in front of the infernal thing over the years.
7. LIONS GATE BRIDGE
Now here we’re talking a genuine piece of public art. The 1938 Lions Gate span might be narrow by modern standards, but it’s always been a thing of beauty and has inspired millions of photos from every possible angle over the years. Two iconic Vancouver bridge designers, Peter Taylor and Peter Buckland, did the retrofit for the bridge several years ago and just retired a couple months ago after working on that, the Port Mann, and even the Golden Gate in San Francisco.
It’s not their favourite in the city, though: That’d be the Alex Fraser, a slick modernist span that’s highly popular with film crews. Part of why the veteran bridge designers like that one is it was a cost-effective but “still elegant” span. “When you’ve got people sleeping in alleyways and you’ve got all sorts of social needs … I think it’s totally immoral to go blasting money on something that’s big and grand,” Buckland told CBC in November. (Take note, Christy Clark, on that Massey Tunnel replacement.)
6. SCIENCE WORLD
The centrepiece of Expo ’86 continues to attract lenses thanks to its brightly lit geodesic dome and retro-futurist flair. Usually sponsored by Telus when operating as a science presentation centre for schoolkids and families, it also hosted Sochi World during the 2010 Winter Olympics to help promote the Russia Games that were next up. (Our suggestion they call it Putin on the Ritz was rejected.)
5. GROUSE MOUNTAIN SUMMIT
The North Shore peaks are a great place from which to get a view of our spectacular city, and the gondola makes it an easy trip for tourists and their high-def Canons even when the famed Grind is closed for the season.
While the city view from Grouse is nice, our staff photographers usually make it a point to hike up Cypress Mountain instead when a temperature inversion blankets the downtown peninsula in a layer of fog. Here’s a Nick Procaylo shot from there taken in October 2013:
4. FOODIE PHOTOS
Food-inspired Instagram accounts have become a mini-industry in this restaurant-crazed city, from @followmefoodie and the @foodgays — shameless plug: they’re also Province contributors — to @bitesofvancouver. But Tourism Vancouver says the food is such a draw that just about everyone wants a piece of the action, whether they’re just nibblers or avid gastronomes.
3. ON LOCATION IN NATURE
Not a specific place, but outdoor locations from Golden Ears and Deep Cove to Kits Beach and Stanley Park all across Metro are a nature nut’s wonderland. A random example: My son’s first favourite spot when he took up nature photography was Whytecliff Park on the West Vancouver waterfront. But the possibilities? Literally endless.
2. STANLEY PARK SEAWALL
This would have been my guess for No. 1 (we’ll get there in a sec), but it’s an internationally renowned spot with limitless opportunities for a picturesque shot. Siwash Rock is obviously a fave, but you can catch a great view anywhere along one of the world’ most famous walkways.
1. SUNSET ON ENGLISH BAY
See, this is practically the same thing (hence our confusion over the No. 1). But there’s something special about watching the sun go down on this iconic Vancouver beach — especially on those rare, warm summer nights when hundreds of thousands of us gather to watch the fireworks.
Great to see the Celebration of Light saved by companies such as current presenter Honda — after very nearly falling victim to a sponsorship crisis when Benson & Hedges and all of Big Tobacco became ineligible to bankroll the former Symphony of Fire back in 2000.
But we digress. English Bay: Awfully, awfully pretty, especially at the magic hour.
