British Columbia

The best rooms at the Vancouver outpost of the Shangri-La are the ones on the highest floors, offering dizzying views of water, city, and mountains. Meanwhile, plush beds, moody Asian-influenced interiors, and high-tech touches are consistent throughout the guestrooms. While the location is as central as can be, it's worth it to pick a night to stay in for a dinner at three-star chef Jean Georges Vongerichten's MARKET restaurant.

The combination of a Georgian Revival building, roaring twenties-inspired interiors, and proximity to Stanley Park make The Rosewood Hotel Georgia a great starting point from which to explore. Open since 1927, this hotel and its beautifully appointed guest rooms have something for every kind of traveler, starting with the Prohibition bar in the basement (unabashedly opulent in décor with polished black wood walls and plush royal blue banquettes) and ending with in-room baby-bottle warmers and child-proofing services. For parents traveling with tweens, the spa has a selection of treatments for under-thirteens. And while Vancouver is packed with excellent restaurants, hotel restaurant The Hawksworth is a good reason to eat in.

If you’re looking to stay in downtown Vancouver, book a room at The Fairmont on Coal Harbor—it has all the creature comforts we've come to expect from a Fairmont property—opulent guests rooms, an indoor pool, and more—plus, the benefits of incredible city views and a historic castle to call home. Doing business since 1939, the lobby, bar, and ballroom are over-the-top (in a good way) with marble floors and bas-relief moldings, while on-site restaurant Notch8 serves up classic west coast comfort food—a good option if you're burnt out on both going out and room service. Note: The hotel is particularly well-equipped for families, with cribs, tot-sized robes, and on-call babysitters.

Yew is an upscale fish restaurant committed to sustainability, serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as a stellar weekend brunch. Chef Weimar Gomez prepares fish in every possible iteration—lobster bisque, crab salad, seafood risotto, roasted salmon, and tuna tartar to name a few. The restaurant itself is grand and elegant with sky-high ceilings, and a heavy use of wood.

Wildebeest is intent on defining contemporary Canadian cuisine using the best the land has to offer. The menu is protein-heavy, but scant on chicken and beef. Expect bison steak, braised goat, and venison lasagna, and a re-imagined surf and turf of tender pork belly with seared scallop and pickled daikon. Canadian die-hards will appreciate the Wildebeest iteration of poutine—duck sausage, chicken gravy, and cheese curds. The cavernous space is dark, moody, and romantic, softly lit with tea candles and a few candelabras in the same vein as nearby Diamond Bar.

The restaurant incarnation of a former food truck, Torafuku serves modern Asian food designed for sharing. Taking inspiration from Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and Vietnam, expect bold flavors in a range dishes from ramen to spicy calamari. While the main body of the restaurant is super minimalist, with a mix of booth-style and stool seating, a polished stone floor, and zero ornamentation, all the action happens in the back. There, you'll find a commissary and the original Le Tigre food truck that started it all for owners Clement Chan and Steve Kuan.

As the name suggests, this is a laid-back, relaxed spot for a casual farm-fresh meal. Committed to serving only organic produce, The Farmer's Apprentice has three set menus to choose from for dinner based on whether you’re an herbivore, an omnivore, or going with the chef’s menu, which features a mix of both. Plates could be winter greens with quince and pear, or crab, salsify, and leek. For a little more selection try their excellent weekend brunch. The fish cakes with salsa verde and perfectly poached eggs or the za’atar dusted rice bowl with eggs and cauliflower are flavorful and filling. Get the buttermilk biscuits on the side to keep you going all day.

Maumi's eight seats bring the authenticity of the thousands of teeny sushi bars found throughout Japan to Vancouver. Chef Maumi Ozaki presides over his establishment nightly and his rules are clear—no kids, no booze, and a hard-and-fast seating schedule. However, despite the seemingly strict parameters, the seafood—imported daily from Japan—is so spectacular in freshness, preparation, presentation, and price, all is forgiven. The ten-course omakase menu, priced at approximately $35 a person, is the best deal in town.

Classic port-city seafood chowders, steamed shellfish, and hearty mains like pan-fried oysters, garlic shrimp, and Atlantic lobster, are the claim to fame at this low-key seafood restaurant. One of the few spots where you can actually see your catch before it’s cooked, Rodney’s is truly a from-the-line-to-your-plate kind of place. Come with a crowd, order a few dishes to share, and expect big portions and lots of flavor. There's a second location in Gastown.

Pizzeria Farina looks like a modern, almost Scandinavian café with white painted brick walls, a menu written on parchment paper that's suspended from the ceiling, and seating that's a mix of one long communal table and a few smaller ones with high stools. The pizza dough itself goes through a three-day ferment, and once cooked is thin, crispy, and blistered in all the right places. Chef J.C Poirier is making Neapolitan style pizzas with just a few topping options—ratatouille, mushrooms, fennel sausage, and salami, with the requisite mozzarella and tangy tomato sauce.