Vancouver is one of those cities where the mountains feel close enough to touch from downtown. The North Shore peaks rise straight out of Burrard Inlet, the Lions Gate Bridge leaps across to them from Stanley Park, and on a clear day you can watch floatplanes take off over the harbour while snow still sits on the summits. It is a big, busy, expensive city, but for a rider it is above all a gateway: to the Sea-to-Sky Highway north, the Fraser Valley east, and, for these rides, the ferries across the Strait of Georgia to Vancouver Island.
The island rides begin with the boat. BC Ferries sails from Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver to Nanaimo's Departure Bay, and from Tsawwassen, south of the city, to Duke Point near Nanaimo and to Swartz Bay near Victoria. Motorcycles usually load first and get squeezed into corners of the car deck, which is one of the small pleasures of riding here, but summer weekends and long weekends are busy and booking ahead is wise. Once across, the road west to the Pacific Rim runs through Cathedral Grove's giant Douglas firs and over the mountains to Tofino and Ucluelet.
Getting out of the city itself takes patience. Traffic is dense, lights are frequent and the bridges choke at rush hour, so an early start pays off. The route to Horseshoe Bay along Marine Drive in West Vancouver is a pleasant way to leave, with glimpses of the water between big houses and cedars, and the Stanley Park causeway is short but memorable. Rain is part of the deal. The coast is green for a reason, and from October to April a wet day is more normal than not; summer is drier and often gloriously clear.
Before Europeans arrived, this was and is the territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples, and you will see their art and names across the city, from the totem poles at Brockton Point in Stanley Park to the public art at the airport. The modern city grew around a sawmill settlement and the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1880s, with Gastown, the old core, now full of brick warehouses turned into bars and cafes.
Fuel, food and coffee are everywhere, and the city's food scene, especially its Asian restaurants, is a good reason to spend the last evening of a trip here. Fill up before the ferry, since prices on the island and especially out on the west coast tend to be higher.