Summer in the City: Best Summer Group Activities in Vancouver

It’s no secret that Vancouver is a great place to live. But there is one time of year when it really shines, and that is summer. The mountains, the ocean, the parks, and more fun activities than a person knows what to do with—it’s really just the best.

It’s easy to hide away when the winter rains are falling, but now that June is here, it’s definitely time to get back out there. Because summer is for spending as many sunshine hours out and about with friends as possible.

Here are just some of the best activities Van City offers in summertime.

Thom Quine (CC BY 2.0)

Craft Beer Bike Tours

Craft beer? Check. Bicycles? Check. A tour guide to make sure you don’t cycle into traffic before you reach the last brewery? Check. Sprinkle in a handful of your besties, and you’ve got a recipe for some serious summer memories.

Find out more here.

Evo Summer Cinema

The outdoor cinema screenings are now a fixture of Vancouver’s summers, with outdoor theatres set up everywhere from Richmond to Stanley Park. With a mix of recent flicks and retro classics, the ability to bring your own snacks, and the great outdoors, what’s not to love?

Going with a group of friends makes the screenings the most fun, as you can all bunch together as the temperature dips and, just as importantly, take turns being human furniture once that blanket starts feeling a little too thin.

The 2016 lineup will be announced here.

Krakit Escape Game

One of the best things about summer is the fact that the sun stays up nearly as long as you do. Krakit Escape Game is open late into the night (the last games start at midnight), helping you to stretch your summer calendar as much as possible. Groups of up to eight pals can work together to solve the room, before time’s up.

Book one of four themed escape rooms here.

River Tubing in North Van

There’s nothing like a long, slow tube down the Capilano River. Some tubes, some lifejackets and paddles, and a half-day’s worth of “refreshments” make for a relaxing float down the river with a group of buddies. There are some rough patches though, so make sure you don’t bring too many refreshments.

More details here.

3 of 7: Helpful Hints to Prepare for the Apocalypse

This is a seven part series outlining survival techniques based on Maslow's hierarchy (beginning with physiological needs). In the final segments (self-actualization and self-fullfilment) I'll work my way into team building culture, role diversification/intelligent responsibility-delegation, and, above all, leadership techniques.

It’s been days, weeks, months since Satan has waged his war on humanity and you’ve finally become accustomed to your daily routine: it’s a never-ending daily cycle: you wake up to the cacophonous screaming of demons dispensed from the depths of hell and the walking dead bereaving their miserable souls within the traps you’ve placed, then you dispense heavenly justice and re-set each trap tripped and carry on. You’re well armed now, having escaped to loot a local gun shop and an abandoned grocery superstore store loaded with caches of food. You have found a fresh water spring by plowing through a wall in the basement of your school and are supplemented by a large supply of bottled water. But, you've become depressed from the sounds and situations around you and you’re dreadfully lonely. One day, having followed the dim glow from the your high nesting ground, a mother and her child arrive, chased by a small hoard of living dead.

• LOVE AND BELONGING: After vanquishing their pursuers with your small arsenal of defences, you, cautiously, examine the couple’s physicality. You prod them both with a series of questions you’ve prepared for such a situation, determining to a small extent that they are actual living humans. Nevertheless, you request they both remain in detention for a time until you can be absolutely sure they pose a minimal threat. On the first day of their arrival, you prudently lower food into their gymnasium cage via a rudimentary pulley system you’ve crafted referencing library books; you include within this exchange a change of clothing from the lost-and-found, clean blankets from the school’s dormitory, and a book. The mother expresses she’s broken her reading glasses and cannot read on her own; her young daughter is terrified. So, you read them a book aloud, daily, from the school’s library and observe calmness wash over their faces with each word you speak. After a week, you’ve developed a rapport with both of them, and release them from their lockup. The previous looming feeling of emptiness has disappeared. For the first time in months, you feel hope. Suddenly, the morning screaming doesn’t seem as bad.