Family travel: Take a mother-daughter vacation in Vancouver

Vancouver is one of the best cities to explore with kids, especially if you visit in the fall. As the leaves begin to change, the waterfront parks transform from verdant green to a spectacular kaleidoscope of red, orange and yellow. It’s also the start of the spooky season, with top attractions offering special fall and Halloween programming. My daughter Brooklyn and I spent a weekend rediscovering Vancouver’s classic attractions – from wildlife encounters and sky-high adventures to scenic harbour cruises and elegant afternoon tea.

A unique new spectacle has landed in Canada Place, nearly a decade after FlyOver Canada’s inaugural multimedia flight ride. Awaken Canada takes thrills to new heights with an adrenaline-spiking adventure enhanced by new locations, music, and technology. The immersive coast-to-coast journey still showcases the country’s beloved sites, cities and landscapes – soaring above the Maritimes, cresting Niagara Falls, floating across the prairies and navigating the Arctic. However, the new multi-sensory experience highlights additional locations to offer viewers a glimpse into Canada’s faraway places, like Mount Logan in the Yukon and Nunavut’s Baffin Island. New drone footage integrated into the production provides a unique vantage of breathtaking scenes, including Alberta’s Marble Canyon. Families visiting in October can also book tickets for HowlOver Canada, a spooky Halloween-themed flight ride following Biker Mama and friends on their cross-country exploration.

We visited the Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley Park for the first time in eight years and enjoyed ourselves immensely. Our favourite exhibit, B.C. The Wild Coast, now includes a new Marine Mammal Rescue Centre, one of the world’s largest rescue facilities. In addition to rescuing and rehabilitating marine animals, the sanctuary provides long-term care for animals that Fisheries and Oceans Canada deems non-releasable. Current residents include the charismatic California sea lions, adorable harbour seals and a gang of vocal northern fur seals, which are a riot to watch as they zip through the water. The sea otters were equally joyful to see zooming and chasing each other in their tank. I also love visiting the Graham Amazon Gallery for the sleepy Linnaeus’s two-toed sloth and giant green anaconda. The aquarium’s Fin-tastic Fall Days, through Oct. 31, offer families interactive autumn activities, including special animal programs like the bat talk and a hands-on Shipwreck Wet Lab experience.

Afternoon tea is Brooklyn’s favourite meal of the day, and it’s a guilty pleasure that we like to indulge in during our mother-daughter trips. Honey Salt in the JW Marriott serves one of Vancouver’s best tea experiences. The restaurant aesthetic is perfection, as is the service and menu, which includes a personal pot of tea, assorted finger sandwiches, scones with jam and clotted cream, a house-made macaroon, chocolate hazelnut cake, and strawberry pavlova. We also added the Mini Market: roasted heirloom carrots, pickled vegetables, crispy kale, sweet potato chips and hummus. Honey Salt’s final course, tableside crêpes – society chocolate banana, crêpe Suzette or lemon frosting berries – sets the restaurant’s high tea apart. Our second JW Marriott dining experience, at The Victor,  was equally as delicious. The restaurant is best known for its signature steakhouse-inspired menu. However, we explored the creative seafood and sushi menu, as it’s a must for us in Vancouver.

Having grown up on Vancouver’s North Shore, I wanted to show Brooklyn the two attractions where we always brought our out-of-town guests. The first is the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park, which has completely transformed since I was a child. Although we arrived early and well before the tour buses began rolling in, the park was still busy. We managed a quick obligatory bridge photo before wobbling across the 137-metre structure, which I’m told is sturdy enough to hold 75 full-grown elephants. After crossing, we explored the Living Forest interpretive exhibits, met the birds of prey at Raptor Ridge, and toured the Treetops Adventure, a series of bridges and platforms suspended 33 metres over the forest floor. Visitors looking for Halloween family fun can reserve tickets for the Canyon Frights, through Oct. 3, for a spooky experience complete with kids’ games and activities and haunted hosts Elizabeth and Mac making surprise appearances throughout the park. The second half of our North Shore excursion was riding to the peak of Grouse Mountain to meet rescued grizzly bears Grinder and Coola and take in the sweeping views of Vancouver and beyond.

Our JW Marriott Parq Vancouver hotel package included two Aquabus passes and a gift voucher for a six-pack of doughnuts from the Granville Island icon, Lee’s Doughnuts. The hotel is a short walk to the Plaza of Nations Aquabus stop, where we caught a scenic ride across False Creek to explore the market stalls. Brooklyn was eager to shop at the Kids Market, where she promptly purchased a puppet from the family-run toy store aptly named Kites and Puppets. If you’re in the area on Oct. 27, head to the Kids Market in costume for a festive trick-or-treat event and Halloween-themed Photo Booth. As we visited on a long weekend, the market food court was packed with locals and out-of-town guests, so we snagged a patio table at Dockside in the Granville Island Hotel. The restaurant’s waterfront location is perfect, as it’s protected from the wind yet boasts stunning views across False Creek. After our leisurely lunch of woodfired pizza and fresh greens, we headed to Lee’s and lined up for our dessert. Fifteen minutes later, I ate the best honey-dipped doughnut of my life.

As a loyal Marriott Bonvoy gold member, the JW Marriott Parq Vancouver was the ideal hotel for our girl’s getaway. The rooms are beautiful, and the central location, overlooking False Creek and BC Place, is about two blocks from the waterfront and Auquabus terminal and within walking distance of Yaletown, which makes it easy to explore the city on foot. Additional hotel highlights include the lovely spa, where I had a transformative massage care of Natalie and the rooftop Aqua Lounge, featuring an outdoor hydrotherapy hot tub, which Brooklyn and I relaxed in before bed each night.