Vancouver is a very casual city, and business suits, or even shirts and ties, are a relatively rare sight on the streets and in workplaces. Offices that do enforce a dress code often have ‘casual Fridays’.

Outdoors, the city’s relatively mild year-round climate makes it unique among the other large Canadian cities. This means that acquiring clothing to protect you from the elements is not as important as elsewhere in the country. In winter, while most other Canadians shovel snow and hunker down for the duration, Vancouverites simply zip up their waterproof jackets a little higher and open their umbrellas more often. In summer, Vancouver rarely experiences the baking hot temperatures of, for example, Toronto and Montreal.

However, essential clothing does include a good waterproof jacket. Wear layers in winter as it can get very chilly (although rarely falling below zero), and have an umbrella on standby year-round. Fleece and GORE-TEX clothing is as common on city streets as on the local mountains, and shorts and flip-flops (or thongs) are standard summer attire. And if you want to forgo clothes altogether, there’s always the popular nudist hangout at Wreck Beach (see p.240).