The best bike routes in Vancouver for a scenic ride

Length: 9 to 10 km
Difficulty: Easy

Yes, it’s obvious. It’s also magnificent. Vancouver’s signature bike ride traces the edge of Stanley Park with Burrard Inlet, the North Shore Mountains and English Bay supplying the sort of backdrop that makes you wonder why anyone exercises indoors. The paved cycling route is separated from traffic and takes you past Brockton Point, beneath the Lions Gate Bridge and around to Third and Second beaches. The Stanley Park section of the seawall is roughly nine kilometres and cycling traffic follows it in one direction, so go with the flow and take your time. The official estimate is about an hour; with beach stops and gawking, budget considerably longer.

Length: 10 km
Difficulty: Easy

This is the ride to recommend to somebody who has one free morning and wants Vancouver to show off. Follow the waterfront past Yaletown, Science World and Olympic Village, swing through the Granville Island side of False Creek and cross Burrard Bridge to complete the loop. You get marinas, parks, skyline views, tiny False Creek ferries scooting around below you and roughly one opportunity every four minutes to stop and buy something delicious. A rebuilt separated path between Creekside Community Centre and Science World reopened in 2025; part of that connection has a compacted-gravel surface, so don’t be surprised when the pavement briefly disappears.

Length: About 8.5 km one way, 18 km round trip
Difficulty: Easy

What was once a railway corridor is now one of the city’s most satisfying north-south rides. The Arbutus Greenway starts near False Creek and runs south through neighbourhoods including Arbutus Ridge, Kerrisdale and Marpole before reaching the Fraser River. It isn’t Vancouver’s most dramatic ride, and that’s part of the appeal. Expect trees, gardens, public art, quiet residential scenery and plenty of opportunities to break for coffee. The current route uses an all-weather paved pathway with separate areas for walking and cycling.

Length: Around 20 km round trip
Difficulty: Easy to moderate

Bring sunscreen and very little commitment to arriving anywhere quickly. Beginning around Vanier Park, this westward ride strings together some of Vancouver’s greatest hits: Kits Beach, Jericho Beach, Locarno Beach and Spanish Banks, with mountain views hovering across the water basically the entire time. Separated paths and quiet waterfront roads handle much of the journey. If Spanish Banks has already supplied enough beauty for one day, turn around there. Feeling ambitious? Continue uphill to UBC, where the climb serves as a useful reminder that Vancouver is not entirely flat.

Length: About 15 km round trip
Difficulty: Easy

Want to sightsee Vancouver on wheels? This is your ride. The 10th Avenue bikeway cuts east-west across the city through a succession of very Vancouver neighbourhoods, connecting Kitsilano with South Granville, the City Hall area, Mount Pleasant and Commercial Drive. Instead of a dedicated recreational trail, much of the route follows traffic-calmed local streets, meaning you’ll ride alongside gardens, neighbourhood cafés and actual Vancouverites getting somewhere. Make the short detour to Trout Lake for a grassy turnaround point and snack break. More than half a million cycling trips are made on 10th Avenue annually, so calling it a local favourite is putting it lightly.

Length: 25 km one way
Difficulty: Moderate

When a quick spin won’t cut it, the Central Valley Greenway turns cycling into a proper little expedition. The regional route starts around False Creek and heads east through Vancouver and Burnaby before eventually reaching New Westminster and the Fraser River. It’s a combination of off-road paths and on-street sections and passes destinations including Burnaby Lake and New Westminster Quay. Better still, much of the route follows the Expo and Millennium SkyTrain lines. Translation: you can ride heroically in one direction and, should enthusiasm fail to survive the return journey, take your bike onto transit for the trip home. We strongly support this form of strategic athleticism.

Length: About 13 km one way
Difficulty: Moderate

For neighbourhood snooping of the highest order, follow the Ridgeway. Beginning around West 8th Avenue and Blanca Street, the cross-city greenway passes through West Point Grey, Dunbar and Kerrisdale before continuing east towards Vancouver’s boundary with Burnaby. It’s mostly a street-based ride along quieter, traffic-calmed roads rather than a fully separated trail, but the route rewards you with leafy neighbourhoods and some excellent potential diversions. VanDusen Botanical Garden and Queen Elizabeth Park are both along the way, meaning this is possibly Vancouver’s finest bike ride for anyone who likes to stop and smell the flowers.

Length: Variable; roughly 7 km from False Creek to 59th Avenue
Difficulty: Moderate

Start near False Creek and point your handlebars south. The Ontario Greenway runs along one of Vancouver’s best-known north-south bikeways, passing through Mount Pleasant and alongside Riley Park and Queen Elizabeth Park before continuing towards 59th Avenue. The fun part is the climb towards Queen Elizabeth Park. The even more fun part is pretending you only stopped at the top for the skyline views and absolutely not because your thighs were about to spontaneously combust. From here, you can connect with the east-west Ridgeway or keep travelling south. 

Length: 8 km one way
Difficulty: Easy

Formerly called the North Arm Trail Greenway, the Masumi Mitsui Greenway offers a very different Vancouver from the glass towers and seawalls downtown. The eight-kilometre route runs primarily along 59th Avenue, from Angus Drive east towards Vivian Drive. You’ll pass schools, neighbourhood parks and Langara College, with green stretches around Langara Golf Course and the wooded landscapes of Everett Crowley Park nearby. It isn’t a bucket-list tourist ride in the traditional sense, which is exactly why we like it: this one’s for discovering the quieter southern half of the city that visitors tend to sail straight past.

Length: 16.6 km
Difficulty: Easy

The City of Vancouver has actually done the route-planning for this one, creating a 16.6-kilometre loop specifically for riders who want neighbourhood character rather than blockbuster sightseeing. The fully paved route mixes local bikeways with quieter streets and takes riders through some of Vancouver’s livelier urban areas and public spaces. There are a few short climbs around Commercial Drive but nothing ruinous. It’s an especially good follow-up once you’ve already conquered Stanley Park: fewer postcard clichés, more murals, local streets and opportunities to accidentally turn a bike ride into a café crawl.