In addition to its dramatic natural setting and superb selection of restaurants, Vancouver has a handful of world-class museums. Two of these are an easy walk from my recommended hotels, and the third is well worth the taxi ride.

Vancouver Art Gallery

Located across Robson Square from the Rosewood Hotel Georgia, this museum occupies a neoclassical former provincial courthouse building. It devotes most of its space to temporary exhibitions, including rotating displays of its large permanent collection, which is anchored by British Columbian painter Emily Carr. We saw a number of her brooding paintings in the Emily Carr and Wolfgang Paalen in British Columbia exhibition, displaying Munch-like scenes of decaying totem poles and ancient forests. Other temporary exhibitions included gritty and surreal street photographs by Harry Callahan, ornate and unsettling paintings and sculptures by Bharti Kher and works by Picasso that illuminate the influence of six women on his artistic development.

Vancouver Art Gallery
750 Hornby Street. Tel. (604) 662-4700