The Stanley Park seawall is one of the great walks in any city. Ten kilometers around the perimeter of a downtown peninsula, water on one side, old-growth forest on the other, almost flat. Here’s how to do it without it feeling like an obligation.
Most visitors walk the seawall counterclockwise from English Bay because the guidebooks say to. We prefer clockwise, starting from Coal Harbour. The clockwise direction puts the water on your right (always nicer to walk with the water on your right, in our opinion) and means you hit Third Beach for sunset rather than for second-breakfast traffic.
The full loop is 10km and takes about 2.5 hours at a relaxed pace. Highlights, clockwise: the Brockton Point lighthouse (Mile 1), the Nine O’Clock Gun (sounds at 9pm, kids love it), Lumberman’s Arch (mile 3, picnic spot), the Lions Gate underpass (the only urban part of the loop), Prospect Point (highest viewpoint), Siwash Rock (the basalt sea stack on the western shore), Third Beach (where you stop). Total time around four hours if you stop.
Don’t do the seawall on a sunny Saturday afternoon — it becomes pedestrian traffic. Tuesday morning, Thursday evening, rainy weekend mornings; those are the times that feel like the park has been left for you.
End at Third Beach: small bar in the seasonal pavilion, watch the sunset behind the Lions, walk back through the park on the Bridle Path instead of doubling back on the seawall.