Almost exactly halfway between Europe and the Asia Pacific region, Vancouver is located on the western mainland of North America. It's in the southwest corner of British Columbia - the westernmost of Canada's 10 provinces and three territories.

Thirty-eight kilometres (24 miles) north of the Canada-US border, the city is also 96 kilometres (60 miles) northeast of Victoria - B.C.'s capital city, located across the Straight of Georgia on the southern tip of Vancouver Island.

Greater Vancouver, covering 2,930 square kilometres (1,130 square miles), comprises 21 municipalities, one of which is the City of Vancouver. The others municipalities include Burnaby, New Westminster, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody to the east of the city. To the south are the municipalities of Richmond, Delta, Surrey, White Rock and Langley. North, and separated from the city by the Burrard Inlet, are West Vancouver, Lions Bay, North Vancouver and the villages of Belcarra and Anmore, known collectively as the North Shore.

Vancouver: Geographically Speaking
Situated on the picturesque western point of a large peninsula, the City of Vancouver is bound on the north by Burrard Inlet, the city's main harbour. English Bay, a large body of water popular with boaters, marks the western edge of the downtown core as well as the northern edge of the residential Kitsilano and Point Grey areas. The city's southern boundary is near the airport on the North Arm of the Fraser River.

Vancouver's downtown thoroughfares generally follow a user-friendly grid pattern - streets run north to south and avenues run east to west. The avenues, for the most part, are numbered - 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. - and all the streets are named. Broadway is the main exception to the avenue numbering rule - it should be 9th Avenue.