Located on the west coast of Canada, Vancouver is a great vacation town. The third largest city in the country, Vancouver is home to three civic centers and four museums. Combined these activities make Vancouver a great vacation town to visit any time of year.

Vancouver is home to three fantastic theaters which feature year-round entertainment for anyone in British Columbia. The Orpheum originally opened in 1927 hosting vaudeville acts. This 2,780 seat former movie palace closed its doors from 1975-1977 as it was renovated into a theater that would host live music performances which is what it is used for today. The Queen Elizabeth Theatre opened to the public in 1959 as home for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Currently this 2,929 seat theater is home to the Vancouver Opera and Ballet BC as well as hosting other music acts year-round. The Vancouver Playhouse opened in 1962 and ever since has been home to the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company. The company performs plays from October to May each year with each play being performed between three and four weeks.

For art and culture, this great vacation town has plenty to offer. The Museum of Vancouver was built in 1894 and serves as the largest civic museum in Canada. The museum features artifacts collected by Vancouver residents from throughout the world and includes a mummy purchased in Egypt during World War I, taxidermy of local game and wildlife, popular culture artifacts collected from the Vancouver area from the late 19th and 20th centuries, and journals written by local middle and upper class women chronicling their travels through the British Empire. The Vancouver Art Gallery is the fifth largest art gallery in Canada featuring 10,000 pieces of art which grows by several hundred each year. Built in 1931, this downtown gallery includes over 200 major works by Emily Carr, the Group of Seven, and illustrations by Marc Chagall. The Vancouver Maritime Museum, established in 1959, displays the rich maritime history of British Columbia and the Canadian Arctic. The main exhibit here is St. Roch which was used by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and was a vessel used for historic arctic exploration. The museum also includes model ships, a NASA undersea research vessel, and the first steamship of the Pacific Northwest. The H.R. MacMillan Space Centre is an astronomy museum that was founded in 1968. Named after British Columbia industrialist and philanthropist H.R. MacMillan, this museum features live demonstrations of science in the GroundStation Canada Threatre, exhibits and games in the Cosmic Courtyard, and features shows about astronomy in the Planetarium Star Theatre. Next door is the Gordon MacMillan Southam Observatory which features a foot and a half long Cassegrain telescope to explore the Vancouver sky.

Just over the border of the United States and Canada is a great vacation town that features outdoor activities for the summer and winter, world class museums, and great entertainment. So if you're on the west coast of the United States or Canada, follow interstate 5 to Vancouver, British Columbia, a great vacation town.