Vancouver is just that kind of a ‘zen koan’—exotic yet familiar, challenging yet affirming. And this winter, during the 2010 Winter Games, is the time to visit.

The high rise towers of Vancouver

News from the Canadian Tourism Commission

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Vancouver, BC, February 2010: be there! Unless you’re, you know, planning on jetting to India for eye surgery.

That’s the advice of the good folks at Lonely Planet. In its Best of Travel 2010, the travel-guide publisher has tabbed Vancouver among the cities you simply have to see this year. Why? Those 2010 Winter Games, of course.

Lonely Planet has developed crack radar for why people hit the road. They know we’re hungry for life experiences of the vivid or wacky or life-affirming kind. So LP staffers and contributors annually nominate destinations for a best-of compendium. Vancouver in 2010 is obviously the fat bull’s-eye of the world’s biggest outdoor party: that’s the hook. Of course, Vancouverites know that no excuse is really needed to visit their city. (Unofficial slogan: “You’ll come for the lantern-jawed bobsledders, you’ll stay for the mountain vistas and drop-dead seawall walks and great cuppa at a fair price.” Etcetera.)Vancouver is one of only two burgs in North America to make the cut in the “cities” section of LP’s Best of Travel 2010. In the book’s foreword, the editors give a hint of what’s on their minds. “Travel is finding the self by escaping the self,” the editors write, borrowing a quote from a prominent film critic. Vancouver is just that kind of a “zen koan”—exotic yet familiar, challenging yet affirming. It’s like the one great picture a friend took of us, the one that’s gonna run one day in our obituary no matter how old we live to be. It’s us on our best day.

As for medical-procedure tourism—also mentioned by LP as an emerging trend… well, that’s more an acquired taste.

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