Bellingham residents share their favorite B.C. family-friendly spots

After a Washington State resident requested the Bellingham Reddit group about the most effective household spots to take her children to in B.C., Bellinghamsters delivered in an enormous manner.

Even B.C. and Metro Vancouver locals may not be conversant in a number of the suggestions that had been supplied.

The Redditor advised the Bellingham group that they hadn’t spent a whole lot of time up in Canada and had been on the lookout for locations that had been inside an hour and a half drive that they may take their children to.

They mentioned, “I think we’ve done a lot of the commonly discussed ones, but would love to hear what y’all have done!”

There had been a whole lot of the standard suspects being advisable, locations just like the Vancouver Aquarium and Greater Vancouver Zoo. Stanley Park and Science World had been additionally instructed. However, many individuals shared some ideas that you simply don’t usually hear about, like Generations Playground in White Rock.

White Rock

Generations additionally obtained a bit improve earlier this week with the launch of a brand new splash pad on the park. The park can be comparatively new, having opened in 2018.

Someone else gave a shoutout to Canada’s aquatic centres, particularly naming the Grandview Heights Aquatic Centre, positioned in Surrey, as a spot to take the kiddos.

Grandview Heights in Surrey

In response to that suggestion, one other Bellinghamster mentioned, “In general, all the outdoor pools in Canada are huge and phenomenal. Shout out to Second Beach and Kitsilano pools.”

Along with the Stanley Park suggestion, one Redditor instructed that the unique poster take the kiddos to IKEA and have lunch there.

“Include a stop at IKEA for an inexpensive but very different lunch,” they mentioned.

For the uninitiated, IKEA provides extremely low cost and engaging meals choices for all eating regimen varieties.

Bear Creek Park, a park positioned in Surrey, was additionally advisable due to facilities like a public pool, a practice and an enormous playground. The similar Redditor instructed Play Abby, an indoor play park positioned in Abbotsford.

Remember Watermania? It nonetheless exists, and a Bellingham resident supplied the Richmond indoor waterpark as a enjoyable, family-friendly choice.

Many Fraser Valley spots obtained shoutouts, components of that are fast and handy to get to from Bellingham. One of them was the Outdoor Experience, positioned in Aldergrove. It capabilities form of like an outside Watermania, and is an inexpensive waterpark enjoyable for all ages.

LifeisticAC/Shutterstock

While we nonetheless see social media posts pretty usually for people down south wanting to come back as much as Canada, the information means that the thrill is one-way.

While there are nonetheless many individuals travelling to the United States from Canada, the variety of travellers has constantly dropped all through 2025.

According to the latest information from Statistics Canada, in July of this 12 months, the variety of Canadian resident return journeys by automobile from the U.S. was 1.7 million.

Statistics Canada calls {that a} steep decline in comparison with 2024, because it marked a whopping 36.9 per cent drop.

July 2025 additionally marked the seventh consecutive month of year-over-year declines.

“The highest number of returning Canadian-resident arrivals was observed on Sunday, July 27 (100,000). This number was 13.8 per cent higher than the average for the other Sundays in July,” Statistics Canada provides.

On high of what these Bellingham residents talked about, are there any extra B.C. spots you’d suggest pretty much as good family-friendly choices which are lesser recognized?

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