Perhaps the best marker of really knowing your city is your ability to tell a visitor where the closest special spot is, like a graffiti-covered lookout point or a historical landmark waiting to be rediscovered.
Riley Holterhus is a third-year computer science student at the University of Waterloo who has made knowing Vancouver’s hidden gems a much easier task. Every time Holterhus moves to a new city, he likes to explore its secret locations he told Vancouver Is Awesome in a recent Q&A. As he has been moving around Canada a lot in the past few years he created the website Secret Cities - Vancouver, a website where anyone can submit the location of a special place and it will be added to a map for everyone to see.
Holterhus posted his website to social media to get more location suggestions and it was very well received.
“The response was far greater than I had expected. There were a lot of encouraging comments and people said they liked the idea and design of the site, and so far I have received about 15 suggestions for locations (on top of the 10 locations I initially seeded the website with). I am really pleased with how the project is progressing so far,” Holterhus said.
Since many of the locations have been suggested over the past few days. Holterhus has not been able to visit them on account of currently living in Montreal doing a summer internship. Holterhus adds when he is next in Vancouver though he will be sure to check them out.
Perhaps one of his first stops will be the Horseshoe Bay Lookout, a secret platform north of Vancouver that offers a great view of Horseshoe Bay.
“A close second is this collection of hidden treehouses in Bates park. Personally, I think the “secret/hidden gem” locations on the website are the most fun to explore, but they don’t necessarily have to be a secret to be featured on the site,” Holterhus said.
If you have any suggestions for the site you can do so through the website.
