Best Cherry Blossom Photo Spots in Vancouver: Ultimate Guide

In the past, whenever I thought of cherry blossoms, I thought of Japan. Then Dave and I moved to Vancouver and I realised that the entire city is covered with them!

Vancouver turns into a cherry blossom wonderland during the Spring and which brings dozens of amazing photo opportunities.

If you are like me and love taking photos, then you will definitely want to get out and go cherry blossom chasing. The blossoms are literally everywhere but not every blossom tree makes for a good photo because they might be located on a main road or next to an ugly building etc.

In this guide, you’ll find a list of the best cherry blossom photo spots in Vancouver to help you with your cherry blossom photos, along with all of my settings for each photo.

This guide includes:

• Best cherry blossom spots in Vancouver and how to get there
• Photo composition ideas and settings used in my photos
• Approximate timing of when to start cherry blossom chasing

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Things to Know about Cherry Blossoms in Vancouver

📆 What Time of the Year do Cherry Blossoms Bloom in Vancouver

Cherry Blossom season in Vancouver happens during Spring, however, each year the blossoms could bloom at a slightly different time so it is hard to plan exactly for. The blooming timing depends greatly on weather and how long the cold temperatures last.

In Vancouver the cherry blossoms can beginning blooming anytime from mid-late March to early April and they then stick around for about 2 weeks.

There are also a lot of different types of cherry blossom trees in Vancouver and each type blooms at slightly different times rather than all at once.

👉 Before planning a trip to Vancouver in April, read this guide!

🌸 How did the Cherry Blossoms get to Vancouver

I had no idea about this but after doing research for this blog post, I found out that the blossoms haven’t always been in Vancouver.

The Vancouver Cherry Blossoms have been here since the 1930s. The Japanese cities, Kobe and Yokohama gifted 500 trees to plant in Stanley Park to honour the Japanese Canadians who served in the First World War.

🗺 Vancouver Cherry Blossom Blooming Map

If you cannot decide on where to go or you are looking for additional locations from the below list, you can use this map to find cherry blossoms throughout Vancouver and see their estimated blooming dates based on the previous year. This is how Dave and I figure out which blossoms are blooming when.

The map below is my own and has location pins to each of the cherry blossom spots in this blog post.

Click here to open the map in Google Maps!

10 Best Cherry Blossom Photo Spots in Vancouver

This is a list of the best cherry blossom photo spots in Vancouver. I have also included our exact camera settings and the equipment we used to take each photo to help you recreate the photo yourself.

1. Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver

Queen Elizabeth Park is beautiful all through the year because they have lovely gardens, but at cherry blossom time it is on another level of beauty. There are a couple of main spots that we like to go to take our photos which I have marked on the park map below.

The best place to park is on Dinmont Avenue. There was plenty of street parking there early in the morning on a Saturday. I really want to go back here next Spring with Winnie to replicate the photo we took before Winnie.

We arrived a little after sunrise when the sun was still quite low and shining through the trees.

2. Granville Square, Vancouver

To get to Granville Square, you can catch the Sky Train to Waterfront Station and then walk for 2-3 minutes down to the water.

Granville Square has a small clusters of cherry blossoms and can get very busy and difficult to take a photo without someone photo bombing it. We found that holding the camera low to the ground and pointing up towards the mountains helped to cut everyone else out.

You can get some beautiful shots of the cherry blossoms with the water and the North Shore mountains in the background.

3. Waterfront Park, North Vancouver

Waterfront Park is located in North Vancouver just off the Esplanade. To get there, you will need to cross the little bridge and walk down the stairs to the park which is located next to the water.

You will see the cherry blossoms straight away.

When we went, the cherry blossoms were at the very end of their short life and were being replaced by green leaves.

4. Buchanan St & Rosser Avenue, Burnaby

This is one of my favourite Cherry Blossom Spots in Vancouver and is located in Brentwood, Burnaby in Madison Centre Park. There are a few different spots both in the park and on the side walks next to the park for photos.

We were here just after sunrise to avoid the crowds. 😉 You can park in the Madison Centre Shopping Mall where the Save on Foods is located.

GPS Coordinates: 49.267460, -123.006041

5. Garry Point Park, Richmond

The best way to get from downtown Vancouver to Garry Point Park is by car which will take you around 40 minutes, however you can also catch public transport.

If you are catching public transport, it will take you around 1 hour one way and you will need to take the Canada Line to Richmond-Brighouse and then bus # 401 to EB Chatham St @ 4th Ave where you will then need to walk the rest of the way (8 minutes) to the park.

The park itself is huge and very popular. It is located by the water so there is often a bit of a breeze, making this spot a little extra chilly. Make sure you bring along a jacket to slip on in between photos.

We took our photos at the backside of the parking lot, further away from the water. See below map for exact location.

Photo 1 was taken of me walking along the path (you will see it) from the middle of the hill up the right hand side of the park when facing it from the parking lot.

Photo 2 was taken using our tripod which we put at the bottom of the hill facing up and we set up our picnic rug halfway up the hill.

6. Larry Berg Flight Path Park, Richmond

Larry Berg Flight Path Park surprised us! From the highway, it doesn’t look like much, just a cluster of cherry blossom trees which you will find pretty much everywhere in Vancouver.

Larry Berg Flight Path Park is not too far from Garry Point Park so I recommend visiting on the same day. If you are driving, there is a small free parking lot with space for around 10 cars. If it is full, you will need to wait for a bit for someone to leave or you can park on the other side of the park on Airport Road.

However, once we parked and got closer to the blossoms, we realised that these particular trees are much smaller than others that we had seen.

We found a nice cluster of cherry blossoms to the left of the parking lot when looking away from the highway, and got creative, using the blossoms as a frame. See below map for exact location.

7. Burnaby Mountain, Burnaby

Burnaby Mountain’s main cherry blossom feature is its cherry blossom tunnel walkway. You can drive all of the way up Burnaby Mountain and park for free in the parking lot, right next to the cherry blossoms.

We checked out these cherry blossoms at sunset on a weeknight, however, it was extremely crowded and the lighting was not all that great so we didn’t get any good photos.

The best spot for photos is the cherry blossom tunnel right next to the parking lot. There are also a couple of large cherry blossom trees on the grassy hill that might make a good photo with the right lighting.

As with all cherry blossom spots, I highly recommend going to Burnaby Mountain at sunrise if you are wanting to get some good photos without the crowds.

8. Stanley Park, Vancouver – next to the Shakespeare garden

Stanley Park has a few different cherry blossom spots but the ones we are planning to go to are located next to the Shakespeare Garden and others are next to the Rose Garden.

9. David Lam Park, Vancouver

David Lam Park is located about a 5 minute walk from the Yaletown Roundhouse Sky Train station. The park itself is a grassy field surrounded by walking paths which is where you will find the cherry blossoms.

There are a few few different photo spots in David Lam Park, including a cherry blossom arch and some stand alone trees. The park is a little bigger than some of the others so you will need to do a bit of walking.

💭 My thoughts

Every Spring, I’m blown away by the beauty of the cherry blossoms blooming all over Vancouver. I absolutely can’t believe that I didn’t know about them before moving here!

Chasing the cherry blossoms is one of the best outdoorsy things to do in Vancouver in Spring. Grab your friends and your camera or phone and go check out some of the spots in this blog post.

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