yes, yes...i know i was raving about being in BC very soon early this year, but i guess i waited too long, and before we knew it, the kids holidays were upon us and hand-in-hand with that, a massive price increase in air fares! the cheapest i could find in august was around £550 with canadian affair, so we decided there was no way we would pay that much! now, we are thinking of arranging the trip in october, so can anyone here please advise what the weather may be like at that time? we have been told it wont be very cold in october, apart from a little rain, so if that is true, it sounds fine. although in that kinda weather a trip to the capilano suspension bridge and grouse mountain may be out of the question?

Capilano you can do in the rain - I did it in January. Grouse you should do on a clear day because the views are FANTASTIC! Go up so that you see it both in the daylight and then hang around and see it at night time. It's well worth it. You can get food up there and there is a bar overlooking the city.

As far as I remember October was a bit drizzly when I was there both times but you just never know. It could be dry this year! As long as you get a couple of clear days to see the mountains that's the main thing.

Otherwise go in the winter and then you can ski too! Whistler is well worth a trip.

The weather generally doesn't prevent people from doing anything on the west coast in the winter except sunbathing. October is usually the transition period between the dry season (summer) and the wet season (winter) on the coast... it could be sunny and dry, could be overcast and drizzly, or both. Either way, you can still do a trip to the Capilano Suspension Bridge, Grouse Mountain and pretty much anything else... it just might be rainy and grey or it might not be.

I don't know if I was really lucky last autumn, or what, but I went to Vancouver at the end of September/beginning of October, and apart from one day of torrential rain, the weather really couldn't have been better. Beautiful blue skies and surprisingly warm (it was a great PR job for the place ).

I think you'll have a wonderful time whatever the weather, just make sure you take some waterproofs so you don't have to change your plans.

It can be rainy at Capilano and Grouse Mountain at any time of the year, so it's pretty much luck-of-the-draw, but personally I wouldn't let that stop me going.
Last time we were at Capilano suspension bridge was in May 2005 and it rained really heavily, but as it's a rain forest it adds to the atmosphere!

If you don't want to get wet visit the Vancouver Aquarium instead.

hmm....judging from all these replies, it looks as if we will be going in october after all!
What about staying in vancouver itself--someone mentioned the Sandman Hotel in downtown being indeal and a short walk away from the train station and other sights?
i hope to be there for around 7 days, so even if it rains for 1 or 2 days, we will still have a few days left over!

We really enjoyed staying at the Rosedale on Robson which has very good rooms and suites with good views of the city, and is within walking distance of Canada Place and Gastown etc. One really nice feature of this hotel is that it serves a complimentary continental breakfast of croissants and pastries, tea and coffee adjacent to the swimming pool. We went for our morning swim and then sat and ate the goodies before returning to the room to get dressed.

I'm a bit worried by the "dizzly" and "light rain" comments - this is a temperate rain forest area - and the rain can pour it down.

BUT - the first year we were here on October 6th we went up Grouse in our tshirts and shorts and I caught the sun (never occurred to me to put on sun screen!)

If you are doing Capilano Suspension bridge can I also recommend you do Lynn Valley suspension Bridge too (free, even free to park - and some lovely trails from there) The Cafe there is good too!

Good luck

Clare

Good suggestion. I think I prefered Lynn Valley actually. More natural, less touristy!