Local Activities for SFU Students

Now that spring is finally here in full bloom, it is a great time to get out of the house and get to know and see Burnaby a little bit better. For those students and the like at Simon Fraser University, there is no better place to live and study than Burnaby in the springtime for its great outdoor fun, exciting activities and breathtaking scenery. Here are some of the local activities for you to get into in Burnaby and surrounding areas this spring.

Burnaby in Bloom

Just 20 kilometers to its west in Vancouver, SFU students can get the full taste of the blooming season in Vancouver’s beautiful public gardens. At the beginning of April, the roses at Stanley Park’s Rose Garden are at peak bloom and ready for plucking. Bring in the sunny month of May at Stanley Park’s Ted & Mary Greig Rhododendron Garden and see the 4,500 hybrid rhododendron and azalea plants in full bloom. If you want to make a day of it, take a tour of all of Stanley Park’s gardens, including the VanDusen Botanical Garden, and then head on over to Queen Elizabeth Park’s free quarry gardens.

You can also enjoy beautiful natural scenery and experience spring in full bloom at the Burnaby Mountain Park and other local gardens. All across Burnaby, you can also gaze up at is towering mountains that drape the backdrop of the province. There are also plenty of opportunities to go biking and hiking in Burnaby with thousands of trails to choose from, giving you a great chance to view and take in all that Burnaby has to offer.

Out and About in Burnaby

The exciting and diverse entertainment and festivals available in Burnaby makes it the perfect place for its diverse student population to live. In the spring, Burnaby residents can celebrate migrating wildlife with its local festivals. The Wings Over the Rockies Bird Festival brings everyone together to celebrate an appreciate nature. This year’s festival theme is Reflections on Water. Other festivals to enjoy this spring in Burnaby are the Meadowlark Festival and the Pacific Rim Whale Festival.

You can easily get around Burnaby by car; or for those without a car, you can use SkyTrain, making life a little simpler for SFU students. This makes it easy to get to and enjoy Burnaby’s fun activities such as various concerts, parades, and, the fan favourite, shopping. Metropolis at Metrotown is the place where Burnaby residents can shop to their heart’s content. With more than 450 shopping stores, enormous and varied food court, and 10-screen mega movie theatre, Metropolis at Metrotown is the biggest shopping mall in British Columbia and the top tourist attraction in Burnaby. Burnaby also offers other high-quality and diverse shopping centres including Crystal Mall, Brentwood Town Centre Mall and Lougheed Town Centre Mall.

For those art lovers and majors at SFU, you can also enjoy local museums such as the Burnaby Village Museum, which displays what life was like in Burnaby in the 1920’s. Even more, Burnaby residents and students can also catch local shows at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts where they can enjoy musicals, comedies and operas.

Thaw out from the winter in Burnaby with some of these must-sees and exciting activities to do and enjoy. Learn more about the great things to do at SFU and surrounding areas as well as the local real estate options with Canadian University Real Estate.