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Places to visit, Things to do

/u/Aniric

The ages old, traditional questions of what to do/where to go/must-see sights/hidden gems/bucket list items haunts the UBC community every year, asked by every person new to UBC, from incoming freshman/transfer/exchange students to visitors, and even old seasoned students who just never took/had the time to look around. Here's your answer to those questions.

I created this a couple of years ago and have sporadically updated it since, so it's by no means a comprehensive list, but hopefully serves some people well. If anyone has additions, I'll try to keep this updated and this will also be one of the resources in the r/UBC wiki. I also wanted to note that this is not my work alone. Along with my own suggestions, I've compiled ideas from friends and other people that I've seen from other r/UBC threads, so thank you everyone.

Happy exploring!

Thank you to /u/aniric for putting this together!

Gardens:

  • Rose Garden (go in the summer June-July for roses)
  • Nitobe Memorial (tea ceremonies are held within Nitobe at an authentic tea house and roji)
  • Botanical Gardens (+TreeWalk)
  • IKB Learning Commons

Beaches/Parks:

  • Wreck Beach (clothing optional beach; please respect the place and people - no staring or photographing)
  • Pacific Spirit Park
  • Oasis Beach
  • Spanish Banks
  • Tower Beach (Biol 140 students may be intimately familiar with this one)

Museums/Art Galleries/Theatres:

Note that you may have free access to these as a UBC student!

  • Beaty Biodiversity:
    • world's largest blue whale skeleton & two million captivating specimens
  • Museum of Anthropology:
    • 50,000 remarkable cultural artifacts and items
  • Pacific Museum of Earth:
    • Room of gemstones and interactive exhibits related to weather / the planet
    • While you're here, you can also checkout the Elasmosaurus skeleton in ESB
  • Belkin Art Gallery: contemporary art gallery
  • AHVA Gallery: contemporary exhibition space for students & faculty
  • Residential School History and Dialogue Centre:
    • exhibit and interactive display to learn more about the legacy of residential schools in Canada
  • Chan Performing Arts Centre

Food/Drinks:

(I know this is not comprehensive at all, just a quick-fire list of what's available - I'm also not guaranteeing food quality here - see previous threads about food/tier lists)

  • The Pit
  • Sprouts/Seedlings
  • Agora Cafe
  • Blue Chip
  • Bean Around the World
  • Great Dane Coffee
  • Mercante
  • Rain or Shine
  • Jamjar
  • Village Basement (My Home Cuisine, Donair Town, Only U Cafe, etc)
  • Kokoro Mazesoba
  • Uncle Fatih's
  • DownLow Chicken
  • Kinton Ramen
  • Tacomio
  • The Point
  • The Delly
  • Loafe
  • Booster Juice
  • Flavour Lab

Looking for more information about food on campus?

Check out the 🍴 Food Spots page!

Libraries:

  • Asian Centre
  • Woodward
  • Allard
  • Education (has a seed library and Tower Garden, an aeroponic growing system)
  • X̱wi7x̱wa Indigenous library
  • Koerner (visit the dungeon)
  • David Lam

Various art/installations around campus:

Note: may or may not still be around - some installations are transient

Reconciliation Pole

Rain activated art

Bird friendly window art

  • can be found on CIRS building and UBC Botanical garden

bird-strike-closeup

bird-strike-cirs

LGBTQ rainbow Pride wall

Pressure washer art

  • I don't have a name for this and could never find it online - I found it in first year, but it's now covered up by shrubbery

sights-art-pressure

Millennial Time Machine

  • in the 19th century carriage by Buchanan)

Vegetal Encounters

  • word art on windows of AHVA gallery

Native Hosts

  • aluminum signs with 'British Columbia' spelled backwards with Today Your Host Is

The Shadow

  • differently coloured bricks, honestly you're never seeing it unless you're in a helicopter above campus

Miscellaneous

(Don't quite fall under the other categories but worth a look or visit)

  • Cherry blossoms during the spring (can be found by the nest, along main mall, various other spots across campus)

blossoms

  • Autumn at UBC
  • Fairy lights on main mall

fairy-lights

  • Top floor of OC (or Buchanan Tower or Ponderosa) (if you can get somebody to give you access the view is lovely)
  • labyrinth a little northwest of Great Dane Coffee
  • Waterfall and garden area between the Health Sciences Parkade and the hospital

hospital-garden

  • Buchanan swing
  • UBC Farm
  • Old Barn Community Centre about 2 mins from the forestry building
  • Nest rooftop garden
  • Hill behind MOA
  • Vanier cliffs (apparently gone, but some still might be there?)
  • Bioenergy Research and Demonstration Facility
  • The greenhouse can light the sky up funky colours at night - sometimes mistaken as the aurora
  • Student Wellness Centre (the sexual health shop offers a good selection of sexual health products, particularly sex toys at good prices)

Events:

  • Storm the Wall (annual)
  • Day of the Long Boat (annual)
  • Intramurals (annual)
  • UBC Polar Bear Swim (annual)
  • Annual Snowball Fight (annual when snow permits)
  • Club Fair (biannual)
  • Poster Fair at Nest (biannual)
  • Apple Festival (annual)
  • UBC Farm Markets (https://ubcfarm.ubc.ca/events/category/ubc-farm-markets/)
  • Varsity games (check respective schedules)
  • Theatre shows, concerts, operas, and other events at the Chan Centre

Relevant threads