Sleep at Burnaby Cariboo RV Park, a hedged, paved pad next to Burnaby Lake, and walk the marsh boardwalks at Piper Spit in the morning before you head out of town. Herons work the water from the viewing tower, and the loop around the lake is enough to stretch your legs off the pad. The catch worth knowing before you book: no campfires here, not even a propane pit, under a Burnaby city bylaw.
The pad runs on 30-amp full hookups and stays open year-round. Summer weekends and long weekends fill the full-hookup rows, so reserve those; drive-ins are welcome the rest of the year.
Where to point the van from here
Porteau Cove puts you on the Howe Sound waterfront up Highway 99; the North Vancouver lander covers that overnight.
Golden Ears and Alouette Lake are the nearest big-forest night, the same easy run east on Highway 1, and Maple Ridge is where to plan it.
For Vancouver Island, the ferry from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay is the trip itself, and the Vancouver lander has the crossing.
The Stawamus Chief and Garibaldi sit up the Sea-to-Sky in Squamish.
If a van feels tight and you'd rather have a full-size motorhome, Cariboo takes any size rig, and you can size up to an RV in Burnaby. For everywhere else in the province, the British Columbia hub has the rest of the landers.