Coquitlam is one of the largest of the Vancouver suburbs — a city of around 150,000 people set against the foothills of the Coast Mountains, about 25 km east of downtown Vancouver. The name comes from the Halkomelem language of the Kwikwetlem First Nation and refers to the red salmon that once spawned in vast numbers in the local rivers. There is no historical core to speak of: Coquitlam grew up in the 20th century as a mill town and a railway junction, and the 1960s and 70s converted it into the planned suburb that most visitors see today.
For a traveller staying in Vancouver, Coquitlam is mostly a base from which to reach the mountains and parks that ring the city's north and east. Its draws lie at its edges. Minnekhada Regional Park on the floodplain of the Pitt River is one of the more rewarding wetland-and-forest parks in the Lower Mainland, with grizzly tracks occasionally turning up and a high concentration of wintering raptors. The trail up Burke Mountain is the most accessible "real" alpine hike from central Vancouver — a steady climb through second-growth hemlock to a long subalpine ridge.
The city centre area around the Coquitlam Town Centre has been substantially built up since the Evergreen SkyTrain line opened in 2016. Town Centre Park, with Lafarge Lake at its centre, hosts the annual Lights at Lafarge winter festival (Metro Vancouver's largest free light display) and a series of outdoor concerts in summer. The Evergreen Cultural Centre is the main theatre and gallery space for the city.
For a stop on the way to or from Vancouver, Coquitlam is not a destination in its own right but a convenient base. The SkyTrain Millennium Line runs from downtown Vancouver to Coquitlam Central station in about 50 minutes, making the city a reasonable place to stay if you want to combine urban Vancouver with the mountain country to the east and north.
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