What Does a Resort-Style Backyard Actually Cost in the Lower Mainland?
A lot of homeowners in the Lower Mainland are searching for the same thing. They want a backyard that feels like a West Coast resort — warm, natural, unhurried — and they have no idea what it actually costs or where to begin.
So let’s talk about that honestly.
First, What Are We Actually Building?
A resort-inspired backyard is not one thing. It is a collection of decisions that work together to create a feeling. Natural materials like basalt, granite, and cedar. Layered West Coast planting with ferns, Japanese maples, and evergreen shrubs. A fire feature surrounded by comfortable seating. Soft, warm lighting that makes evenings outside feel intimate. Sometimes a water feature. Sometimes a covered structure.
The more of these elements you include, the more immersive the space becomes — and the more the investment grows.
What Does It Cost? Here’s an Honest Range.
This is the question most landscaping companies avoid. We are not going to do that.
Entry-level resort feel: $50,000 – $80,000
This range gets you quality natural materials, a fire feature, thoughtful planting, and basic landscape lighting. The space will feel intentional and warm, but it will be edited. You are choosing the elements that matter most to you.
Mid-range transformation: $100,000 – $150,000
At this level you are adding covered structures, more extensive planting, layered lighting, a water feature, and higher-end hardscaping. The space starts to feel genuinely immersive. This is where most full backyard transformations in the Lower Mainland land.
Full resort experience: $150,000 and up
This is a complete outdoor living environment. Outdoor kitchens, premium structures, custom water features, mature specimen plantings, and integrated lighting systems. Spaces at this level are designed to be used every season and feel like a true extension of your home.
These are ranges, not quotes. Every project is shaped by your yard size, existing conditions, site access, and the specific elements you want. But this gives you an honest starting point.
Is This Right for Your Yard? Here’s How to Know.
Not every backyard is a candidate for this kind of transformation — and a good landscaper should tell you that upfront.
This approach works best when:
- You have at least 400 to 600 square feet of usable outdoor space
- Your yard gets reasonable light, or you are willing to design around shade
- You plan to stay in your home for at least five to seven years
- You want to genuinely use the space, not just improve your property value
If you are planning to sell in two years or your yard is very limited in size, we would have a different conversation with you. There are still things we can do, but the full resort concept may not be the right investment.
The Three Questions That Actually Shape Your Design
Before we talk about plants or fire pits or lighting, we ask every client the same three questions.
How do you want to feel when you step outside?
Calm and restorative? Social and energized? Private and tucked away? The answer changes everything about the design.
How do you actually use your backyard right now?
Not how you wish you used it — how you actually use it. Morning coffee? Weekend entertaining? Kids playing? Dogs running? Real use patterns shape better spaces than aspirational ones.
What would make you go outside more often?
This question usually cuts right to it. The answer tells us what is missing and what would genuinely change your relationship with your outdoor space.
What the Process Looks Like
Consultation. We walk your space together, talk through your goals and your budget, and give you an honest read on what is possible.
Design. We develop a concept that reflects how you want to use the space. You will see it before anything is built.
Timeline. Most projects in this range take four to twelve weeks depending on scope and season. We will give you a realistic schedule upfront, not an optimistic one.
Investment conversation. We will not surprise you. Before any work begins, you will know exactly what you are spending and why.
A Real Project: From Flat and Functional to a Private Retreat
A couple came to us wanting their backyard to feel like a vacation — warm, elegant, and a place they could genuinely escape to without leaving home. Their style landed somewhere between classic and contemporary. They called it “elegant traditional with a modern flair,” and that phrase guided every decision we made.
The honest complications first.
Access from the street was limited, which meant our standard excavating equipment could not get in. We pivoted to smaller machinery, took a little longer, and levelled the yard anyway. Projects rarely go exactly as planned — how a contractor handles the unexpected matters as much as the original design.
What we built.
Directly off the house, a custom pergola covers the main living area — grill centre, dining, and a free-standing gas firepit with comfortable seating. The stonework matches the home’s exterior seamlessly, and a retaining wall separates this zone from the garden beyond, creating a natural sense of layers.
Further into the yard, a private sun retreat enclosed by louvered slats and decorative metal panels gives the homeowners a place to completely disappear. A misting feature makes summer afternoons genuinely comfortable rather than something to escape from.
Between the two areas, synthetic turf keeps the space crisp and low-maintenance. Large porcelain tiles and natural stone carry the elegant, high-end feel throughout.
The planting keeps it alive year-round.
A flowering cherry anchors the garden beds — one of the most spectacular things a Lower Mainland backyard can offer in spring, with clouds of soft pink blossom before a single leaf appears. Through summer it provides graceful canopy and shade. By fall the foliage turns warm amber and gold before it drops. Hydrangeas bring generous blooms from midsummer into fall, adding the kind of soft abundance that makes a space feel genuinely lush. Layered with ornamental grasses and evergreen shrubs, the garden has structure and colour in every season, including a grey Lower Mainland January.
The outcome.
Two distinct outdoor experiences — a social zone and a private retreat — connected by a yard that is beautiful, easy to maintain, and actually used. The couple told us they stopped feeling like they needed to get away. The backyard became the destination.
Total investment for this project was in the mid-range we described above.
If you want to see more of the finished space, have a look at the full project here.
Still Not Sure If This Is for You?
A resort-style backyard is not about copying a magazine photo. It is about understanding how you want to feel when you step outside. Do you want calm or vibrancy. Do you want privacy or openness. Do you want a place to host or a place to retreat.
Your preferences set the tone. Your routines shape the design. Your desired lifestyle becomes the guide.
Contact Vandenberg Landscapes today to begin creating your own private retreat.
—Matt Vandenberg
