Coquitlam is situated some 10 to 15 km (7 to 10 miles) east of Vancouver (located at 49°17′0″N, 122°47′30″W), where the Coquitlam River connects with the Fraser River and extends northeast along the Pitt River toward the Coquitlam and Pitt lakes. Like Vancouver, Coquitlam is in the Pacific Time Zone (winter UTC−8, summer UTC−7), and the Pacific Maritime Ecozone.

Coquitlam borders Burnaby and Port Moody to the west, New Westminster to the southwest, Port Coquitlam to the southeast, and the Coast Mountains to the north.
 

The Coast Salish were the first people to live in this area. The word Kwikwetlem means "smell like fish" in the Halkomelem language ^[2]. Simon Fraser came through the region in 1808, and in the 1860s Europeans gradually started settling the area.

Coquitlam began as a "place-in-between" since the area was opened up with the construction of North Road in the mid-1800s. While the purpose of the road was to provide Royal Engineers in New Westminster access to the year-round port facilities in Port Moody, the effect was to provide access to the vast area between and to the east. This led to a period of settlement and agriculture, providing slow and steady growth leading up to incorporation of the municipality of the District of Coquitlam in 1891.