The mountains start where the buses stop. Book accordingly.
Which whale boat has a covered deck. What the seaplane over Coal Harbour really costs. Whether Whistler or Victoria is the better single day out of the city. Reviews of every tour you can book in Vancouver.
Whales, a float plane, the seawall and the road to Whistler.
Four bookings a first Vancouver week gets built around. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The half day outVancouver Half-Day Whale Watching Adventure with Free PhotosOrcas and humpbacks in the Salish Sea, back at the dock by dinner. Boats run roughly April to October and the calm-water mornings go first.
02The twenty minutesScenic Panorama Seaplane TourOff the water at Coal Harbour, over Stanley Park and the freighters, down again. The cheapest way to understand the shape of this city.
03The seawall dayThe Grand Bicycle Tour by Cycle City ToursTwenty-two kilometres of flat waterfront path, a bike, and somebody who knows which cafe to stop at. No hills, no traffic.
04The road northWhistler & Sea to Sky Gondola with Shannon FallsShannon Falls, the Sea to Sky Gondola, then Whistler village, all in one long day out of downtown.
Vancouver is a basecamp, and the good days are all north or across the water.
One highway runs up the fjord to Whistler. One ferry crosses to Victoria. One suspension bridge and one gondola sit twenty minutes from downtown. Four kinds of day out, what each costs to board, and how long it takes.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Whistler & Sea to Sky Gondola with Shannon Falls
Up the Sea to SkyShannon Falls, the gondola, then Whistler village.
Across to VictoriaThe ferry through the Gulf Islands and the Butchart beds.
Over the canyonRainforest, a swaying deck and the Cliffwalk, half an hour out.
Above Howe SoundA cable car to a ridge, a suspension bridge and the fjord below.
All 126 tours and day trips in Vancouver →
The days out that fill before anything else in Vancouver.
Every Vancouver review →More travellers take these than anything else in the city, and each one earns the slot for a different reason.
1
Vancouver Half-Day Whale Watching Adventure with Free Photos
Cruise from Granville Island aboard a 95-passenger catamaran with heated cabins, open decks, hot drinks, and wildlife photographers. Guides such as Petra, Ashley, Wilma, and Megan may share local ecology and help identify orcas, humpbacks, seals, sea lions, and eagles. Free photos arrive by email.
From · $193
Read our review →
2
Big Bus Vancouver Hop-On Hop-Off Sightseeing Tour
from $48
3
Victoria & Butchart Gardens Tour with Ferry from Vancouver
from $228
4
Covered Whale Watching Adventure with Free Photos
from $188
5
Victoria and Butchart Gardens Day Trip from Vancouver
from $232
6
Gastown Historic Walking Food Tour
from $116
7
The Grand Bicycle Tour by Cycle City Tours
from $96
8
Capilano Suspension Bridge Park Ticket
from $61
Half of Vancouver is only visible from a boat or a float plane.
The city sits on a working harbour with a mountain range behind it, and the view that sells the place is from out in the water looking back. Whale boats south into the Salish Sea, zodiacs up Indian Arm, seaplanes off the Coal Harbour ramp.
Six Vancouver places worth building a day around.
A thousand-acre park you can ride around, a canyon on a rope bridge, a peak with a chairlift, an island market under a bridge, the oldest brick streets in the city, and a tower with the whole harbour laid out beneath it.
What a day out in Vancouver actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. Plenty of the best Vancouver days come in well under the price of a ticket to the top of anything.
Walking tours of Gastown and Chinatown, the Lookout, a bike along the seawall, a pub crawl.
The standards: Capilano and Grouse, a harbour boat, the food walks, a bike guide for the day.
Whale boats, float planes, the Victoria ferry day and the long run north to Whistler.
Gastown, Chinatown and a market island, all within a walk.
The good eating in Vancouver is stacked in a few streets: dim sum and dried seafood in Chinatown, small plates in the brick blocks of Gastown, and a public market on Granville Island that a ferry the size of a bathtub crosses to.
Every Vancouver food tour →
Three things that only happen on this stretch of coast.
Rope bridges, float planes and waterfront bike paths exist elsewhere. Not stacked into one afternoon, twenty minutes apart, with a mountain range on one side and the Pacific on the other.
The Capilano Bridge
A hundred and thirty-seven metres of cable and cedar plank, seventy metres above the Capilano River, first strung in 1889 out of hemp rope. It moves when other people walk on it, which is the point. On the far side the Treetops walkway runs bridge to bridge through the Douglas firs, and the Cliffwalk is bolted straight onto the granite.
- 1Capilano Suspension Bridge Park Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,814 reviews
- 2Vancouver Tour: Stanley Park, Granville Island & Capilano Bridge★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,778 reviews
- 3Vancouver City Sightseeing Tour: Capilano Suspension Bridge & Vancouver Lookout★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,556 reviews
The Coal Harbour Float Planes
Vancouver runs a commuter airport on the water at the foot of Burrard Street, and the same de Havilland Beavers that fly to Victoria will take you up for twenty minutes over the park, the freighters at anchor and the North Shore snow line. Take a window on the left going out and the right coming back.
- 1Scenic Panorama Seaplane Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,395 reviews
- 2Vancouver Panorama Scenic Seaplane Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,109 reviews
- 3Scenic Panorama Seaplane Tour & Suspension Bridge★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 569 reviews
The Stanley Park Seawall
The seawall was built by one man, James Cunningham, over most of thirty years, and it now runs an uninterrupted flat loop around a thousand acres of coastal rainforest. Ride it counter-clockwise because that is the law of the path, and stop at Third Beach on the western side when the sun drops behind the island.
- 1The Grand Bicycle Tour by Cycle City Tours★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,827 reviews
- 2Epic Electric Bike Tour by Cycle City Tours★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 848 reviews
- 3The Stanley Park Bicycle Tour by Cycle City Tours★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 785 reviews
Four Vancouver days that will not wait for you.
Most of this city can be sorted out over breakfast. These four run on seasons, ferry timetables, weather windows and a single departure a day, none of which care when your plane gets in.
- 01Vancouver Half-Day Whale Watching Adventure with Free PhotosThe boats run roughly April to October and stop for the winter. Inside that window the flat-water mornings go first.
- 02Victoria & Butchart Gardens Tour with Ferry from VancouverThe day runs on ferry sailings across the Strait of Georgia. Miss the crossing and there is no second one that gets you back.
- 03Scenic Panorama Seaplane TourA few seats a flight, and the pilot cancels for cloud on the North Shore. Book early in your stay so there is a day left to move it to.
- 04Whistler & Sea to Sky Gondola with Shannon FallsOne coach a morning up the Sea to Sky, and it leaves downtown before most people are awake. There is no later one.
Vancouver rain is not a washout, it is a change of plan.
This coast gets something like a hundred and sixty wet days a year, most of them between November and March, and almost none of them heavy. Locals do not cancel, they move indoors and under cover: market halls, brewery tasting rooms, dim sum, and a lift to the top of the Harbour Centre where the cloud is often below you.
By place, downtown to the far side of the water
Stanley Parkfrom $30
Gastownfrom $21- Granville Islandfrom $17
Chinatownfrom $75- Capilano Canyonfrom $59
Grouse Mountainfrom $67
Whistlerfrom $36- Victoriafrom $69
- Everything in Vancouver →
By kind of day, on the water, on wheels or at a table
Park, brick streets, canyon, harbour, then the road north.
The harbourThe newest Vancouver tour reviews.
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Private Port Transfer Canada Place Cruise Ship Terminal to Vancouver Airport YVR
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Vancouver to Victoria – Vancouver Cruise Terminal Pickup – Coach Bus Transfer
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Arrival Private Transfer Vancouver YVR or Cruise Port to Vancouver by Minibus
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Street Art & Craft Beer Walking Tour with Tasting
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Craft Beer Tasting and Neighborhood Culture Crawl
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Vancouver City Tour+VipCar+Stanley Park+ChinaTown/SmallGroup
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