The water, the canyon and the mountain. Vancouver fits all three into a day.
Which whale boat sails again free when nothing surfaces. What the Sea to Sky day costs once the gondola is added. Whether Victoria is worth the ferry. Reviews of every tour you can book in Vancouver.
A whale boat, the canyon bridge, the road north, the ferry to Victoria.
The four days a first Vancouver trip gets built around. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The morning afloatVancouver Half-Day Whale Watching Adventure with Free PhotosOut past Point Grey to the humpback and orca grounds. Boats run spring to autumn and the summer sailings go first.
02The canyon dayCapilano Suspension Bridge Park TicketA cedar plank walkway strung seventy metres over the Capilano river, with the cliff walk and the treetop bridges on the far side.
03The road northWhistler & Sea to Sky Gondola with Shannon FallsHowe Sound the whole way up, the gondola at Squamish, then the afternoon in Whistler village.
04The island dayVictoria & Butchart Gardens Tour with Ferry from VancouverThe ferry through the Gulf Islands, the Empress on the inner harbour, Butchart in the afternoon.
Vancouver is a working harbour. Book at least one day off the seawall and onto it.
Three kinds of day afloat, what it costs to get aboard each one, and what the deck actually gives you that the shore does not.
Six places in Vancouver a whole day gets built around.
A thousand acres of rainforest on the downtown doorstep, a plank bridge over a canyon, a cobbled quarter with a steam clock, a public market on an island, a ski mountain fifteen minutes from the office towers, and the view down onto all of it.
The Vancouver days more travellers book than any other.
Every Vancouver review →What fills earliest in a city with a short season and small boats.
1
Vancouver Half-Day Whale Watching Adventure with Free Photos
Review of Vancouver’s half-day whale-watching cruise, with heated cabins, free wildlife photos, expert guides, wildlife tips, and practical value advice.
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
Some of the best Vancouver days begin by leaving Vancouver.
Ninety minutes north the road stops being suburb and becomes fjord. Ninety minutes west it drives onto a ferry. Both are day trips, and both are back in time for dinner downtown.
- 1Victoria & Butchart Gardens Tour with Ferry from Vancouverfrom $228
- 2Victoria and Butchart Gardens Day Trip from Vancouverfrom $232
- 3Whistler & Sea to Sky Gondola with Shannon Fallsfrom $173
What a day out in Vancouver actually costs.
Every tour on the site grouped by price. The cheap end here is a good deal better than the brochures let on.
Gastown walks, the Lookout ticket, the market food walk and the shuttle up the Sea to Sky road.
Capilano entry, the seawall bike days, harbour boats and the coach to Whistler.
Whale boats, floatplane flights, the Victoria and Butchart day and the runs into the Rockies.
Stanley Park is a rainforest with a city built around the edge of it.
A thousand acres of cedar and hemlock inside a nine-kilometre seawall, ten minutes on foot from the office towers. Bikes beat walking, and the kayaks launch from the same shoreline.
Three things Vancouver does that nowhere else quite manages.
Plenty of cities keep a harbour with a mountain behind it. Very few let you take off from downtown water, walk a canyon at branch height and be on a ski lift before the coffee has gone cold.
The Harbour Airport
Coal Harbour has its own aerodrome: a lane of water between the convention centre and Stanley Park where floatplanes take off all day long. Twenty minutes in the air buys the delta, the North Shore peaks and the Fraser laid flat below. Low cloud grounds the whole fleet, which makes the first flights of the morning the safe ones to book.
- 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 Capilano Bridge
A cedar plank walkway hangs a hundred and thirty-seven metres across the Capilano canyon, seventy metres above the river, and it moves under a crowd. On the far side a cliff walk is bolted straight into the granite and a run of bridges threads the Douglas firs at branch height. First hour or last hour, or you will queue on the deck.
- 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
Grouse Mountain
The Skyride lifts you from a suburban car park to eleven hundred metres in eight minutes, and the city you just left lies flat underneath. In winter it is a working ski hill lit for night runs; in summer it is lumberjack shows, a grizzly enclosure and a chairlift on to the real summit.
- 1Grouse Mountain & Capilano Bridge Tour with Fish Hatchery★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,275 reviews
- 2Capilano Suspension Bridge + Grouse Mountain Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 908 reviews
- 3Grouse Mountain Admission Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 474 reviews
Four Vancouver bookings that run on somebody else’s calendar.
Most of this city can be sorted the night before over a beer in Gastown. These four answer to a season, a ferry timetable, the weather and the number of seats in a small aircraft.
- 01Vancouver Half-Day Whale Watching Adventure with Free PhotosThe whales are on this coast roughly April to October. Outside that window there is nothing to sail for, and inside it the July and August departures go first.
- 02Scenic Panorama Seaplane TourA floatplane carries a handful of passengers and will not fly into low cloud. One weather morning pushes everybody onto the next available flight.
- 03Victoria & Butchart Gardens Tour with Ferry from VancouverThe whole day hangs off a ferry timetable, and the sailing home is the one part of it nobody gets to move.
- 04Whistler & Sea to Sky Gondola with Shannon FallsWind shuts the gondolas at Squamish and on Grouse at short notice. Check the mountain before you commit to the drive north.
Vancouver rains from October to March. Change the venue, not the day.
Nobody here cancels for weather, they move indoors. The market halls on Granville Island, the tasting rooms in Yaletown and Mount Pleasant, a food walk through Chinatown and Gastown, and the view from the Lookout all read better under grey than under glare.
Gastown: cobbles, a steam clock and the best bar block in the city.
The oldest quarter in Vancouver is six blocks of Victorian brick with a whistling clock on the corner and a run of izakayas, taprooms and cocktail rooms behind it. It photographs best in the wet, which is convenient.
Every Gastown walk →
By place — the city, the North Shore and the coast
By kind of day — water, forest, road or table
Gastown, the park, the market, the canyon, the mountain, the road north.
The newest Vancouver tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Street Art & Craft Beer Walking Tour with Tasting
Read our review →
Guided Hiking Highlights at Grouse & Lynn Canyon
Read our review →
Craft Beer Tasting and Neighborhood Culture Crawl
Read our review →
Arrival Private Transfer Vancouver YVR or Cruise Port to Vancouver by Minibus
Read our review →
Snowshoeing At The Top Of The Sea To Sky Gondola
Read our review →
