Bus | Float Plane | Train | Boat
Bus Tours
One of the wonderful things about Vancouver is that it offers so many different kinds of tours. You can tour by bus, float plane, train, boat or a combination of these. Here is a run down of your tour options and links to get you to the right place if you want to sign up.
Vancouver See It All Tour – If you have a day in Vancouver and want to make the most of your time, then I recommend the See It All Tour. It begins with a morning visit to Capilano Suspension Bridge, and Park with its Cliff Walk, extensive Gift Shop and its Tree Top Adventure.
Then it’s on up the hill to the base of Grouse Mountain where you’ll board the Skyride for your 8 minute ride to the top of the mountain. Here you’ll find excellent cafes, an exciting Lumberjack Show, entertaining movies, chair lift rides, grizzly bear refuge and the Eye of the Wind power generator. After you come down the mountain, you will have a break before boarding the bus for a two hour mini tour of Vancouver’s highlights.
Vancouver City Highlights Tour – This tour lasts 4 hours, includes pick up and drop off at your downtown Vancouver or airport hotel and the major sights of the city. This tour includes 4 stops: Stanley Park (2), Granville Island and the Vancouver Look Out with its 360 degree views of the city.
Victoria and Butchart Gardens – This 13 hour tour of Victoria includes both bus transportation and ferry transportation because Victoria is located on Vancouver Island and the only way to get there is to ferry or fly. More about the fly option later on.
This tour includes pick up and drop off at your hotel, transportation to the Tsawwassen ferry terminal about 21 miles from Vancouver, 1 hour 35 minute ferry ride from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay, transportation from the ferry to the Butchart Gardens which are beautiful year round, free time to explore Victoria, one of the most beautiful and English cities in Canada, and a return bus and ferry ride to your hotel. Many people enjoy breakfast in the cafeteria going to Victoria and dinner in the buffet on the way back.
Vancouver City and Capilano Bridge Tour – This 5.5 hour tour includes, besides pick up and drop off at your hotel, both Vancouver’s highlights, without the Look Out, and the amazing Capilano Suspension Bridge and Park with its 450 foot long suspension stretching over the Capilano Canyon, 230 feet above the Capilano River rushing below.
Other attractions at the Park include the Cliff Walk over small suspension walk ways and glass floored look outs and the Tree Top Adventures, more suspended walk ways that sway from tree to tree. The Cliff Walk took three years to build at a cost of $5.3 million. It’s built to last, as is the Suspension Bridge that was first opened in 1889. Don’t worry. It’s gone through a lot of revisions since then.
Whistler and Shannon Falls Tour - This 11 hour tour includes pick up and drop off at your hotel, a drive along the spectacular Sea to Sky highway as it hugs the coastline from Vancouver to Squamish, with stops along the way.
En route to Squamish, you’ll stop at Shannon Falls, BC’s third highest waterfall. Watching the water fall around you is exhilarating and literally breath taking. When you arrive in the village of Squamish, you’ll stop at the Lil’wat Cultural Centre with its exhibits, movies and gift shop.
Then its on to Whistler, your final destination. Whistler, site of the 2010 Winter Olympics is one of the most popular winter ski destinations and summer playgrounds in North Amverica. In Whistler, you’ll find high end hotels and restaurants, cozy cafes, excellent shopping, zip lines, mountain bikes and riders and beauty wherever you turn in this pedestrian only village. You’ll have free time to explore Whistler’s shops, trails, chair lifts, zip lines and excellent restaurants.
Grouse Mountain & Capilano Bridge Tour – This 6.5 hour tour with pick up and drop off at your hotel includes both the Capilano Suspension Bridge and Park AND Grouse Mountain. You’ll start with a quick transfer from downtown Vancouver to the base of Grouse Mountain where you’ll board the Grouse Mountain Skyride for your 8 minute ride to the top of the mountain.
In Winter, Grouse Mountain has snow, entertaining movies about the area, excellent restaurants, two orphaned grizzly bears, if they aren’t hibernating, and ice skating.
If you don’t have time for a 4 hour or longer tour, consider one of the Hop On, Hop Off Vancouver bus tours. They pick up and drop off at convenient locations around the city year round. If you don’t feel like getting off the bus, you can get a snap shot of the city in two hours.
Vancouver Float Plane Tours
Vancouver Panorama Tours - Three Panorama tours are available: 10 minute, 20 minute and 35 minute. These tours give you a chance to see the city and surrounding water and wilderness from the air. There is no better way to appreciate Vancouver’s incredible location, balanced between the water and the wilds, than to experience by float plane. Flights are available daily year round, weather permitting.
Victoria Fly and Ferry - This all day package is really perfect. You take off from Vancouver’s downtown harbour by float plane for a 30 minute flight to downtown Victoria. You’ll land in Victoria’s Inner Harbour, just 5 minutes from the Empress Hotel. Flight leave Vancouver for Victoria every 20 minutes in the morning and you can fly when you want. Once you’ve had a chance to explore Victoria and visit the Butchart Gardens (optional), go whale watching (optional) or enjoy high tea at the Empress (optional), you will board a bus in Victoria for the 40 minute drive to the ferry terminal at Swartz Bay and your return to downtown Vancouver. Buffet dinner (optional) is available on the ferry. This package is also available with flights in both directions.
Alpine Lakes & Glaciers – This 1.25 hour tour includes a 30 minute flight to a hidden alpine lake on Mt. Manquam (8450 feet) with a landing on the lake and 15 minutes to explore. Or, if you want to spend an hour at the lake, order the picnic lunch and make this a truly memorable experience.
Horseshoe Bay Fly and Dine – This evening adventure begins at 6 or 7:00 PM, depending on the season. It includes a 20 minute Panorama flight. However, instead of taking off and landing in the downtown Vancouver harbour, you will be dropped off at Horseshoe Bay, a spectacular, isolated marina full of intereting water craft and ferries that travel between Horseshoe Bay and Bowen Island and between Horseshoe Bay and Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. After your plane lands and taxis to the float plane doc, you will walk to the Boathouse marina side restaurant for a three course dinner. After dinner a limousine will be waiting to take you back to downtown Vancouver, a thirty minute ride.
Zodiac Fly and Dine – This 5 hour afternoon experience (beginning between 12:00 – 3:00 PM, depending on the season) includes pick up at your hotel, transportation to Horseshoe Bay, a 30 minute scenic drive from downtown. When you reach Horseshoe Bay, you will dress in Expedition suits for your two hour guided nature tour by Zodiac, a 12 person inflatable, open boat. At the conclusion of the tour, you’ll shed your expedition suit and stroll to the Boathouse restaurant for an early three course dinner including your choice of appetizer, entree and dessert. After dinner, you’ll get back to downtown Vancouver via a 20 minute Panorama float plane tour. Because float planes fly by sight and not by instruments, you will be back in downtown Vancouver before dark.
Whistler Train Tours
Whistler Rail and Bus Tour - This all day tour includes transportation from downtown Vancouver to the North Vancouver train station, three hours aboard the Rocky Mountaineer train from Vancouver to Whistler including a hot breakfast on the train. When you arrive at the Whistler train station, a tour bus will be waiting to take you on a tour of Whistler before dropping you off in Whistler Village for time to explore, eat, ride the Peak to Peak gondola or try the zip lines. In the afternoon, you will return to Vancouver, stopping along the way to visit Shannon Falls.
Whistler Rail and Wings – This day long tour includes the Rocky Mountaineer train in one direction and a float plane in the other. You can fly up in the morning and return by train in the afternoon or take the train to Whistler and return by float plane. Planes take off and land at Green Lake, on the outskirts of Whistler, and transportation is provided to and from the float plane dock. This is a magical tour with spectacular views from the train and, if possible, even more spectacular views from the float plane on the 35 minute flight between Vancouver’s downtown Coal Harbour and Whistler’s Green Lake.
Rocky Mountaineer Train to Whistler & Return – If you want as much time on the train as possible, we recommend taking the Rocky Mountaineer Whistler train in both directions. This package includes pick up and drop off in downtown Vancouver and transfer to and from the North Vancouver train station. Includes breakfast on the way to Whistler and a late lunch on the return. You’ll have access to the observation car with open windows and places to sit and stand for the best views and the clearest pictures.
