City Walking Tours in BC

The best way to get to know a place is on foot—leisurely walking tours allow you to see things that you may not spot from a car or on a sightseeing bus. Many communities offer guided tours, where local experts share their knowledge and answer questions, or self-guided routes, with maps and printed information available either for free or at a small cost.

Walking tours are available across BC, and most focus on a central theme, including local history and/or architecture, food, and art. Below are some highlights.

Vancouver

Vibrant architecture in Gastown. Photo: @mardavphotography via Instagram

BC’s largest city boasts the widest variety of tours, and the logical starting point is in Gastown, the birthplace of Vancouver. Take a self-guided stroll amid the neighbourhood’s heritage buildings, or book a guided tour with Forbidden Vancouver to learn about Gastown’s scandalous past. The Vancouver Heritage Foundation schedules informative guided walking tours in downtown Vancouver and beyond.

Want to eat and drink your way through the city? Vancouver Foodie Tours offer several delicious options, including their authentic Asian Eats tour which allows you to sample some of the best Chinese food in North America, and their Granville Island Market Tour, an introduction to the bustling public market, complete with 20+ tastings.

A Wok Around Chinatown highlights the culinary and cultural significance of Vancouver’s Chinatown, and the tour culminates in an exquisite dim sum lunch. For beer lovers, a walking tour with Vancouver Brewery Tours includes three breweries in the city’s Brewery Creek district, while the Craft Beer n’ Bites Tour of Gastown teaches the art of pairing food and beer.

Vancouver is home to a multitude of public art installations, many of which can be admired along one of the city’s self-guided public art walking tours. If the supernatural appeals, join Ghostly Vancouver Tours and explore some of the city’s most haunted locales. Or join a local Meetup group for a neighbourhood tour complete with tips on capturing the perfect pics with Vancouver Photowalks.

Victoria

Narrow Fan Tan Alley. Photo: @kristinacoresis via Instagram

BC’s capital, founded in 1843, is the oldest city in Western Canada. It is home to some amazing, turn-of-the-century architecture—think castles—and there’s a strong British influence here. Book a tour with Discover the Past or Come See Victoria to hear colourful local stories. Discover the Past’s Ghostly Walks is a popular option.

To combine walking with food and drink, Off the Eaten Track offers three tours, including an Eat Like a Canadian tour. Victoria is home to Canada’s first licensed brewpub, Spinnakers, and the city remains at the forefront of the craft beer movement. The BC Ale Trail highlights four brewpubs along the city’s Beer Mile, among others. A fun alternative is the Victoria Harbour Ferry’s Pickle Pub Crawls, where your ticket includes four trips on the passenger ferries that traverse the Inner Harbour, and free appetizers at some of the city’s favourite pubs.

Whistler

Fall brings out Whistler Village’s colourful side. Photo: Blake Jorgenson

Known as a year-round outdoor adventure mecca, Whistler boasts enough diverse activities—from skiing and snowmobiling in winter, to hiking and ziplining in summer—to keep everyone in your group busy and very, very happy. To help you get oriented, the Resort Municipality of Whistler has put together a number of unique Self-Guided tours around the village that you can access via a free app.

Once you’re familiar with the layout on the ground, take to the treetops for further exploration. Ziptrek Ecotours offers an educational and scenic walk through the canopy on their TreeTrek Tour. Get up close and personal with old-growth cedar, hemlock, and fir trees as you cross a series of suspension bridges and learn about this delicate ecosystem. End the day on a guided dining tour with Whistler Tasting Tours and see why Whistler is lauded for its culinary scene, as well as its natural beauty.

Other BC Communities

Downtown Nelson combines attractive buildings with stunning natural scenery. Photo: Dave Heath

Walking tours are popular in other parts of the province as well, with many focused on art and architecture. The city of Nelson is charming, with more than 350 designated heritage buildings dotting the hillside. A self-guided walking tour takes you past several that were built between 1895 and 1924. Similarly, the city of Revelstoke has put together a Heritage Walking Tour brochure that details three routes highlighting residential and commercial buildings of historical significance. The Revelstoke Museum and Archives offers guided downtown heritage walks, as well as tours of the Mountain View Cemetery.

If visual mediums are more your thing, Kelowna is a city that takes the arts very seriously. Dozens of pieces of public art, from sculptures to murals, are identified in the city’s Guide to Public Art, and a handful of artist studios and galleries can be seen along downtown Kelowna’s Art Crawl. Alternatively, head to Castlegar and follow their extensive Sculpturewalk. In the summer months, several BC communities hold ArtWalks, where pieces by local artists are on display in commercial spaces around town.