Vancouver, Canada: Self-Guided Walking Tour

Visitors looking for the best things to do in Vancouver will discover a dynamic coastal city where striking architecture, rich Indigenous heritage, and outdoor spaces meet. Located between the Pacific Ocean and the Coast Mountains in British Columbia, this vibrant Canadian destination offers cultural institutions, historic districts, and scenic parks. Neywo features a free audio guide for Vancouver with 96 narrated places to help travellers explore the city at their own pace.

What to See in Vancouver

Downtown and Arts Venues

In the heart of downtown, the Vancouver Art Gallery occupies a 15,300-square-metre building at 750 Hornby Street beside Robson Square. As the largest art museum in Western Canada by floor area, the building originally served as a provincial courthouse designed by Francis Rattenbury before its conversion in the early 1980s, and it was named a National Historic Site of Canada in 1980. Its permanent collection features works by Emily Carr and members of the Group of Seven. Nearby, the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art showcases Indigenous artistic traditions.

Further into downtown, Rogers Arena at 800 Griffiths Way serves as home to the Vancouver Canucks and hosted ice hockey competitions during the 2010 Winter Olympics. Close by stands BC Place, a multi-purpose stadium on the north shore of False Creek that hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremonies and features a massive retractable cable-supported roof. Inside the stadium, the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame preserves the province’s sporting history, including a dedicated gallery for the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games.

Gastown and Chinatown

Vancouver’s historic neighborhoods preserve the city’s early stories. In Gastown, the Vancouver Police Museum & Archives is housed in the former Coroner’s Court building on East Cordova Street, holding roughly 20,000 objects detailing local police history. Also in Gastown, Artspeak Gallery operates as an artist-run centre founded in 1986 to explore visual art at the intersection of text and language.

In historic Chinatown, the Chinese Canadian Museum opened on July 1, 2023, inside the Wing Sang Building, the oldest brick building in the neighborhood, as Canada’s first museum dedicated entirely to Chinese Canadian history. Nearby, visitors can explore the Chinatown Storytelling Centre, which opened in November 2021 to share personal stories and experiences of the community. Additional neighborhood landmarks include the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum and the Chinese Canadian Military Museum Society.

Waterfront and Neighborhood Heritage

Along the waterfront in Vanier Park, the Vancouver Maritime Museum opened in 1959 and displays the St. Roch, the first vessel to sail west-to-east through the Northwest Passage between 1940 and 1942, alongside the deep-sea research submersible Mésoscaphe Ben Franklin. Also located in Vanier Park, the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre—sometimes called the Pacific Space Centre—opened in October 1968 and houses a planetarium star theatre, exhibit gallery, and demonstration theatre.

In the West End, the Roedde House Museum on Barclay Street is a late-Victorian home built in 1893 for Gustav Roedde and designed by Francis Rattenbury in the Queen Anne Revival style. Over in the Point Grey neighborhood, Aberthau House is a Tudor Revival mansion designed by architect Samuel Maclure that sits on the highlands, offering views of English Bay and the Gulf of Georgia. In the Downtown Eastside, Gallery Gachet is an artist-run space showcasing work by outsider artists and individuals confronting mental health challenges.

Explore Vancouver with Neywo

To experience the city thoroughly, download Neywo and let the app guide you through Vancouver. The free audio guide offers narration in 11 languages across 96 narrated places. Neywo includes 6 walking tours, 1 bus route, and 1 bike route, ranging from a 2.66 km, 78-minute walk with 8 stops (“Sails, Orcas and the Olympic Cauldron”) to a 4.66 km, 102-minute walk with 7 stops (“Stanley Park: Totems, Cannons and Seawall Sculptures”), as well as routes like the 2.85 km, 97-minute “Gastown to Chinatown: Steam, Brick and Memory” walk, the 2.65 km, 101-minute “Downtown Vancouver: Courts, Cathedrals and Curtain Calls” walk, the 2.51 km, 84-minute “English Bay and Vanier Park: Submarines, Rocket Ships and Giant Laughter” walk, and the 3.15 km, 86-minute “False Creek: Stadiums, Science World and Silver Birds” walk. Along with bus line 22 (4.6 km, 20 min, 6 stops) and the Seawall Sculptures bike route (4.4 km, 22 min, 8 stops), the app tells the story of each place as you reach it, at your own pace, with no group and no schedule.

Plan your journey across Canada and explore nearby destinations such as Victoria, Ucluelet, and Coquitlam.