Make plans to enjoy a day, or a week, in Vancouver this holiday season and enjoy some of these amazing attractions and Vancouver traditions part of your stay! 

Start by participating in one of Vancouver’s most enduring Christmas traditions, The Carol Ship Parade!  Dozens of private and commercial vessels decked out in their finest Christmas lights, decorations and sound systems, take to the inland water ways around Vancouver for three weeks in December every year.  All three of the Harbour Cruises vessels embrace the festivities with decorations from bow to stern and celebrate the annual tradition with nightly dinner or dinner and dance cruises that feature live Christmas Carolers to lead you in all the Yuletide favourites. 

Enjoy a spectacular holiday feast featuring slow roasted turkey, baked honey glazed ham with all the trimmings rounds out this wonderful holiday event.  Special event pricing applies to these festivities please visit boatcruises.com for availability and booking. 

Rainy Weather Doesn’t Stop Vancouverites, Don’t Let it Stop You!

Fall has arrived and winter is not far behind, shorter days and rainy weather in Vancouver means it’s time take it indoors to get active, learn a thing or two and take in some exceptional exhibits at some of our best attractions.

Families should check out Science World at Telus World of Science, for a hands-on experience where interactive displays let kids and grown-ups explore the wonder of science.  Burn a little more energy when you visit the BC Sports Hall of Fame at BC Place Stadium, dynamic exhibits tell the history of sport, and BC’s sport heroes while the participation zone lets everyone test their athletic abilities.  Add a Behind the Scenes Tour of BC Place for a truly unique experience. Book these two great family attractions now and save 20% on your admissions, add a visit to the Beaty Biodiversity Museum at UBC, BC’s only natural history museum housing over 2.1 million specimens to discover, and save 25% on each attraction.

Northern Biodiversity the Focus of Species at Risk meeting
By Rick Taylor, Director of the Beaty Biodiversity Museum & Chair, Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) on May 9, 2017
Canada’s north is home to some spectacular biodiversity – think Polar Bear, Narwhal, Walrus, Caribou, and a small songbird, the Northern Wheatear, that makes an astonishing 21,000 km migration (one way!) from wintering grounds in sub-Sahara Africa to breeding grounds in the Yukon! Worryingly, much of this biodiversity is at risk from habitat loss and over-harvest. Further, high-latitude regions of the world are among those experiencing the greatest degree of climate change, which is exacerbating declines and may prevent recovery.

Have you seen Henry?

April 14, 2017

Henry is the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park’s (wild) resident Great Blue Heron. He has been a favorite among the guests and nature guides for several years now because he adds excellent commentary to our hourly tours! If you are a regular visitor to the park, you may have noticed that Henry has not been hanging around the West Side of the park lately, but don’t fear! While Great Blue Herons are generally solitary birds, once a year, in the spring, the birds get together to mate. It wont be long until Henry is back lounging around the large pond waiting to enthrall guests with his magical abilities to scoop fish out of the water and eat them whole! Henry is surprisingly easy to spot, and that may be thanks to the monopoly he has on the rainbow trout living in the ponds as he has grown quite large over the years! If you get a chance to come visit, I suggest to come around lunchtime, then, you just might be lucky enough to catch the nature guides feeding the fish; this is Henry’s favorite time of the day because the fish are easy pickings! I don’t think you have lived until you see a Great Blue Heron eating a live rainbow trout right in front of you!

With around 6000 taxa of plants distributed over 10 different gardens, UBC Botanical Garden is a bona fide source of biodiversity in Vancouver. Helping maintain it is a small army of horticulturists that regularly incorporate new members into their ranks, some of whom come from the Garden’s Horticulture Training Program (HTP). Launched in 2012, it is the only full-time program of its kind in Metro Vancouver north of the Fraser River, and aims to teach the skills necessary to enter the field of horticulture through eight months of instruction, from late summer to spring.