Vancouver Hop-On Hop-Off Buses

Vancouver has a wealth of attractions to visit and one of the most effective ways to link the city's landmarks is to use the sightseeing bus. This option is not only popular because it will allow you to save time and money during the tour, but also because you will be able to rest between each of the activities and get to know other profiles of this destination, as you will be able to do if you opt for the night experiences.

In addition, the advantage that the city offers regarding tour buses is that you will find different transfer services, so you can choose hop on-hop off tours, guided tours, night itineraries and combined excursions, which makes this experience one of the best activities you can do in Vancouver.

Due to the size of the city, its large urban area and the relatively constant tourist influx throughout the year, Vancouver offers different tour bus services, which differ from each other in terms of the length of the tour, whether they are open or closed and the operating hours, which are usually modified during the winter in this destination. Below I will tell you about the main characteristics of each alternative.

Tourist bus with guided tour, the classic option

• It offers a closed tour of the main attractions of the city.
• It lasts approximately 3 hours and a half.
• It does not include free time at the stops.
• It is a good alternative for a quick tour of the city center of Vancouver.
• It is a daytime service.

Hop on-hop off tourist bus, the most independent option.

• It offers a permanent tour with free stops at 11 stations.
• You can opt for one or two-day passes.
• It is one of the most economical alternatives.
• It has a service frequency every half hour in summer and every hour in winter.
• It is a daytime service.

Tourist bus with tickets for the Capilano Bridge, the combined option

• It offers a closed tour from the city center to the Capilano Bridge.
• Includes tickets to visit the bridge, which is one of Vancouver's main attractions.
• Includes visits to the city's most popular neighborhoods, such as Chinatown and Granville Island.
• Includes round-trip transfers with hotel pick-up and drop-off.
• This is a daytime service.

Night tour bus, the option to see the city from a different perspective

• It offers a panoramic tour of the English Bay.
• It does not include stops in the main neighborhoods of the city.
• It will allow you to discover an alternative profile of Vancouver.
• Includes the assistance of an expert local guide.
• It is a night tour.

The guided bus tour of Vancouver is the traditional option and also one of the most comfortable. These fixed tours, which last approximately 3 hours and a half, will take you to the main attractions of the city while an expert local guide provides you with all the information you need about the sites you visit.

During the tour, this alternative will allow you to visit the neighborhoods of Granville Island, Chinatown and Gastown, which is the oldest district of the city and one of the industrial cradles of Canada. You can also visit Stanley Park and make a stop at the Prospect Point lookout, from where you can enjoy panoramic views of the skyline, especially if you plan to visit Vancouver in summer, when the sky is clear.

Usually, as an extra service, these tours offer pick-up and drop-off at the hotel and also another stop for shopping at the emblematic Robson Street, the artery that marks the commercial pulse of Vancouver and where you will find an interesting variety of stores, both national and international brands.

Finally, these excursions will end at the Vancouver Lookout Observatory, where, at extra cost, you can climb to the top to discover the city's skyscrapers, the surrounding mountains and even the immensity of the Pacific Ocean from 170 meters above sea level.

Details of interest

• Price: Approximately 55 euros per person.
• Duration: About 3 hours and a half.
• Advantages of these alternatives: You will enjoy a relaxed and organized tour, which will allow you to get a glimpse of the main sites of the city, especially if you are planning a short stay.
• Disadvantages of these alternatives: You will not have too much free time to tour the attractions on your own and in most places these buses do not have stops, but make a panoramic tour.

This alternative, so popular all over the world among the most restless travelers, will allow you to tour the city at your own pace, with 1 or 2 day tickets that will allow you to get on and off the bus at each of the 11 stops that the itinerary establishes.

In addition, during the trip you will be provided with an audio guide in different languages that will give you information about the sites you visit.

Along the way, you can connect Granville Island with Stanley Park, where you can take a break before continuing with a shopping tour on Robson Street or enjoy the FlyOver shows at Canada Place. Each of these places will allow you to get to know the spirit of the city and enjoy its cultural and culinary delights, as Vancouver is also known for its multiculturalism.

During the summer the bus has a frequency every 30 minutes and if you plan to visit Vancouver during the winter you will find an option every 1 hour. In all cases the bus ticket provides reduced fares for children under 12 years old, so using this hop on-hop off tour is one of the best activities you can do with children in the city.

List of Vancouver hop on-hop off bus stops

• Canada Place
• Pinnacle Hotel Harbourfront
• Stanley Park / Vancouver Aquarium
• Robson Street
• Sutton Place Hotel
• Granville Island
• Entertainment District
• Library Square
• Sports District / Sandman Hotel
• Chinatown
• Gastown

Details of interest

• Price: Approximately 43 euros per person, in the most economical alternative of a free day hop on-hop off tour.
• Duration: You can hire services of one or two days of free tour.
• Advantages of these alternatives: You can manage at your own pace, allocating the time you want to each of the stops from the time of activation of the ticket.
• Disadvantages of these alternatives: It does not include the assistance of an expert local guide, but it does include audio guides in different languages.

If you want to combine a sightseeing tour of Vancouver with a visit to one of the city's top attractions, you can't miss these bus tours which include tickets to see the Capilano Suspension Bridge.

This structure, which is considered a marvel of modern engineering and spans 130 meters over the Capilano River at a height of 70 meters, will really catch your attention.

During these tours, which last approximately 6 hours, you will not only be able to visit the suspension bridge and walk along the nature trails along the cliffs, but also visit other important points of the city such as Stanley Park and Granville Island. These tours also include a visit to the traditional neighborhoods of this destination, such as Gastown and Chinatown.

These tours usually include hotel pick-up and drop-off and special stops during the holidays, especially during Christmas in Vancouver, when the city's buildings, monuments and parks are transformed with holiday decorations.

Details of interest

• Price: Approximately 97 euros per person.
• Duration: About 6 hours.
• Advantages of these alternatives: You will be able to combine a sightseeing bus tour with a visit to one of the main attractions of the city.
• Disadvantages of these alternatives: Although the tour includes visits to several sites in the city, the main focus is on the Capilano Suspension Bridge, so they are tours that do not offer stops at other sites.

If you want to really get to know all the facets of Vancouver, then you can't miss visiting the city at night. On these night bus tours you can explore iconic landmarks, quaint neighborhoods and discover the local culture after dark.

These tours will take you through Stanley Park, the historic Gastown district and English Bay, where you can stop to take in the panoramic nighttime views and the bronze sculptures that guard the bay. From there you can take some of the best pictures of your trip, with the illuminated skyline of the city and the mountains in the background framing the image.

In addition, you can choose to end the tour in Gastown, where you can join gastronomic tours, walk through its cobblestone streets and enjoy its restaurants and bars or in Canada Place, a multipurpose venue where you will have the opportunity to attend live shows and participate in entertainment activities, as is the case of FlyOver.

The possibility of carrying out a comfortable and relaxed tour and choose where to end the trip make the city tour bus one of the best alternatives to discover Vancouver during the night.

Interesting details

• Price: Approximately 63 euros per person.
• Duration: About 2 hours.
• Advantages of these alternatives: You will get to know one of the most beautiful profiles of the city in a comfortable and relaxed way.
• Disadvantages of these alternatives: Because it is a panoramic bus it does not include stops outside Gastown and Canada Place and you will have few minutes to contemplate the night skyline of the city from English Bay.

The answer depends on which option you choose, but in general these tour buses, regardless of the particularities of each one, link the main points of the city. Those that do not include a round-trip transfer with hotel pick-up begin their journey at Canada Place and form an imaginary circle to end in Gastown, the historic district of the city.

If you opt for the hop on-hop off tour bus, you will be able to alter the route, because you can get on and off the bus as many times as you want during the validity of the ticket, which is one or two days, depending on the option chosen. In that case you can restart the tour from Stanley Park, Granville Island or Chinatown, which are the most popular places to have lunch, rest or hang out.

The only one of the buses that is notoriously far from the main tourist circuit is the one that offers, in addition to the itinerary, a visit to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. This attraction is located on the outskirts of the city, surrounded by the natural wonders of the region, so if you want to visit it you will have to leave the city center of Vancouver.

Vancouver is a relatively large city and has many attractions scattered throughout the city. In some cases, entire neighborhoods such as Gastown or Granville constitute a tourist attraction in their own right, so these buses will not only allow you to see all of these sites in a quicker, safer and more convenient way, but will also allow you to organize your itinerary.

In addition, if you choose the hop on-hop off tour bus in Vancouver you can also save money, because public transportation in the city is expensive and with these alternatives you will have 11 stops throughout the length and breadth of this destination that will facilitate each of the activities. It will also be a good alternative to take shelter from the cold and rain, which will be present during the winter in Vancouver.

Also keep in mind that optimizing time on urban sightseeing tours will allow you to better focus on the natural wonders of the region, which are very popular and include alternatives such as whale watching excursions and trekking in alpine sites such as Grouse Mountain.

The different Vancouver sightseeing bus tours are similar, mainly because they all cover the main attractions of the city and link the most famous sights of Vancouver, such as the historic Gastown district, Canada Place, Stanley Park and Granville Island.

Whichever option you choose, you can get a glimpse of the highlights of Vancouver and in some cases, you can also visit other representative sites, such as the Capilano Suspension Bridge and English Bay, an ideal place to watch the sunset and the city skyline, especially if you plan to visit this destination in autumn or during the summer months, the seasons when the sky is clear and clean for wide views.

Most of Vancouver's tour buses offer daytime runs. In the case of the hop on-hop off bus you can use their services between 8.00 am and 7.00 pm each day, with 30 minute intervals during the summer and one hour intervals during the winter.

The only case that modifies the daytime schedules is the night tourist bus, which offers a 2-hour tour after sunset. Other options, such as the tourist bus that also includes tickets to visit the hanging bridge of Capilano, start their tours early in the morning, as they are half-day excursions. This modality could be ideal if you are planning a short stay in the city.

Keep in mind that the city offers a lot of shows and entertainment activities during the night, so if you use the buses during the day you will be able to enjoy the shows on the billboard, which tend to be very popular throughout the region. In addition, you can also combine these day buses with full day tours from Vancouver.

The answer will depend on the type of tour you choose, as closed-route sightseeing buses, whether day or night, generally include a round-trip transfer with hotel pick-up and drop-off and a set itinerary with fixed stops. These alternatives are usually useful if you plan to visit the main points of the city in a trip that allows you to delegate the organization.

If, on the other hand, you are one of those who prefer to do the tour at your own pace, you can opt for the hop on-hop off alternative, in which you can combine the stops along 11 posts that surround the city and are strategically located near the attractions. Depending on the option you choose, which can be a full-day or two-day ticket, you will be able to organize your itinerary accordingly.

Please note that hop on-hop off tickets start running from the moment they are activated and are counted in calendar days, so I advise you to start using them on the morning of the first day to avoid losing time on the service, especially if you plan to visit Vancouver in winter, when the bus frequency is every 60 minutes.