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Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours

4.8 (90 reviews)
Closed 8:00 am - 8:00 pm

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Rainbow crosswalk in Vancouver BC
Jim E.

We did two tours with this company while we were in Vancouver the first was the "Lost Souls of Gastown" tour with Samantha. This tour takes your around the Gastown and your guide will tell you a story about an individual and relate their experiences in the area during the early days of Vancouver. Our guide, Samantha was only on her second tour and she was fantastic, she shared her characters story and answer questions about the area. Our group was about 20 people and the pace was good, so most people would have no problem keeping up. Great Tour and History Lesson all in one. Our Second tour was the Sunday Morning "Really Gay History Tour" and this one was FANTASTIC, our guide for this one was Glenn and as the creator/curator of this particular tour he was passionate about the subject matter. For this one we had a small group of 6 and with the small group Glenn was able to engage with us even more, the tour was scheduled for 2 hours but we ended up going a little bit over but there is so much to share that it didn't seem like we spent that much time walking around Vancouver. Glenn is full of knowledge about the Gay history of Vancouver, the people, the businesses and the changes that have happened over the years. This tour is great for anyone that is interested in the history of Vancouver, and especially the trials and tribulations the LGBTQ groups went though from the pre-colonial day up to the 21st century. We enjoyed both tours and are only sorry that our schedule in Vancouver only allowed us to attend two tours. The prices are very reasonable and the actors and guides are fantastic.

Karin R.

My daughter and I did the Really Gay History Tour and although we both knew we were in for something special, the entire experience went well beyond our expectations. Whether you're a Vancouver local or you're in town on holidays or for a staycation, put this walking tour at the top of your list of things to do. Glenn, our host, is both a trained actor/storyteller and an extraordinarily detail-oriented researcher who left no important name, date, or event unexplored. Our group (which was also fantastic - really lucked out there!) experienced a tour of Vancouver's West End and the role the neighbourhood played in much of our gay history that felt like it wrapped far too soon. We even overshot the two-hour mark (thanks to so much group engagement, questions, and discussion.) It was awesome! What we learned was incredible. Better than any history book could ever hope to impart because story vignettes came from interviews, catalogues, police reports, and more to create an unbiased, real-life, gritty - sometimes heart-wrenching - wholly powerful presentation. Can't wait to do the Stanley Park and Scandals tours, next!

Stuart!   Thank you for helping us begin to scratch the surface of this interesting City!
Donni U.

Stuart! Wonderful Tour! Thank you from San Francisco! We did not realize we were staying in the oldest hotel in Vancouver, how harrowing the fire, how horrid the small pox....blacksmiths, loggers, Bertie, the greed of the railroad! Thank you for helping us begin to scratch the surface of this city. Donni and Jay

Fun tour of historic Gastown yesterday. Enjoyed all the great stories and history.
John G.

Fun tour of historic Gastown with Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours yesterday. Enjoyed it a lot.

Amazing evening with Stuart on the Lost Souls of Gastown, Vancouver, walking tour. He was friendly, great in character and informative. Definitely worth signing up for his tour!!

Rowan sharing a story.
Lyssa D.

When we arrived in Vancouver I set us up to join the Forbidden Vancouver Tour. I like to learn about cities from the people who live there. We met up at Cathedral park and had Rowan as our guide. He was a wonderful story teller, sharing the rich history of his city, as well as his own family history woven through the threads. Like many PNW cities, people first descended on the area as a result of the Gold Rush, and the stories are legendary. I enjoyed walking and the stopping to hear a story. Rowan encouraged participation, so we all had the opportunity to guess, correctly or otherwise, and it was fun as well has funny. There were some thought prevoking elements of the history, from prohibition, opium dens, gender inequality, and racism. All shared with a mix of gravity reality and humor. Not an easy task. I would definitely join another Forbidden your.

Tim telling us about the hotel
Ellen M.

We enjoyed our tour with Tim as our guide. Learning about historic Vancouver was a treat and hearing about the back stories about prohibition and Chinatown was fascinating. We found about the tour on Trip Advisor and it is one of the top tours. Definitely worth it if you're in town.

A book you may get at the end of your tour!

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Sandra/Sarah was an amazing guide, highly recommend this fun tour. Learned a lot about this historic area.

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Page 1 of 3

Review Highlights - Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours

Went on the Lost Souls of Gastown tour with Alison: amazing performer, great singer (!), and a fabulous story.

Mentioned in 19 reviews

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Tour Guys Vancouver - FREE tours of Vancouver

Tour Guys Vancouver

4.7(80 reviews)
0.7 kmDowntown

Not only can you not lose because this is a FREE tour...but you will gain so much interesting info!…read more I'm sure hopping on and off a bus would be just fine, but for us, with just one short day in this vast city, we were looking for a quick connection, and that's exactly what we got on this recent Sunday. We met our tour guide, Ali at the designated time (11am) at the designated place, and 20 or so of us enjoyed an incredibly interesting walking tour of Chinatown. There is no way we would have gotten the feel for this city had we not taken this tour. Several folks were repeat tour guy visitors, so they must have enjoyed those as well. Our group had folks from several countries. It is a relaxed tour at a pace that is just right...not too fast and not too slow. Seriously, just right! And absolutely everyone in our group was happy to hand over generous thank you tips. Well-deserved. Ali was kind enough at the end of the tour to guide anyone who wanted dining suggestions or directions. For us, he was even kind enough to let us walk along with him since we were heading in the same direction. As a result, we were fortunate enough to get an extended tour, as he remained a wealth of Vancouver info as we went along. Highly recommend!

I love FREE, Culture, history, and having a tour that rolls all 3 together…read more We took the Free Downtown & Chinatown Tour with Alex. She pointed out some places of interest, told us the history of Chinatown, took us to a herbal store, and ended the tour at the Chinese Gardens. The tour was over 2 hours, and she gave suggestions for lunch. I love these type of tours because they are given by people who have lived there for a good amount of time, and who are passionate about what they are presenting. She was no exception.

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Tour Guys Vancouver - Emma was awesome!

Emma was awesome!

Tour Guys Vancouver
Tour Guys Vancouver

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Toonie Tours - Street Art & Craft Beer Tour of Vancouver

Toonie Tours

4.8(26 reviews)
1.0 kmDowntown

Everything was just perfect on this free walking tour. The weather, the sites, the information,…read morethe tour guide! Monica, our tour guide, was a pleasure from start to finish. She made everyone feel so welcome, she answered every question, was so incredibly knowledgeable and never once sounded like she was reading a script. The path we walked was filled with so much history and so many facts about Vancouver and was for just the right amount of time that it definitely makes it worth doing. Signing up for the tour on the website was super easy and absolutely free, unless you want a guaranteed spot and at the end make sure to give a generous tip for the guide (the website suggests $30 per person, but give what you feel). The tour overall was really and truly amazing and we ended up in spots i would have never known to see or look for. Highly recommend!

Good easygoing tour with a professional guide I recommend…read moreyou this tour to see the sights of Vancouver. During comfortable route you'll find interesting city spots and know information about the city. Our tour guide Daniel was very cool: he smiles during the whole excursion, tries to show many things about Vancouver and Canada and lead the group professionally. After the excursion you'll receive a list with many different recommendations (where to go/not to go, interesting places, restaurants and etc).

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Toonie Tours - Coffee Tours Vancouver

Coffee Tours Vancouver

Toonie Tours - Corporate Tours Vancouver

Corporate Tours Vancouver

Toonie Tours - Bike Tour of Stanley Park

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Bike Tour of Stanley Park

Historical Chinatown Tours - Chinatown Gate

Historical Chinatown Tours

4.5(6 reviews)
0.7 kmChinatown

I prefer to promote Vancouver businesses rather than write negative reviews. However, here, I break…read moremy rule for Chinatown tour operator Judy Lam Maxwell as her recent performance was so embarrassing that prospective clients need to be aware of the sad reality. I wanted to show three out-of-town guests the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden and learn about the rich history of Chinatown with an authoritative guide. I booked a 2.5-hr tour for the four of us at $100 each under the impression that we were a private group but we were joined by three other clients. So, after introductions, we were sent unguided around the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden armed with only the Garden's brochure and Judy's advice that we would find "interesting stones and plants from China". After 30 minutes of wandering it became apparent that Judy knew little about the architecture and symbolism of the Garden despite claiming to have been a docent. We walked on to a contemporary coffee shop where another 30 minutes were spent viewing an iPad presentation on Judy's multicultural family history and Chinatowns of the world. The remainder of the tour was spent walking through Chinatown with Judy relaying the ownership of some buildings, revealing the hidden entrances to two "speakeasy" businesses and assorted restaurants while acquainting us with local politics. Intriguing Chinese medicine shops were passed by with only her comment that the mysterious medicines at the back would be necessary for treatment after eating the enigmatic foodstuffs displayed at the front. Similarly, the cultural and gastronomic backgrounds to the wares of various traditional food retailers were ignored before we were crowded into a Chinese tea shop. Again, no cultural context, nor explanations provided about the teas before moving on to peek inside the interiors of two Chinese Clan Society buildings. Tour over with a group photograph (that was never delivered) and only perfunctory coverage of the Chinese history, the "head tax" and unique architecture of an important gem in the heart of Vancouver. Overall: Judy is personable but displays only superficial knowledge and, in my opinion, is an ineffective ambassador for Chinatown - consequently, a disappointingly lacklustre and expensive experience!

This was an absolute highlight of our trip. It doesn't matter if you like food or not, there's…read morenothing that can compare to the cultural knowledge, history, and expertise that our guide Judy brought to the table. You could not find this experience if you looked for it, it was an absolute surprise how much fun we had. We first met Judy and were immediately taken into a beautiful historical story and even shown some of the rooms in Chinatown. We then were able to go buy some groceries in the local market and then we chopped and diced to our hearts content. I now understand why those darn pot stickers can cost so much, they are definitely a labor of love to wrap each one of them -- but we eventually got the technique down. Best of all, we have an incredible memory to take home. And the ABSOLUTE BEST is every time we make the pot stickers at home we are reminded of this incredible experience. Can't recommend it highly enough.

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Historical Chinatown Tours
Historical Chinatown Tours
Historical Chinatown Tours

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Sea Vancouver - Gotta take a pic with the Cap!

Sea Vancouver

4.5(10 reviews)
2.2 kmGranville Island/False Creek

Very bad business practice…read more We booked a 3pm tour. It was the last day that we are in Vancouver, we would be flying home that night. At 1:45pm, after we have planned our whole day around the excursion and checked out of the hotel in preparation of this tour, Sea Vancouver office called and said they are cancelling my tour because they "need a minimum of 4 people and only 3 people booked". I explained that we are leaving the city that day, and we planned our whole day around this, and if there is anything they can do. It is unreasonable to only notify me 75 minutes prior to departure time - we were already on the way to the departure point! The only thing they said was that they will refund me in full (I'd better hope so since you cancelled it with incredibly short notice!) I understand that it may not be economical to operate a tour based on fixed cost, but this was NOT written anywhere when I booked it on the official website, but they were happy to take my money when I booked. The confirmation email stated "We reserve the right to delay or cancel a departure for events beyond our control (e.g. adverse weather conditions, technical or mechanical issues, etc.)" -- well, operating a boat when there are "only" 3 paying customers is definitely in their control, they just choose to screw over their customers. This has put a really sour taste on my trip to Vancouver. I would encourage everybody to stay away.

First of all, I would highly, HIGHLY recommend this for all! Specially if its your first time in…read moreVancouver or have not been around the harbor! This was our first time in Vancouver, and whats not a better way to experience it than by taking a boat tour! We honestly planned this boat tour super last minute, so we called a few places, but they were all closed. Fortunately, Sea Vancouver still had tours going out until 7pm which was the last one! The lobby is located in the Westin hotel and the ride is 90 minutes long, which takes you all around the harbor of Vancouver to the English Bay! There was so much to see at the waterfront and we even saw a few dolphins along the ride! We were hoping for orcas too but maybe next time haha. Overall the boat tour was absolutely amazing! Terry our captain, made the experience super educational a fun! Love that guy! Thanks Cap! And thank you Sea Vancouver!

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Sea Vancouver - So fast and you get a little splashed hehe

So fast and you get a little splashed hehe

Sea Vancouver
Sea Vancouver - It goes up to 35mph!

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It goes up to 35mph!

Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours - walkingtours - Updated May 2026

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