Cruising Around Vancouver

During our time living in Vancouver, my husband and I availed of a couple of cruises out of the many that the city offers both to tourists and locals. The two that we did were completely different from each other, but equally enjoyable.

Sunset Harbour Cruise

Since Vancouver is a seaport, another interesting way to appreciate the city is through a harbour cruise. Seeing the city from the water gives you a perspective that you simply won’t find on land.

From this viewpoint, you get to see the city’s most celebrated landmarks alongside its natural wonders - an incredible fusion of sleek urban architecture and rugged, untamed nature in one panoramic masterpiece.

Cruising around the Vancouver harbour is a quintessential experience and I think residents and visitors alike should do this at least once.

My husband and I had the opportunity to take a sunset dinner harbour cruise courtesy of his company that sponsored a Christmas party aboard a sleek, modern vessel with huge expansive windows on each deck and a giant open-air top deck.

We set off from Coal Harbour, and the two-and-a-half tour began with a buffet dinner featuring West Coast-inspired dishes and decadent desserts. There was also live entertainment – a merry band playing favourite holiday tunes.

After eating, we took our cocktails up on the top deck to enjoy the views. We admired the sprawling expanse of Stanley Park from a distance, with its dense, green coastline kissing the ocean. We glided under the historic Lion’s Gate Bridge. We saw the postcard perfect Vancouver skyline with the iconic tower of the Vancouver Lookout and the white sails of Canada Place. We passed by small islets dotting the Burrard Inlet, some with lighthouses. We saw the soaring peaks of the Coast Mountains in the background. We chanced upon some wildlife – a few shy harbour seals popping their heads up from the waters and seabirds soaring high above us. Then we navigated the Burrard Inlet and Inner Harbour.

The highlight of the cruise was, of course, the beautiful sunset. Chasing the golden hour glow from a boat is just spectacular. We stood there and watched as the sun gradually dipped towards the horizon, splashing the sky with fiery shades of orange, pink, and gold. It’s just pure magic!

And as the sky darkened, the stars became more pronounced, and the city lights started twinkling with them against the darkening shadows of the mountains. So beautiful!

Paddle-wheeler River Boat Tour

On one of my husband’s birthdays, we decided to do a sunset dinner cruise along the Fraser River in Vancouver’s Lower Mainland area on a paddle-wheeler boat.

A paddle-wheeler is a steamboat propelled by large paddle wheels, typically powered by steam engines and often utilized for river transport and scenic river tours due to their ability to operate in shallow water.

For this tour, we boarded the M.V. Native, a stylized paddle-wheeler with two passenger decks. Despite its vintage appearance, the M.V. Native is relatively modern, having been built in 1988 as a replica of a paddle-wheeler that previously navigated the Fraser River from 1863 to 1921.

Over a century ago, such vessels transported pioneers, fur traders, gold rush miners, and families among the communities along the Fraser River. But unlike its inspiration, which used steam power, the M.V. Native has a contemporary diesel-hydraulic engine. But technicalities aside, the exterior and interior still evoked Old-World Charm.

The tour we chose was the “Sunset on the Fraser" dinner cruise, which was a three-hour narrated journey that took us from the New Westminster Quay up the Fraser River then circled around after passing Douglas Island, where the Fraser River and Pitt River meet between Fraser Heights in Surrey and Mary Hill in Coquitlam.  Along the way, we enjoyed the stunning scenery of the river and surrounding mountains while learning about the history and culture of the area.

But the best part of this was the opportunity to go under four major bridges south of Vancouver and to see them from a different perspective (as we would normally drive on them) – the SkyTrain Expo Line’s 1990-built Skybridge, the 1904-built New Westminster River View Bridge, the 1937-built Pattullo Bridge, and the Port Mann Bridge. We joked that this was the better perspective because we were away from the rush-hour heavy traffic.

Foodwise, it was not bad, but rather unremarkable. We had salad, grilled salmon with potatoes and veggies, and a cheesecake for dessert. But were not complaining because it was really all about the experience...and the beautiful sunset.

Overall, it was a delightful tour. In fact, it was not even on our radar before because we thought all Vancouver cruises happen at the downtown harbour. I guess it’s because the Fraser River is an actual working river and far from the tourist crowd in downtown, therefore often overlooked.

It was fortunate that we lived in Surrey and would sometimes stop at New Westminster to check the shops and restaurants around the New Westminster Quay on weekends when we did not want to venture all the way to downtown Vancouver. That’s how we learned about this unique cruise.