On a whim we decided to visit Vancouver Lookout. Amazingly we managed to come to this whim on a rare sunny day during these past few grey, rainy months. The view from Vancouver Lookout is truly remarkable. If you want to awe out-of-town guests, show your children significant Vancouver landmarks, or even get a better visual understanding of Vancouver’s geography this is an outing worth pursuing.
You access the Vancouver Lookout from the very bottom of the Harbour Centre. I won’t lie, it is a bit spendy to visit. Adults are $15,75 each; however, children 5 & under are FREE! If you purchase your tickets online, you save the taxes! Additionally, there are a number of coupon booklets that offer a discounted rate (we happened to find a buy one/get one coupon). All that being said, the view is spectacular and worth it!
Once you’ve purchased your ticket, you climb aboard an innocuous elevator. Don’t be fooled! After a few seconds, you emerge from a tunnel and are in a three-sided glass elevator. f you don’t have a fear of heights, you will love it. If you are like me, you may start to imagine scenarios of a stuck elevator with two little kids who are hungry and need to go to the bathroom. I strongly encourage you to try and ignore those fears and take in the beautiful view. We got our kids to look for key landmarks as we sailed up into the sky.
Upon our arrival at the top we were greeted with the offer of step stools for our boys. As the floor to window height ratio changes dramatically throughout the building the step stools are a must for the shorter crowd. We thoroughly enjoyed the 360 view of Vancouver. We could see the north shore, UBC, SFU, Stanley Park and all the way to the new Port Mann Bridge.
We would have loved to stay longer and tested our site-seeing abilities; however, after 45 minutes the 2 & 4 year olds were done. I’m glad we went and we will certainly take the boys again when they are a little bit older.
Vancouver Lookout Contact Info:
When: open year round
Time: 9am – 9pm (October – May); 8:30am – 10:30pm (May – October)
Address: 555 W Hastings St, Vancouver
Phone: (604) 689-0421
Website: www.vancouverlookout.com
