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Free booking and cancellationFree payment tour, no set price, booking and cancellation are free
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Come & take a tour with me, Konrad, & you will gain an appreciation of Vancouver's past, present & future. My strengths as a tour guide are my love of people & my attention to requests, my skill in adapting my tour for tour guests, my pleasant sounding voice, my knowledge of history, geography, urban development, & the local ecology. My eye for details which draws attention to features otherwise missed, increases your enjoyment of a tour of this young city. My unique perspective allows you to see & make sense of Vancouver. My superior multilingual skills allow me to offer you an alternate language version. After a tour with me, your enjoyment of what Vancouver has to offer will increase, as you gain the knowledge on what to see, & how to make the most of your time here. Your enjoyment of your tour experience is my priority. As an experienced tour guide, Konrad will provide enthusiasm, quality, educational value & entertainment. This city walk is not for the budget-minded traveller, who consciously seeks a low value experience, requiring a minimum honorarium for the minimum guiding services offered, quite the opposite. Among experienced travellers, it is common knowledge that an honorarium (not a tip) is given by each participant on the tour, offered within a handshake to the guide. PLEASE MAKE PAYMENT CASH & IN CANADIAN FUNDS ONLY. Each guest, even those travelling as couples, or in groups, has this ready, when the tour guide announces the end of the tour, which will be at Canada Place. The minimum honorariums suggested for the large numbered walking tour groups in Europe, do not apply in Canada, as the tours are much smaller groups with more personalized service offered to individuals.
Do you want to see the best views of the city skyline, its growing array of sparkling towers, it’s waterfront & it’s beautiful greenery?
Would you like to have someone help to capture daring "ussies"? Do you want to start exploring areas armed with knowledge some locals might not even know? Would you like to do the when & where to see Vancouver’s best? Do you want to know Vancouver like the back of your hand? If you want to blend in with the locals, pay attention to your shoes, use local Canadian currency & don't wear a fanny pack!
Here the air, water, shrubs, trees, imported & local beauty cannot simply be sniffed at. It has to be enjoyed by getting out there on a GuruWalks tour.
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Your guide will be standing with a small chalkboard with your name. He will there awaiting you with a big smile.
Meet here. Your guide will have a SIGN/BLACKBOARD with the words "Konrad's Guru Tours". Arrive at least 15 minutes before tour start. Send WU message if late. Ensure you have sufficient honorarium amount in liquid form BEFORE, NOT AFTER the tour. Go to meeting place. Your friendly guide Konrad will give you an overview. This is the start of the tour. The last site (No. 20) to be visited is here, about three city blocks (300 metres). Tour ends at starting point. (Cash Machine inside from doors)
The VCC won an Air Filtration Association Award. The facility hosts more than 500 events & welcomes thousands of visitors per year. It generates important tourism revenue for the province of (British Columbia). Built on an artificial extension of the foreshore, it is situated in the vicinity of unceeded territories of First Nations. With a surface area of 466,500 square feet, it can accommodate up to 16,000 delegates during a single event.
Lord Stanley was Canada's Governor General from 1888 to 1893. The GG is the Queen's representative in Canada. This green oasis named in his honour, lies in the middle of Vancouver, is 400 hectares large. Take a Stanley Park walking or biking tour to experience the 22 kilometre seawall, forest, harbour views, totem poles, nine o'clock gun, & Brockton Point. Lord Stanley was a dedicated hockey enthusiast, he created & paid for the Stanley Cup.
Completed in 1930 in Art Deco style, then the tallest building in Vancouver. Marine themed ornaments are found inside & outside. Take beautiful photos of the portal entrance. View the inside of the building after the tour, it's very worthwhile for art/architecture enthusiasts. The original observation deck no longer exists. In the 1930's few people could afford the 30 cents entrance fee. Houses business, government, law and accounting offices, among others.
This is the second cathedral church of the Anglican Diocese of New West Minster of the Anglican Church of Canada, built in October 6, 1889. Admire the Gothic Revival architecture. Its four bells ring daily at 8:00 am and 6:00 pm. September 25, 2004, the parish submitted "A statement of Solemnization of Same Sex Matrimony in the Anglican Church of Canada". This church has been declared a heritage building. It was the favourite church where Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip attended service.
Timeless luxury and elegance, this is the third Vancouver Hotel now administered by the Fairmont Hotel Chain. The Canadian Pacific Railroad built a number of luxury hotels from coast to coast, including the Banff Springs hotel in the Canadian Rockies. Take a Rockies tour with me, your Guru Guide, Konrad, by motor coach. in 2022, the hotel received the Forbes Travel Guide Four Star rating, also rated one of Canada's top 10 hotels, awarded in 2022 as well. Its architecture is known as Châtequesque style.
Burrard Street runs north to south of the West End "peninsula", name after Sir Harry Burrard-Neale. The northern part of the street features all of the major Canadian Banks, as well as business offices for major law, finance, administration & government. A walk from the Marine Building to the Hotel Vancouver on Georgia Street will be a pleasant stroll, and allow visitors to get a good sense of Vancouver's modern architecture.
In 1989, the original 60 year old, 15 story Art Deco building designed by McCarter & Nairn was demolished, followed by the Devonshire Apartment building. Thankfully the Marine Building is still standing. Architect Paul Merrick designed the replacement building, called Cathedral Place. There are a few nurses (called the Rhea sisters) (were they former lovers of the first architect?), a few gargoyles (unknown origin) and lions (British ones for sure) placed here & there.)
This twelve storey 1920's built hotel located at 801 West Georgia in the heart of Vancouver, designed by Robert Garrow and John Graham Sr. has been owned since 1907 by Allied Hotel Properties. Listed as a heritage property by the Vancouver City, next to it stands Vancouver's third tallest building, of mixed private residences & hotel rooms. Vancouver's tallest building is the Shangri-La towers, & in second place, the Paradox Hotel & Towers.
The Vancouver Block started out as a residential building in 1912. From the street, it can be seen that it is topped by a clock tower. This 15 storey building, built in the optimistic Edwardian commercial style popular at the time, is steel framed, & clad in cream coloured terra cotta. The building's owner, Dominic Burns, had a penthouse apartment built, where he lived until his death until 1933. The building was converted to office space in the 1960's.
The clock face (covered & now under restoration) is 21 ft in diameter, manufactured out of a two ton piece of sandblasted glass. When it was first installed in 1927, it had blue & red neon on the numbers and the clock's hands. During 1988, the neon was removed, much to the chagrin of many Vancouverites, only to be replaced 2 years later, albeit with the colours used in reverse. In the 50's, legend has it that couples would meet beneath this clock on their first date. After all, cellular phones were unknown.
In the 50's, you would have seen the houses behind the storefronts on the north side of Robson. As well, there were quite an array of German delicatessens, such that in local parlance, people called it "Robsonstrasse". Now, it's dotted with fashion & dining establishments. In addition, you will find many Korean therapeutic massage centers, restaurants both with fast & slow food, as well as a supermarket. Robson was one of the first streets where restaurants had open front windows "to see & be seen".
The first "modern" public library was built in the 60's, at Robson & Burrard streets. This one, completed in 2013, designed by Moshe Safdie of DA architects, is the third largest library in Canada. The large enclosed central space contains a reading area, serviced by small eating places. Inside the library itself are 9.5 million items, including various rentable sound & film studio spaces. The library building has also been used in many Hollywood films, including the 6th Day, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
This city square, located near Vancouver's old centre, is a public space of .9 acres/.36 hectares. Formerly the site of a courthouse of the old Granville townsite, its now is the site of the Victory Square cenotaph. There are several engraved inscriptions: "Their names liveth forevermore. Is it nothing to you. All yee that pass by." The site is the centre of celebrations during Canada's Remembrance Day ceremonies, especially to honour all those (Canadians) who signed up to fight in WW I.
Old Vancouver, now called Downtown Eastside, its core being the former Woodward store, & Hastings street from Main Street to Victory Square, started to fade when the CPR railroad built the new downtown centre at Georgia & Granville streets. Woodswards, a much loved department store, supplied everything & anything remained on Hastings until the 1980's. The Army & Navy store founded in the 1950's, which supplied army surplus supplies, including camping, fishing & hunting supplies, survived until 3 years ago.
This 13 storey, 53 metre high building, built in the Second Empire style, was known as the tallest building in the British Empire. An urban legend claims that its architect, John S. Heller, died after falling from the buildings staircase. The man responsible for its financing, was Count Alvo von Alvensleben, a financier who represented the German Kaiser's interests. This led to the suggestion that the tallest building in the Empire had been built by the British Crown's greatest rival.
Attracting attention from locals & visitors, "steam clock" is actually a misnomer. Though it looks like an antique, the clock is the 1977 work of of horologist R. Saunders & art metal craftsman D. Smith. Using it as an attractor was evidently fconceived by a Englishman pub keeper, John Inshaw, in 1859, to draw customers to his tavern. R. Saunders had to invent a new clock, powered in effect by steam & electricity. Steam comes from a steam plant located 3 blocks away, also used to heat downtown's core.
Gastown as seen today could be called a romanticized version of an old Granville, as this settlement was called before Van Horne, manager of the CPR railway, decided that the small settlement built near a sawmill, was to be called Vancouver. Was it because Van Horne was also of Dutch origin? Now you see pleasant faded brick sidewalks, iron fence gates & smooth streets, where formerly there was skid rows interspersed in the mud. Gassy Jack, now much publicly decried, built the first tavern here in 1867.
This site is formerly the passenger station for those arriving via the Canadian Pacific Railway. The construction of this terminus shifted the centre from Main & Hastings streets to Georgia & Granville. Its location right next to Canada Place is not coincidental, as the CPR real estate company, became the owner of vast amounts of Vancouver land, including the shoreline. The Seabus & Skytrain can be taken from here, tickets are easily purchased. Look up! Painted landscapes of the Canadian Rockies!
Free tours do not have a set price, instead, each person gives the guru at the end of the tour the amount that he or she considers appropriate (these usually range from €10 to $50 depending on satisfaction with the tour).
