PRIVATE TOURS
CUSTOM WALKING TOURS FOR SCHOOLS,
ORGANIZATIONS, TRAVELLERS, AND GROUPS LOOKING TO EXPLORE VANCOUVER IN A MORE MEANINGFUL WAY.
Built around your group. Shaped by the city. Each private tour is created collaboratively, bringing together neighbourhoods, history, and culture, into a walk that’s meaningful, adaptable, and uniquely yours.
Whether you’re planning an educational experience, a team outing, or a special visit with friends or family, we offer private tours tailored to your interests. Each walk connects street-level exploration with deeper social, historical, and urban context — guided by the same thoughtful, place-based perspective as our public tours.
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Private tours are designed collaboratively. We start with your goals, and then shape the experience around your group, timeline and areas of interest. Tours can focus on street art and neighbourhood discovery, or take a broader look at Vancouver through history, architecture, planning, and cultural change.
Not sure where to start? Explore our suggested itineraries below.
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Expert-led walking tours grounded in local knowledge
Flexible routes and pacing based on your group
Thoughtful storytelling that connects place, history, and contemporary issues
Space for questions, discussion, and reflection
Options to combine or customize tours based on interest
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Schools and universities
Community organizations
Creative teams and workplaces
Conferences and professional organizations
Visiting scholars and academic groups
Open-minded visitors and travel agencies
Families and friend groups
SUGGESTED ITINERARIES
These suggested itineraries offer starting points for private tours, based on our most requested themes and neighbourhood combinations. Each can be adapted to your group’s interests, timeline, and focus.
MOUNT PLEASANT STREET & MURAL TOUR
Behind-the-scenes stories of Vancouver’s murals, artists, and hidden neighbourhood spaces.
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Most mural tours focus on what you see. We focus on why it’s there. As the official guide of the Vancouver Mural Festival, we bring insider knowledge from curators, artists, and organizers to go beyond surface-level appreciation to explore the social, logistical, and creative processes behind Vancouver’s public art.
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Indigenous artists and voices woven throughout the neighbourhood
Styles ranging from abstract and figurative to graffiti and experimental work
Behind-the-scenes insight into the 300+ murals created since 2016
Leave with a rich sense of how murals are made, who makes them, and how they fit into the broader socio-economic story of the neighbourhood.
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Duration: 2 Hours
Cost: Tour prices range depending on group size and tour duration.
Ready to get started? Request a private tour.
DOWNTOWN & GASTOWN
Explore Vancouver’s historic core through architecture, urban planning, and the social forces that shaped the city.
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Starting in Downtown and moving into Gastown, we trace how development, policy, and cultural priorities have shaped Vancouver over time.
From revitalization and gentrification to public art and cultural memory, we draw on social history, architecture, and urban studies to connect past decisions to present realities.
You’ll leave with a clearer understanding of how Vancouver was built, who it was built for, and how those choices continue to shape everyday life.
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Architecture and development read as a timeline of changing values and priorities
Urban planning stories that show how design choices shape daily life
Social history woven into the streets — from economic revitalization to displacement
Contemporary issues explored through the places where they unfold
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Duration: 2.5 Hours
Cost: Tour prices range depending on group size and tour duration.
Ready to get started? Request a private tour.
CHINATOWN & OLD EAST END WALKING TOUR
Hidden histories of immigration, displacement, and community resilience told through the streets where they unfolded.
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Explore the history of immigration, displacement, and community activism through two of Vancouver’s oldest neighbourhoods.
For much of the last century, Vancouver’s Chinatown was one of the largest in North America. Today it stands at a crossroads between preservation and redevelopment. We trace the stories of early residents who faced discrimination yet helped shape the city in lasting ways.
From there, we move east to Strathcona, Vancouver’s first residential neighbourhood, once known as the “League of Nations” for its diverse working-class communities. Here we explore the sites of Japanese and Black communities displaced by wartime racism and urban renewal, and the grassroots activism that fought back against “slum clearances” and modernist planning.
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Stories of immigration and community organizing woven through the neighbourhood
Public art and memorials that confront displacement and loss
Anthony Joseph’s Hope From the Ashes / A Requiem for Hogan’s Alley and the conversations it opens
Social history brought into focus through the places where it lives
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Duration: 2.5 Hours
Cost: Tour prices range depending on group size and tour duration.
Ready to get started? Request a private tour.
PARTNERS & COLLABORATIONS
100+ FIVE-STAR GOOGLE REVIEWS
I recommend these tours not only for visitors as a unique way to learn more about the rich histories of First Nations through art, stories and language revitalization, but also for anyone who has lived in Vancouver. There are so many hidden gems to be discovered through these tours.
— Fay Alikhani, Global Engagement Advisor, UBCA cross between hanging out with the smartest AND coolest person in your art class. Every season we walk through the new murals and share all the behind-the-scenes info directly from the artists, curators, and organizers. Vancouver Detours offer the ONLY tours we officially endorse to represent the Vancouver Mural Festival.
— Adrian Sinclair, Vancouver Mural Festival FounderVancouver Detours worked with me and a local landscape historian… The curated, informative and juicy storytelling came together with skillful navigation and group management that brought out the richness of Vancouver’s complex and hidden personality!
— Meg Holden, Professor, SFU Urban StudiesI first went on a tour so I could learn more about my neighbourhood. It was so engaging and richly informative that I now take my students every year! As future elementary school teachers, Vancouver Detours helps them to gain valuable knowledge about local history that is far deeper and more complex than most walking tours in the city. I can't recommend them enough.
— Harper Benjamin Keenan, Assistant Professor,
UBC Faculty of EducationI love being a tourist in my own backyard, exploring local alleys and hearing the stories behind the many murals around Vancouver. I can't wait to explore other parts of the city with Vancouver DeTours to see even more murals. Our guide, Pete, was really friendly and has so much knowledge. I couldn't believe it when our time was up!
We did a private Vancouver Mural Festival walking tour with Ali as part of our staff fun day and, to be honest, myself and several of my coworkers kept exclaiming "this is SO COOL!" during the tour. I would totally recommend a private tour with Vancouver DeTour if you're looking for something unique (and informative) to do in Vancouver with your staff, family, or friends.