Unesco Biosphere And Bowen Island Boat Tour With Island Visit

We had the most fabulous time with Vancouver Water Adventures. Our guide was superb (shout out to Marco!). He took such good care of us, was very knowledgeable about the region and what we were seeing, and most of all he made the trip so much fun. We have taken many boat tours over the years, and by far this one outdoes them all. For starters: the boat is comfy and roomy -- something you don't usually get on these types of tours -- and the sides are a bit higher, which means less splashing and your bags aren't in danger of bouncing out. It runs smoothly and is quite fast. Plus, it has a sound system (fun bonus we weren't expecting!). Marco had us rocking out to a perfectly-curated soundtrack as we zipped along out of the harbor and up toward the biosphere, inspecting all sorts of curiosities along our way: container ships (we even stopped to talk with a sailor from the crows nest of one massive vessel), the lighthouse, tiny islets covered in lounging seals and sea birds, and the coastline of west vancouver with its fancy houses. At each stop, we learned about the area, what we were seeing, and we had plenty of time to take photos (again, with the boat being a bit roomier, this was a lot easier than on most zodiak-type tours). Once we reached the biosphere, it felt like we were the only ones in the whole world -- we were completely surrounded by fjords and pristine nature. We had a blast ducking into the various coves and around little islands, admiring the breathtaking scenery, and even doing a few doughnuts and figure-8s in the water. We arrived on Bowen Island just in time to order a smoothie from the cafe, stretch our legs, and use the restroom, before it was time to head home. The whole experience was exhilarating, refreshing, and absolutely beautiful. 10 out of 10 would recommend!!

I learned many things about Vancouver and surrounding area. Caesar was an excellent captain and guide!

The 1.5-hr stop at Bowen Island was nice. We got free beverage and enjoyed Snug Cove. We were lucky to spot 3 humpbacks, seals, and otters. The suit was a hassle to put on and take off but it was for our protection.

This was fantastic! Book it! You will enjoy it so much! Marco was very personable and fun. He did an amazing job and was very informative. His music was awesome too. You’ll see things you can’t view from land or sky. This is one of the BEST things we did while in Vancouver and we will book again if we ever come back. Bowen Island was quaint and a fun place to stop. It was a great way to visit without having to take the ferry.

Captain ray kept things fun and safe. We saw seals and whales as well as gorgeous scenery. Highly recommended.

If I could leave more stars I would! We did the UNESCO Biosphere & Bowen Island Boat Tour. This was easily the best outdoor adventure I’ve had all summer. Guaranteed thrills on this zodiac boat tour! Wow..talk about an adrenline rush! This was basically a high speed thrill ride in a jet boat with amazing scenery. Life is always better on a boat! I was literally just having the time of my life!! 3 hours of pure adrenline and jaw-dropping views….speeding across those waves felt like a roller coaster on the water! Zooming down the ocean, wind in your hair, sun on your face…you'll have the time of your life!!! The adrenaline rush was unreal, and the views from the water were stunning. Still buzzing from the speed, and sprays. And let's be honest, seeing Van from the water is absolutely epic. You rediscover the city from a completely different perspective. The experience is a total thrill — high speeds with the sun and wind in your face, plus those mini splashes of water that make it feel even more epic. Vancouver’s coastline is stunning, but seeing it at high speed is a whole different experience. We felt safe but totally exhilarated. From the moment the ride started, the speed, fun turns, and splashes of water made it so exciting. The ride itself was an absolute adrenaline rush! Speed, excitement, and so much fun from start to finish! The speed, and scenery were all unreal. We had so much fun from start to finish — adrenaline, laughs, and nonstop excitement. Shoutout to Jessica for the top-tier communication! Her communication was exceptional leading up to the event which made the whole process smooth and stress-free. Huge kudos to our driver Ray for his great sense of humour and keeping the vibe fun the whole ride. The energy from Ray was fantastic, keeping everyone hyped up and laughing the entire time. Definitely hope you get Ray as your driver! He clearly knew exactly how to make the ride exciting while keeping it smooth and controlled. Ray’s energy, charisma, and knowledge about Van were truly impressive. He didn’t miss a single detail and made the entire tour feel engaging and special. Thanks to him, you really feel like you get to know the city, because he shares so many interesting facts about every place you pass. It’s not just a boat ride - it’s 3 hours of thrills with incredible views at every turn! The boat then stopped at Bowen Island and the tour includes ice cream on the island. It’s a little escape from the busy everyday life! Life just moves differently here! I could get very used to this island time thing! I can’t think of a more exciting way to experience Vancouver’s scenery! We got to feel the rush of speed, soak up the splash, and experience Vancouver from a whole new perspective. We cruised through the Howe Sound, felt the ocean breeze, and took in unbeatable views of Vancouver! Speed, waves, water splashes…full-on adrenaline rush! If you’re looking for something unforgettable to do before the summer ends, you need to come experience this! Some moments are best experienced from the water!! Hands down, this is one of the best experiences to have in all of Vancouver. If you’re looking for a fun, high-energy adventure on the water, this is absolutely the ride to take. If you are hesitant to book this tour, I am here to tell you to just hit that reservation button.

This was one of the best experiences in my life. 4 hours passed so fast. If you are a nature lover, you will like it. The Captain Alik was great and gave lots of useful information during the tour. The donuts he did were so much fun!!! My favourite parts were the cute seals and the Howe Sound. The views there were unreal. If you visit Vancouver it’s a must have. I highly recommend. It’s worth every penny I paid. Next time I visit I’ll definitely book another tour with the company. Ps: beware the boat is pretty fast but it’s fun!

We had an amazing tour with our Captain Teagan. She provided a fun experience as well as educational information about the area. Highlights were some spectacular wildlife including a humpback whale sighting, rock climbers, and excellent ice cream at Bowen Island! thank you Teagan!!

We had a good day out on the water with Cesar. We started the day suiting up into warm flotation suits, which kept us nice and warm even in summer. Best advice - don't turn one down! As we travelled to Bowen Island, Adrian stopped to talk to us along the way about Vancouver history and present day. His information was interesting and we asked questions as needed. We stopped to see a seal colony and had time for pictures. The water was quite calm so we had 90 minutes on Bowen which was time to get some ice cream and explore. After we left Bowen Island we went to visit another seal colony then headed back to our meeting spot. Great day!

Exhilarating! Saw the fjords, the Tantalus mountain range, and adjacent islands while crusing on the False creek. Breathtaking landscape. also spotted bald eagles, seals, and others, and visited Bowen island. Our captain (i think is Jay) is the best.

This was an amazing experience to see and understand. Simon was a wealth of local and wider information relative to the Vancouver and surrounding areas. The highlights included some spectacular wildlife, scenery and the legendary donuts thank you Simon you cherish the knowledge and information you provided.

This was one of the best things we’ve ever done as a family. Our guide Simon was excellent. The scenery is incredible, Bowen island is lovely, and everyone enjoyed the RIB experience. If you have a sense of adventure this is definitely the tour to do. That it leaves from Granville Island is another massive bonus as that’s great for food and families. My kids haven’t stopped talking about this since we got off, they were super happy during the whole thing. This is one of the best things we’ve ever done as a family anywhere on the planet.

Trip was amazing. Beautiful scenery, great tour guide Simon - great bits of speed on the water for the kids (11/8). Easy to find and sort and great communication. A brilliant afternoon was had by all four of us (

Our original tour with another provider was cancelled. As we walked past after hearing our cancellation news we could see Simon and his group getting ready to go out. He offered us the chance to join. The rest of the group were happy to wait. Simon went back into the shop, got everything signed, paid for and dry suits dry arranged. This was amazing customer service. Simon was extremely knowledgeable, was really kind and checked in on us. We can't thank him enough for making our last day in Vancouver, one to remember. We loved the on board music, speed thrill and Bowen Island.

We had such an amazing time! Our guide, Marco, really was so kind, funny, and informative! He very good naturedly answered a zillion questions and even humored us when my sister thought a branch in the water was a whale! Truly, his attitude and genuine excitement to be out with us really made the whole experience that much better. The sound is breathtakingly beautiful, and we lucked out seeing amazing wildlife to include seals, eagles, blue heron, starfish, and orcas. Cannot recommend enough, you won’t be disappointed with the day. Also, Bowen Island is so cute and a great stop. Thank you Marco and company, we will be talking about this trip for a long time!!

Our captain, Simon, was exceptionally knowledgeable and was also very passionate about the area and his job and this was great to see. A fabulous trip and the short stop at Bowen Island was also really great.

Fantastic day out on the water. Captain Alec was fantastic at finding wildlife. 5 bald eagles sighted.

It is super fun, kind of like a Disney ride that does not end. Definitely be prepared to get sprayed a bit by the waves and to go fast. On a three week trip with a number of excursions and date trips, this was my very favorite excursion. If you go and you happen to like distilleries, when you get to the destination, they give you like an hour to walk around, and we went to the distillery that you will see signs as you walk out of the harbor. A truly wonderful experience, extremely local and we purchased some items which we are still sipping on.

Simon was our guide today, and was absolutely wonderful. He made the trip so great, very knowledgeable, a great wealth of info about the area we traveled through. The boat very comfortable, great music, and the scenery and Bowen Island just gorgeous. We saw many bald eagles and sea lions. Just the best, highly recommend this to anyone!

This was a wonderful day exploring Vancouver by boat. The suits you had to wear to stay warm were a little difficult to put on but they did keep us warm.

Victor was our friendly knowledgeable tour guide . It was a beautiful day and Victor found a humpback whale for us ! Los of seals and sea lions to see on this majestic scenery in Howe sound . Highly recommend this 2 hour tour

This was a very fun trip. The Pearl of the Sea was a fast boat and Paul was a great captain. Once we got in the warming suits ( I was glad for them) The views were spectacular even though it was not yet whale watching season. We saw the cute seals and eagles and loved Bowen Island. Wish we had more time on Bowen Island to experience the island time more ! But the trip did not disappoint !

Greg our captain was very knowledgeable and gave us a great ride... even worth the trip in the rain... saw lots of seals and eagles!! The Snug Cafe on Bowen Island has excellent sandwiches and coffee to warm you up! Beautiful view of Vancouver on the way back!!

Wonderful day out on the water-fabulous experience, knowledgeable guide and just an overall great day out on the water. Would highly recommend!

Awesome experience, one of the best family activities we took in Vancouver. Great scenery, thrilling donuts & excellent commentary.

Fun and exploratory experience. I would definitely recommend this experience to other travelers. People should explore things out of their comfort zone which I definitely did with this tour

An exhilarating ride to see gorgeous scenery and quaint Bowen Island. Simon's enthusiasm for his job amd love for the environment and history of the region is contagious. The boat, The Pearl, skipped along the top of the waves at high speed and necessary shock-absorbing seats. This is a GREAT outing for anyone who loves fast boats and the most beautiful scenery in the world. If you don't like boats or would have trouble with a bouncy ride, this might not be for you. I loved it!

Everything I was looking for. Seals and beautiful scenery. Our guide, Marco, was delightful and knowledgable. The 4 hours was just the right length.

Wonderful excursion! Beautiful scenery from a unique perspective plus lots of background information. Our tour guide Zack was topnotch. We’d go again!

Zak & Meagan were our boat guides. Zak kept us entertained with interesting, fun facts and knowledge about Howse Sound & the surrounding waters. We saw Pacific Harbour Seals & a bald eagle on our trip. The new boat had great speakers which blasted awesome music as we ripped through the water. Zak stopped at beautiful spots to tell us about the view while Meagan did an awesome job driving the boat. My husband & I had so much fun & would recommend a boat tour with Vancouver Water Adventures.

This experience delivered everything and more. Our skipper snd tour guide Graydon was extremely knowledgeable as we made our way passing along multiple attractions while stopping to take in the seals and bald eagle along our journey to Howe Sound and Bowen Island. We learned so much about the Unesco biosphere reserve as the views and colour of the water are something to be seen. We had a lovely visit on Bowen Island which will visit again. Thanks for an enjoyable adventure.

This was an amazing experience! It was great to see all of the wildlife in their environment. The scenery was spectacular. We had a great lunch at Tippy's on Bowen Island. The meeting place was a little challenging to locate. The address did not show up on any map. The "Lobster Man" had an address on the road that showed on the map. Once you get there, walk towards the harbor and the meeting place is at the end on the left side.

The ride was exhilarating. Danny was a wonderful guide who was very well informed - and very articulate. She kept us well engaged throughout the 4 hr trip. I would recommend this unique trip to any visitor to Vancouver

Greg was the best skipper and guide we could have wanted. Enthousiastically and clear pointing out many interesting details about wildlife and history in the area that you will not easily find online. Very knowledgeable. Took the time to show the interesting things to all sides of the boat. Thanks Greg for all the extra's. For me personally I could miss the music on most of the speedy miles, but fair to say it also provided fun and energy. In general a stunningly beautiful trip, well on time, clearly informed, also about safety, a fast and rather comfortable boat/zodiac, good suits provided. Recommend it.

I feel like the boat ride could have been shorter. I would have liked to have not gone as far and had more time on Bowen Island. On the plus side, our captain/guide , Paul, was very friendly and knowledgeable.

The views were amazing....we had such a great time out on the water. Bowen Island was so cute....I got a glass of wine of course. We saw so many seals and even Orcas on the way home! Definitely trying this again next time I have friends/family visit

AWESOME EXPERIENCE-HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! My friends and I loved it. We will definitely take any friends visiting us on this tour again. It was so fun!

A fun tour with lots of explanations and plenty to see. Simply put, if you have the time, just do it! We had a great time !!!!

Our guide Graydon was very fun knowledgeable and I learned alot about the area. The scenery is beautiful and we saw many seals! Highly recommend this tour and company.

What a great day! This tour exceeded my expectations! The boat ride was such a thrill! Had some moments that reminded me of river rafting in the sense of fun and adventure ,not at all slow and boring. (But responsible) The tour guide was a young man named Graydon. He was very professional, super friendly and knowledgeable. I highly recommend taking a tour with him ( and he picked great tunes!) I told my daughter in law and son about our trip today and they booked one for them before we left Granville Island. If you’re thinking about a tour, pick this company, just do it! I shouldn’t have waited so long, I had a great day! We saw Sea to Sky Gondola, Shannon Falls, Lighthouse Park, seals, Black Tusk and Panorama Ridge, Bowen Island and had ice cream.

Our guide Paul provided an excellent informative and fun trip in the Howe Sound Biosphere Region. We learned a lot and saw a bald eagle, deer, seals and various bird species. We also had a pleasant stop on the lovely Bowen Island. Highly recommend this trip, especially if you want some environmental good news.

Great boat ride , beautiful scenery. Graydon was very knowledgeable about the area and allt of fun. We were locals just looking for a little adventure and this trip fit the bill. The itinerary of the trip was great , having the Bowen Island stop towards the end was nice. Broke up the boat ride with a little walking and a bathroom break before heading back.

Had a great time with Paul! The tour was fantastic for looking at the scenery and the Vancouver tourist spots from a water’s perspective. We stopped over at some island to watch some seals and jetted to Shannon Falls. Along the way Paul would stop and point out points of interest and tell us about the history and natural phenomenons in the area. We had 40 minutes on Bowen island to enjoy a complimentary ice cream and poke around the little shops. (Check out the smallest candy store) What I appreciated the most was the shocks installed under the seats. I’ve travelled a lot and done many half day and full day boating tours and this was truly the smoothest I’ve ever experienced. If we hit a wave we barely bounced around. It was spine saving. I wish all boat tours had this technology.

Best experience we had in our 5 day vacation in Vancouver. 60mph on a zodiac boat is beyond thrilling. We had no idea in advance a zodiac boat would be better than any Six Flags ride. Our guide Jiri was an expert Captain handling the boat and very informative. A little bit of wildlife. We happened to enjoy the views of the North Vancouver real estate. Overall very pleased!

This was a great trip. It was informative, fun, and definitely had more to offer than a lot of the run-of-the-mill whale watches in the area. I would definitely recommend this for anybody who’s looking to get a feel for the area or is curious about the Vancouver coastline.

An amazing experience that exceeded all expectations!!. Graydon was knowledgeable, funny and an all around fantastic guide. The tour was awesome- lots of wildlife, a fun (and fast) time on the boat and delicious ice cream on Bowen Island.

Wow! Fabulous! The boat ride was safe and comfortable with the shock absorbing seats. It was a relatively new boat. The tour guide/boat captain was great. He managed the boat well. The ride was comfortable. He knew all we wanted to know about the alignment of the tour path we traversed. The Biosphere talk on the preservation of the system. and the view of the large number of jelly fish in the water was very interesting. He made intermittent stops to brief us on the logging business, the survival of the trees, the mountains, the extent of roads along the mainland, the native villages and their inhabitants. etc. We stopped at the Steamship Company Marina, where I found the floatation system for all the river founded structures there to be quite equipped to deal with the variations in the tides. Great ice cream there as well. My wife, my daughter and her three children (the youngest 5 years of age) were on the tour, and it was very family oriented. I highly recommend it for families.

As a Vancouver local, this is some of the most fun I've ever had in the city! My mom was visiting me in town this past weekend and she wanted to get out on the water. (We found this tour via google search.) I was a little skeptical it wasn't going to be that great since I've seen most of the spots listed in the tour, but it far surpassed my expectations. The boat ride was super fast and fun, and as my mom said "it feels like you're on a rollercoaster" in the best way. We sat the front row. I could see how maybe someone could get sick if they already weren't feeling well, but I usually suffer from motion sickness in cars and still didn't feel sick at all. We saw a few spots along the sea to sky starting from Granville island and the tour guide, Greg, was great at talking a bit about places and things spotted along the way including impromptu wildlife like bald eagles, seals, porpoises, gulls, herons, starfish, etc. We were worried about our temperature throughout the day and didn't know what to wear since it was one of the first warm days of the year (20+) but we would also be feelings super cold winds from the boat ride. Thankfully they gave us these suits that also had hoods, and were also life preservers. Without those, we would have been super chilly so we were super thankful for those. We also didn't get wet! AND we didn't have to really have to walk much at all, even on Bowen Island, so you could have worn a nice dress and heals if you wanted to. Overall we had a super nice time, it was the perfect mix of adventure and excitement to relaxation and peacefulness. I know my mom had an amazing time, and I did too even as a local! I would love to do it again sometime the next time someone is visiting or even with some friends here. Couldn't recommend more!

Went west to visit friends and decided to take the Island Boat Tour with Vancouver Water Adventures. It was an awesome tour. Great friends, great tour and great weather. Thanks for a memorable time!!