Vancouver Maritime Museum

The Vancouver Maritime Museum in Vanier Park showcases the maritime and boating history of the Pacific Northwest and Arctic.

It’s a great place to be on a Rainy Day, and Vancouver’s top attraction for learning about boats, coastal culture, and maritime history.

TIP: Use the promo code BESTVANCOUVER to save 25% on admission.

See the Vancouver Maritime Museum‘s website for tickets and full details about the attraction.

This article includes information about the following topics:

SAVE 25% ON ADMISSION

Want to save money on the price of admission to the museum? Then use the promo code BESTVANCOUVER when purchasing your tickets online! You’ll save 25% if you do that! The discount is even valid on family day passes, which is an especially good deal!

Visit the Vancouver Maritime Museum website to learn more about the attraction and to buy tickets.

Vancouver Maritime Museum Photos

The Maritime Museum in Vancouver

Located in Vanier Park between Kitsilano Beach and the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre and Museum of Vancouver, the Maritime Museum is a terrific place to explore. It’s home to a historic arctic exploration vessel, the St. Roch, as well as displays of model ships and more.

The Vancouver Maritime Museum is a medium-sized museum. It has a nice collection of model ships. It takes about 60 to 90 minutes to go through. If you are a model-ship enthusiast who wants to study every little detail on each display, you’ll want to stay much longer.

The highlight of the Maritime Museum is definitely the St. Roch. It’s a retired RCMP police boat and the first vessel to circumnavigate North America. The ship is indoors and you can board the ship and walk all around it, including inside the galley.

(Note: Interestingly, the St. Roch was built in North Vancouver in the Shipyards District, which today still has buildings and a historic crane from the region’s rich shipbuilding past.)

Visit vanmaritime.com for the museum’s official website.

Light Up the Harbour

General Information

As of late 2025, the museum’s hours are Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm. This includes all statutory holidays except for Christmas Day.

Visitors are encouraged to book their tickets online. Guests can also pay on-site, but only with credit or debit cards.

The museum’s address is 1905 Ogden Avenue. It’s located in Vanier Park, not far from the Museum of Vancouver and H.R. MacMillan Space Centre.

Vancouver Maritime Museum Gallery — A Gallery Room at the Museum

Museum Admission Rates

Regular admission to the museum in 2025 is $22 for adults. It’s also $17.50 for students and youth, and the same for seniors. A family pass for up to two adults and four children costs $48.50. Children 5 and under are free, as are people who identify as Indigenous. Taxes are extra.

TIP: Use the promo code BESTVANCOUVER when making your purchase and you’ll save 25%! (NOTE: This offer was valid as of the last time we checked in 2025, but it might change at any time.)

Pay What You Can

The museum offers Pay What You Can admission on the first Sunday of every month, which is a great and accessible opportunity for all.

See the Vancouver Maritime Museum‘s website for tickets and full details about the attraction.

Model Ship at Vancouver Maritime Museum — Model Ships at the Maritime Museum

What to Expect

You expect to see a good number of model ships, some hands-on displays for children, and the large St. Roch sailing vessel, which you can climb aboard and explore. It’s a very family-friendly place that’s great for all ages.

Below is information about the St. Roch ship, the museum’s galleries and what you’ll find outside the venue.

The St. Roch

As you enter the Maritime Museum, if you turn left, you’ll find the St. Roch. It’s a large boat, built in British Columbia. It was the first vessel to sail west-to-east through the Arctic Northwest Passage in the early 1940s. It was also the first to circumnavigate North America. Today, the ship itself is a National Historic Site.

You can climb aboard the St. Roch and go inside and explore its decks. You can also go downstairs in the dry dock and see it from below, or pretend to steer the St. Roch in front of an interactive video screen on the main floor.

St. Roch at Maritime Museum — The St. Roch at the Maritime Museum

Guided Tours of the St. Roch

The museum offers private and group tours of St. Roch’s engine room that must be booked in advance. Tours can be booked through the museum’s website.

The tours have a maximum of 15 guests per group. The cost is $100 per group (regardless of size, up to 15 people), plus admission for each person in the group. They last for 45 minutes to an hour.

(Note: If you buy a regular admission ticket, you can use the promo code BESTVANCOUVER and save 25% on the cost of admission.)

Visit vanmaritime.com for information about the tours and to book your spot.

Climbing up the St. Roch in Vancouver — Exploring the St. Roch

Museum Galleries

On the other side of the museum, if you turn right at the main entrance, you’ll find the museum’s galleries and displays. It’s not a huge museum, but it does have a fair number of rooms with artifacts in cases and written information on the walls. There are model ship displays, themed exhibits, interactive displays, old photos, and a model galley where children can play.

The model ships at the museum are exceptional. They aren’t just any old model ships. Many of them are replicas of actual boats that sailed and motored around the waters of British Columbia. The details are remarkable!

See the Vancouver Maritime Museum‘s website for tickets and full details about the attraction.

Gallery Room at the Maritime Museum — Exhibits in a Gallery Room

Heritage Harbour and Outside Exhibits

There is more to the museum than what is inside. Outside the entrance to the museum, at the front of the building (on the waterfront side), there is a large anchor and a real submarine – the Submersible Ben Franklin. You can’t climb these structures, but you can see what they look like (and it’s free).

Another highlight of the museum is Heritage Harbour. If you walk down to the water, you’ll find a marina with a collection of boats. There is a large RCMP patrol vessel and a number of vintage sailboats. When the gate is open (on select days), you can wander around the docks. You can’t go on board any of the boats, but you can admire them from up close.

Below you’ll find a video with scenes of Heritage Harbour, as well as videos featuring the St. Roch and the museum’s galleries.

Heritage Harbour at the Vancouver Maritime Museum — Exploring the Docks at Heritage Harbour

Temporary Exhibits in 2025

The Maritime Museum isn’t static. Various temporary exhibitions are displayed at the museum throughout the year. As of 2025, the museum features the following Feature Exhibits listed below:

Arctic Passageways: The exhibition explores the history of explorers who sought to map the Northwest Passage through the icy north. There are also exhibitions about beaked whales and the dangerous work of commercial divers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Mysteries of the Deep: A Whale of a Tale: This exhibit looks at rare whale species and the deep-sea environment.
Walking Under Water: An exhibit exploring early diving, highlighting the dangers of old equipment and stories from early divers.
Pleased to Meet You: Looking at objects and characters that are unexpectedly related to coastal life.

Visit the Vancouver Maritime Museum website or see our article about Vancouver Maritime Museum Special Exhibitions for more information about the above-featured exhibitions.

See the Vancouver Maritime Museum‘s website for tickets and full details about the attraction.

Skeleton at Maritime Museum

Maritime Museum Videos

Check out the following videos for an idea of what to expect at the Vancouver Maritime Museum. The first video shows what the museum’s main galleries look like. The second video is of the St. Roch ship.

Museum Galleries Video

The video below shows the museum’s main galleries. The video begins outside the museum, at Vanier Park, not far from the waterfront.

You’ll see a number of rooms filled with different things. There are display cases, photos, maps and artifacts. There is also a lot of written information. At the museum you’ll see model ships, maritime clothing and even a couple of pistols.

St. Roch Video

The following video showcases the St. Roch. It’s an impressive ship. And it’s housed 100% indoors!

The video begins in the museum’s dry dock, near the ship’s stern. As you’ll see, the ship’s propeller and rudder are massive! Next, you’ll see some informational displays before actually going aboard the vessel.

Inside the ship you’ll see some of the cabins, set up like they would have been years ago. Outside, you’ll see the main outer deck and the sails. You can also go down into the galley and climb up a ladder to the upper deck. You’ll get a really good idea of what life would have been like living on the St. Roch. Kids will love it, and so will adults.

Maritime Museum Youth Camps

In 2025, the Vancouver Maritime Museum offered a special one-day Youth Day Camp on Friday, October 24th, for children in Grades 3 to 5. Activities included nature journalling, artefact sketching and a guided tour of the St. Roch. The cost was around $80 per child. At the time of writing in late 2025, there are no more youth camps listed for the rest of the year.

The Maritime Museum usually offers a series of summer children’s day camps. Called VMM STEAM (for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics), there are usually four different themed camps running from July until August. Each camp is a week-long, typically running from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm at the museum, Monday to Friday. The cost is typically around $250 per child. However, in 2025, the summer camps didn’t happen.

Visit the Maritime Museum website for more information and upcoming camps in 2026.

Interactive Museum Display — Navigating a Ship in the Arctic

Earth Day at Vanier Park

Earth Day falls on April 22nd each year. In 2025, Vanier Park hosted a mix of outdoor and indoor activities on the weekend before Earth Day. The events involved the Vancouver Maritime Museum, Museum of Vancouver and the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre.

One of the main activities was an Earth Day Beach Clean with Surfrider Foundation. It happened on April 19th, 2025, at Hadden Beach. Volunteers who took part received free admission to the Vancouver Maritime Museum.

Vanier Park also offered family-friendly activities across the Vancouver Maritime Museum, Museum of Vancouver and H.R. MacMillan Space Centre. These included crafts and outdoor learning stations.

The Museum of Vancouver and the Vancouver Maritime Museum both offered Pay-What-You-Can admission for the day. The Space Centre required a ticket for its main galleries, although it provided some free activities in the lobby.

Facility Rentals

The museum offers different rental options for its facilities. Different sections of the site can be rented individually, or you can reserve the entire museum for an evening or during the day. The least expensive options cost around $500 to $1,000, while the whole museum can be rented for $3,500 a night or for $5,000 during the day (which closes it to the rest of the public).

If you want a wedding on the water, then the Maritime Museum is a great spot! The terrace is a lovely spot to gather with friends and family, and Heritage Harbour provides views of the mountains, Burrard Inlet and much of the surrounding city. It costs just $500 to have your ceremony at the harbour (for up to 2 hours).

Visit the Maritime Museum website for more information about rental opportunities and to make your own reservation.

Vancouver View from Maritime Museum — View of Vancouver from the Museum

Tips & Advice

Below is some advice to help you make the most of your visit to the Maritime Museum.

TIP #1: Consider exploring the St. Roch at the end of your visit. It’s arguably the museum’s highlight, so a nice attraction to finish your visit with.

TIP #2: After you visit the museum, don’t forget to check out the boats at the waterfront. Heritage Harbour is part of the museum. There you’ll find a variety of beautiful older boats. You can’t climb aboard any of them, but you can usually walk around the docks and admire the vessels.

TIP #3: While in the area, and if it’s not raining, go for a walk along the waterfront at Vanier Park. The views of Vancouver are beautiful.

TIP #4: Admission is “pay-what-you-can” on the first Sunday of the month (which makes it extra affordable).