Heritage Harbour at Night

Heritage Harbour is a marina that’s home to a number of beautiful vintage boats. It’s located in front of the Vancouver Maritime Museum at Vanier Park.

The marina is open to the public most days of the year. It doesn’t cost anything to walk along its docks. Heritage Harbour is a free outdoor exhibition hosted by the Vancouver Maritime Museum which itself is an exceptional place to visit.

In this article there is information about Heritage Harbour as well as a bit about Light Up the Harbour which is a free Christmas-themed event in December.

LIGHT UP THE HARBOUR

The Vancouver Maritime Museum hosts their festive Light Up the Harbour event on December 12th in 2024. On that day, from 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm, the boats at Heritage Harbour are decorated with holiday lights. There’s also live entertainment and free hot chocolate to enjoy.

To learn more about the Christmas-themed event, click Light Up the Harbour or visit vanmaritime.com.

Heritage Harbour at the Vancouver Maritime Museum

The dock area in front of the Vancouver Maritime Museum at Vancouver’s Vanier Park is Heritage Harbour. It’s free to explore throughout the year. At marina you’ll find some beautiful wooden vessels and other classic boats. The Vancouver Maritime Museum, meanwhile, is a terrific, family-friendly museum full of antiques, model ships and information about the maritime history of the Pacific Northwest and Canadian Arctic.

The Vancouver Maritime Museum‘s address is 1905 Ogden Avenue. Heritage Harbour is at the water in front of the museum. Both the museum and harbour are in Vancouver’s Vanier Park. Also located in the park are the Museum of Vancouver, H.R. MacMillan Space Centre and Vancouver Academy of Music.

SAVE 25% ON TICKETS TO THE MUSEUM

If you use the promo code BESTVANCOUVER when paying for admission to the museum online you can save 25%! The discount is even valid on family day passes, which is a great deal!

Heritage Harbour in Vancouver — Heritage Harbour

Light Up the Harbour

Light Up the Harbour is a free Christmas event hosted by the Vancouver Maritime Museum with vintage boats, holiday lights and entertainment at Heritage Harbour. The event takes place for the second time on December 12th in 2024. It runs from 6:00 pm until 8:30 pm.

Light Up the Harbour is free to attend and a wonderful way to get into the holiday spirit a couple of weeks before Christmas. The singing and hot chocolate station are at the museum. Choirs sing outdoors, on the deck, outside the entrance to the museum. Hot chocolate is available for free.

The main lights part of the event happens outside the museum at the waterfront. That’s where Heritage Harbour is located. Vintage vessels on the water are decorated with festive lights for all to admire.

At Heritage Harbour there are several wooden vessels to check out on the docks. The public isn’t usually allowed onto any of the boats, but they can still see them from up close, both during the event and most other days of the year. For the December event, however, the boats are decorated with Christmas lights.

Performing at the event in 2023 were students from Beaconsfield Elementary, False Creek Elementary, Maple Grove Elementary, Trafalgar Elementary, and a few other local schools. False Creek Ferries also offered a special service during Light Up the Harbour. A few of their boats did “ballet” displays out on the water. Details about entertainment at the 2024 event are to be confirmed.

To learn about the event at Christmas, click Light Up the Harbour at VMM. To learn about the museum and its events and programs in general, see the vanmaritime.com website.

Light Up the Harbour Video

For an idea of what to expect at the Light Up the Harbour event, check out the video below. It was recorded in the event’s first year. There were vintage boats to admire along with holiday illuminations, hot chocolate and choir performances. Future editions of the event will likely be similar.

Heritage Harbour Video

Below is a video that shows what Heritage Harbour looks like during the day in the non-Christmas season. When the gate is open you can wander down and explore the docks.

The video begins with a scene of one of the False Creek Ferry boats leaving the docks in front of the museum. The ferries take passengers to and from the harbour and stop at various other points of interest along False Creek.

As you’ll see in the video, there’s a nice selection of vintage sailboats and fishing vessels at the marina. Many of them are made out of wood. All are beautiful, and some are quite impressive. If you like boats, especially older ones, you’ll love Heritage Harbour!

Other Information

For more information about the marina and museum, visit the Vancouver Maritime Museum website. To learn more about the museum in general, you can also see our article about the Vancouver Maritime Museum.

To learn more about the Light Up the Harbour event, click Vancouver Maritime Museum at Christmas.

Other articles that might be of interest include: