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.
For full details about the museum and harbour, see the Vancouver Maritime Museum‘s website.
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.
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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!
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 took place for the first time on December 14th in 2023.
Light Up the Harbour was 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 were at the museum. Choirs sang outdoors, on the deck, outside the entrance to the museum. Hot chocolate was free and served inside. Performing in 2023 were students from Beaconsfield Elementary, False Creek Elementary, Maple Grove Elementary, Trafalgar Elementary, and a few other local schools.
The main lights part of the event happened outside the museum at the waterfront. That’s where Heritage Harbour is located. Vintage vessels on the water were 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 were decorated with Christmas lights.
False Creek Ferries offered a special service during Light Up the Harbour as well. A few of their boats did “ballet” displays out on the water.
Details about Light Up the Harbour in 2024 and future years are to be confirmed.
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:
- Vancouver’s Best Christmas Activities
- Best Places for History and Culture
- Vancouver On a Budget
- Vancouver’s Calendar of Events
