Vancouver in Your Ear
If you’re not happy being one of the pack when it comes to exploring a new city, Vancouver offers an ideal alternative. City Talks Audio Tours provides a mobile, flexible package that guides visitors to points of interest in Gastown, Chinatown, Stanley Park and the West End. Just grab your portable CD player, pop in a disc, check the hand-painted maps, and go whenever the urge hits. The information is lively and in-depth, and comes at a fraction of the cost of a guided bus tour (the CD package sells for about $16.50) – plus you can keep it as a souvenir.
The famous Steam Clock stands
proud in Gastown
This sightseeing helper suits travellers who like to explore independently. Nothing is predetermined – stop for a latte or lager at any time, replay fascinating sections, jump ahead or back, go off the prescribed path according to your whims, or stop to contemplate the weeping willow overhanging the jade-coloured pond in Chinatown’s Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Park. There’s no overbearing tour guide urging you to stay on track.
You can take time to find the best angle for your photo, whether it’s of the world’s narrowest building (six feet wide) or the legendary Siwash Rock off Stanley Park’s seawall. You can also find a comfortable spot to listen to information about your surroundings, such as the public bench at the red-bricked intersection at Cambie and Water Streets – ground zero for imagining the Great Fire, fish-oil covered skid row, and rough loggers’ saloons of the past.
City Talks Audio Tours Inc.: 3135 Heather Street, Vancouver, BC V5Z 3K2, 604.719.4679, info@citytalks.ca.
Audio Tours for Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast: George Shaw has used his experience as a logging-industry worker, tour bus driver and founder of Evergreen Tours to create car audio tours for the Sunshine Coast and Vancouver Island. Available on CD or cassette from various retail outlets, by mail or online. SHAWTALK Car Audio Sightseeing Tours: 2515 Oakville Avenue, Sidney, BC V8L 1V9, 250.655.9696, shawtalk@shaw.ca, www.shawtalk.com.
Historical characters will come to life in your ear, including Gastown’s namesake, the opportunistic barkeep Gassy Jack, or the Native poetess Pauline Johnston, who liked to canoe in Lost Lagoon at the edge of Stanley Park. You’ll also meet contemporary city shapers through interview snippets with people like architect Joe Wai, civic parks employee Terri Clark, and Steam Clock builder Raymond Saunders. And you’ll even hear first-hand the soft, unusual sounds of the Musqueam First Nation language.
Whether you complete the scenic loop in a day or a week, this kind of touring is about free spirits, fresh air and local immersion. The package is available at various city shops (check www.citytalks.ca for details), or you can order online. By summer, you’ll also be able to download the tour onto your MP3 player.
