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Home > Vancouver > Walking & Biking Tours > Prohibition City Downtown and Chinatown Walking Tour
Prohibition City Downtown and Chinatown Walking Tour
USD $19.00

Prohibition City Downtown and Chinatown Walking Tour

Vancouver, Canada

Mobsters! Opium! Booze! Delve into Vancouver's dirtiest secrets on this scandal fueled walking tour. From back alley blind pigs to Chinatown opium dens.

In 1917, Prohibition hit Vancouver harder than a slug of bathtub gin, knocking the city to its knees. Saloon doors swung closed for good, forcing law-abiding citizens into an underground world of bootlegged spirits and illicit activity. Mob bosses set up scores of illegal drinking dens, and dirty cops were paid to look the other way. Vancouver’s longest-running mayor L.D. Taylor emerged from the chaos, soon notorious for his shadowy past, raucous parties and underworld ties. When the U.S. followed suit with their own prohibition three years later, enterprising Vancouver rum-runners made millions smuggling booze on midnight voyages down the coast.

On this walking tour you'll explore the secret underbelly of Vancouver's prohibition history, while visiting the city's most famous heritage buildings. You'll take in the salacious Sun Tower and the ornate Dominion Building – once the tallest building in the British Empire. And you'll travel into the back streets of historic Chinatown, once home to bawdy houses, opium dens and beer parlours.

You'll finish the tour on the cobblestone streets of Maple Tree Square, surrounded by Gastown's most talked about bars and restaurants. It's a perfect place to share stories of your own with your friends and family over a post tour dinner or drinks.

From back alley blind pigs to Chinatown opium dens – these ain't the kinda stories you'll hear on tour buses!

USD $19.00
Traveler Reviews
Review by:   Julie M,    October 2017 Review: 5 star rating: Highly Recommended
The most professional guide ever. Tour was well organized and very informative. Highly recommend.
 

Review by:   Jennifer O,    October 2017 Review: 5 star rating: Highly Recommended
Excellent tour! The pace was perfect, lots of information and great sights.
 

Review by:   Tiffany K,    September 2017 Review: 5 star rating: Highly Recommended
This was a fabulous tour! Our guide, Glenn, was extremely knowledgeable about the history of the city and presented the material with both stories and historic photographs. I'm a Vancouverite and learned something new! I'm going to look into the other tours that Forbidden Vancouver offers and do those as well. This tour was well worth it and I would recommend it to both visitors and locals!
 

Review by:   leon b,    August 2017 Review: 1 star rating: I do not recommend this
The Guide really made this very fun and informative.
 

Review by:   Michelle D,    August 2017 Review: 4 star rating: Recommended
Great tour for what Roxanne had to work with. There is some that she could not tell you about as they don't know exactly what happened. Enjoy the tour and Roxanne was very polite and respectful
 

Review by:   Wayne K I,    August 2017 Review: 5 star rating: Highly Recommended
Excellent guide Roxanne enthusiastic and knowledgeable!
 

Review by:   Pat J,    May 2017 Review: 5 star rating: Highly Recommended
So Much Fun..and Educational, too!! I had a free evening alone in Gastown and wanted to stay in the area until about 10 pm so this _br/_ Tour fit the bill. Leonard, our guide, was an excellent speaker and quite knowledgeable about both Vancouver Past and Present. I felt safe in his group, especially when he offered to walk me to my bus stop after the tour. I can't wait to take my whole family on his Tour when we return to Gastown. Thanks, Leonard, for a highly enjoyable evening and wonderful memories of Gastown!
 

Review by:   Miss J,    November 2016 Review: 4 star rating: Recommended
Great introduction to some of the details of life way back then in Vancouver. Energetic and interactive with relevant commentary throughout and led by a knowledgeable guide and a steady pace so all could keep up. Meeting point is a little vague and not necessarily somewhere I'd like to hang around by myself for too long. Overall really enjoyable and educational.
 

Review by:   Chris S,    September 2016 Review: 4 star rating: Recommended
Growing up in Vancouver I learned much more than I thought I would. The guide was very entertaining and engaging. Definitely recomend for locals and tourists alike.
 

Review by:   Bridgette K,    September 2016 Review: 5 star rating: Highly Recommended
This was an excellent walking tour! The guide Amon rhymes with Salmon was fascinating to listen to and he had a very humorous way of passing on all the information he had to share. We were taken to some interesting places and buildings and each one had a link and a story relating to the days of prohibition. Great tour, definitely recommend.
 

Review by:   Alexis M,    September 2016 Review: 5 star rating: Highly Recommended
I had Nevada as my tour guide and I loved this tour so much. We started at the Cathedral on Dunsmuir and travelled down to the Dominion Building, Chinatown and ended at GasTown. It was a wonderful and thorough explanation of what went down in the 1910's and 20s during the prohibition era, and taught me a lot about the city's history with immigrants, bootlegging, laws, key persona at the time, and all the major secrets! What really sold the adventure was the real life photos that Nevada showed us. The pictures really took us back to how life was like then so that it wasn't just a fairy tale, it made it real.
 

Review by:   Mike O,    August 2016 Review: 3 star rating: Worth doing
Generally very informative about the early history of Vancouver. A lively commentary. _br/_ Personally I would have preferred not to traverse the less salubrious area area between Chinatown and Gastown. There were many people 'down on their luck' or with various issues that was off putting.
 

Review by:   dsulli101,    July 2016 Review: 5 star rating: Highly Recommended
Very comprehensive and informative. Almon was great.
 

Review by:   John B,    July 2016 Review: 5 star rating: Highly Recommended
This tour was amazing!
 

Review by:   jamesjmp,    June 2016 Review: 5 star rating: Highly Recommended
The guide was great as well as the tour. The guide provided in a really nice way interesting details about both Chinatown and Gastown. I really advise to do this tour.
 

Review by:   Matthew W,    September 2015 Review: 5 star rating: Highly Recommended
Enjoyed the tour and the guide was great and knowledgable. Only downside was the Weather as it was a torrential downpour.
 

All Traveler Reviews...

USD $19.00
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