Vancouver Tourism: Scenic Flight with WestCoast Air

This past Friday I took advantage of the warm weather and headed out for a scenic flight tour high above the City of Vancouver. On a previous Friday, other local bloggers got to experience flying high above Vancouver courtesy of WestCoast Air. I unfortunately missed out on that particular experience, but managed still experience a scenic flight tour by WestCoast Air too. What was it like to take to the skies in a float plane above the city? Let’s find out!

I was greeted by friendly WestCoast Air employees at the checking desk who were helpful and quick to get me through the check-in process. I just needed to bring along ID as my boarding pass was already set up. The cost of the scenic tour of Vancouver is $99 per person, definitely a good deal if you factor in the price of fuel, pilot’s time and such. Approximately 15 minutes later it was time to board, I would be going up with 2 other couples which meant I got to sit co-pilot in the DHC-2 (or deHavilland Beaver) which was pretty exciting.

After we all boarded the float plane, the pilot set course down the waterway and after receiving clearance from the tower we slowly lifted off into the air. Our first direction was due East, towards Port Moody. We flew over the Second Narrows (or Iron Worker’s Memorial) bridge, and I got to glimpse the old McBarge as well as the various oil refineries along the Burrard Inlet.

The pilot then banked the plane back towards the City of Vancouver, where we flew over the Port of Vancouver. The Radiance of the Sea was in port getting ready for one of the many Alaskian cruises it will be running this season.

We few South around the downtown core of Vancouver, over the many bridges (such as Cambie Street, Granvile Street and Burrard Street). Skirted long side English Bay and past Stanley Park into the more open ocean.

We then flew West along the West Vancouver shore towards Horseshoe Bay. At this time the people on the left side of the plane would have seen places such as Jericho Beach, Spanish Banks, and the UBC area.

Being on the right side of the plane, I was presented with West Vancouver’s areas such as Steerman, Caufield and even Point Atkinson Lighthouse.

We continued West along the shore over the Horseshoe bay area.

We passed by Whytecliff park, the various marinas and even the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal itself,  which also means you pass by Bowen Island on your left. Spectacular views no matter what side of the plane you are on.

The pilot banked the plane and headed us back towards Vancouver’s Coal Harbour. We flew over Stanley Park, which is pretty cool to see from above. You cannot see it in the above photo, but I could have sworn I saw one of the dolphins jump out of the water. We started our approach and our pilot made an extremely smooth landing on the water in front of the new Vancouver Convention Centre and taxied back to the WestCoast Air dock.

The overall journey takes roughly 30 minutes, which includes taking off and landing, but you are in the air for at least 20 of them.  Being above Vancouver is pretty cool too. This sort of tour lets you experience the beauty of our city from a view point not many people see. Sure you could see some of this while flying into the YVR airport, but we traveled at most 1100 feet high, which gives you a much closer perspective of the city than flying into the airport in a Bowing 737.

If you are looking for a unique and fun way to view our beautiful city I would highly recommend going up with WestCoast Air in one of their many float planes. If you are a resident of Metro Vancouver, I too recommend doing this at least once, I definitely believe it is worth the $99 per person price.

WestCoast Air not only does scenic flight tours, but they also offer daily flights from Vancouver to Victoria, Nanaimo, Comox as well as some other Southwestern locations in British Columbia. You can check out there Route Map for more locations they service.

Next scenic tour I would love to experience is their Glacier and Alpine tour. Landing on one of Glacier lakes to be able to take photos would be a great experience!

Follow @WestCoastAir on Twitter to find out about special traveling deals they offer too!

Don’t forget to check out the other aerial photos I took while sitting in the co-pilot seat.