5 Places for Halloween Fun for the Family in Vancouver
When the leaves start to turn colour, many of us start planning our costumes for Halloween. Are we going to be a witch with a cauldron, or the latest superhero on the big screen? In October, you can put on that costume and visit many of Vancouver’s scenic attractions, where the kiddies carve Jack-o’-lanterns, and together, you enter corn mazes with twisty paths for getting lost within.
So, joyfully get in the Halloween spirit and head to the pumpkin patch, apple cider in hand.
The bridge sways, the lights glow mysteriously, and the sound of the rushing water below is exhilarating. If you and the kids are looking for a thrilling, family-friendly adventure, visit Capilano Suspension Bridge Park, a complimentary shuttle ride away from Canada Place and the Hyatt Regency. From early October to the start of November, the park becomes a playground called Canyon Frights for ghosts and goblins who haunt its lush forest.
Those wanting to meet the hosts of this Halloween fantasyland can search among the pumpkins and graves on the pathways. Elizabeth and Mac, the past owners of the park from the early 1900s, are hiding somewhere, and they’ll appear when guests least expect it to introduce themselves. Say a friendly hi back.
The parks’ friendly ghosts (although they’re no Casper) will invite the family to play some ghoulish games and meet wise owls from Raptors Ridge Birds of Prey. The night will end at The Loggers’ Grill Plaza where families bop to live music over delicious bites.
When it comes to pumpkins, the adage holds true: one’s company, two’s a crowd, and more than three is a party. In this case, the pumpkin party happens in Burnaby in October at Swanguard Stadium and Central Park at Pumpkins After Dark. The attraction is only about a half hour trip from downtown Vancouver via the SkyTrain. Once there, the pathway you’ll walk along isn’t long, one-kilometre, but you’ll find yourself walking ever so slowly as you become entranced by the over 10,000 carved pumpkins that illuminate the way.
The jack-o’-lanterns aren’t like the ordinary ones the kids will come across trick or treating in the neighbourhood. These ones are intricately carved with devilish faces. Others have really inventive patterns like flowers, and are stacked on top of one another to form displays for fun posing in front of. If the kids have a favourite cartoon character or mythic creature, they’ll love the lit-up figures they’ll encounter. Watch out for Bart Simpson, who’s probably up to no good, as well as dragons who breathe out fiery flames at passersby.
After the walk, there’s plenty of activities to keep the kids busy. Everyone can become a carving wizard during live demos that will take pumpkins and turn them into fancy art. All that carving (or at least watching it) is bound to make the family hungry, so snack on tasty meals from the many food trucks on site.
Vancouver is really lucky to have incredible community centres that hold family-friendly gatherings throughout the year. Take Roundhouse Community Centre, which organizes many Halloween events in Vancouver. The kids will have frightful fun, and you’ll get to swap stories with parents from the neighbourhood surrounding your accommodation, such as Opus Hotel Vancouver or Levels Hotels and Furnished Suites.
The community centre, which is open to both locals and visitors, is all about families having a good time that’s safe and easy on the wallet. They host an annual Pumpkin Carving event, where kids and their guardians flex their creativity with the centre’s carving tools and stencils, singing along to spooky tunes. On the big day itself, you’ll find out whether local businesses prefer a trick or a treat when the kiddies go door-to-door, in partnership with the Yaletown BIA. If you fit in some shopping while the kids collect candy, you can call that parental multi-tasking.
Before the kids crash from munching on candy, they might want to enter the Haunted Roundhouse Walkthrough, suitable for 4 to 12 year olds. They’ll wander among haunted trees indoors, find their way through a maze and get crafty. They’ll get a treat bag here too so there’ll be no shortage of sweets in Yaletown this Halloween. Hopefully, they’ll share them with the adults. Don’t forget to register beforehand.
Put the sweats you usually wear for travel aside, and embrace a different outfit for a Halloween voyage at FlyOver Canada, a short jaunt from Fairmont Pacific Rim and Pan Pacific Vancouver. You don’t need to pack, just wear your most innovative costume and get set to be amazed by autumn scenery across Canada.
Jack-o’-lanterns and skeletons will be the flight attendants who greet passengers. Buckle up. You’ll find yourselves soaring, legs dangling, over breathtaking scenery. The rugged mountains of the west coast will be familiar from your trip to Vancouver but you’ll visit other parts of Canada, like the lighthouses in the Atlantic provinces and the cascading water of Niagara Falls, complete with mist. For this Halloween vacation in Canada, the witch Biker Mama and her friends will be the tour guides. They have a five star rating for making sure everyone has a howling good time.
Visiting a pumpkin patch may be on your Halloween vision board. You can manifest this one by visiting a local farm for charming Halloween activities for kids. Maan Farms in Abbotsford, a short drive from Vancouver, embraces the shift to pumpkin spice lattes in a big way with their Fall at the Farm, happening mid September to the start of November.
Everyone’s Halloween dreams will come true at Fall at the Farm. Families can meander in their forest pumpkin patch, admiring displays like a rustic wooden house filled with pumpkins. The house is the largest one in the nation, so visitors pretty much have to post that one on Instagram. The kids may take a while to decide which pumpkin they want to take home but it’s all part of soaking up local farm life.
Those who have their wits about them can venture into not one, but three enchanted corn mazes where every turn could lead to a way out, or argh, another path deeper into the maze.
A trip to the farm isn’t complete without stopping by their Country Kitchen for a slice of pumpkin pie, which is basically an excuse for plenty of whipped cream, right? They also have playful treats like an apple pie samosa with cheesecake and caramel drizzle.
With an abundance of diverse Halloween activities for kids, the little witches, trolls and sorcerers in your family will have a cackling good time this season.
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