Public Tours & Programs

1 – 3 pm the last Sunday of each Month

Explore your museum in a new way. Bring your family on the last Sunday of each month for activities and explorations inspired by different parts of the museum. Make crafts, join special tours and let your imagination wonder away with you. Wonder Sunday is suitable for children between the ages of 3 and 12 years old and is included with admission or free with membership. To learn more about the benefits of membership.

BEHIND THE SCENES TOURS (30 mins)

Get behind the scenes (literally!) and tour our collections. Yep, that’s right. Grab your backstage pass: we’re going to actually take you into the Royal BC Museum collections. See for yourself where we keep those jars, boxes and bins, and experience the working environment of our talented researchers and staff. We’ve got tours of the entomology and invertebrates labs, the history collection and, beginning later in the year, the botany and vertebrates collections. All tours pass through the exhibition arts area, giving you a glimpse into our artists’ minds as they go about creating displays and replicas.   Each Behind The Scenes Tour lasts 30 minutes and is limited to 10 people. You can sign up in person an hour ahead of each tour, on a first‐come first‐served basis (cost is included with admission). Throughout the summer, Behind The Scenes will run on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 1, 2 and 3 p.m. (Check our events calendar for fall/winter tour dates and times.

SNAPSHOT (30mins) & FEATURE-LENGTH TOURS (60 mins)

Join docents as they focus on special places within the galleries and share untold stories. Optional tours (half-hour for Snapshot and a full-hour for the Feature-Length) are included with adult admission or membership.

Sample Snapshot Tours:

• On Stormy Seas: A Tour of the Ship Discovery
• Old Town: A Trip Down Memory Lane

Sample Feature-Length Tours:

• Nature and the First peoples of BC
• Museum Highlights Tour

Tour types and times are posted in the museum lobby each morning. Or check the What’s On calendar before you arrive. Buy your all-day museum ticket on-line or in-person and meet the volunteer guides at the lobby’s tour sign. Tours take place in the Royal BC Museum Permanent Galleries.