Vancouver Audio Tours

Before the Canadian one got all the attention, there was this Vancouver, sitting quietly on the north bank of the Columbia River in Washington State. Fort Vancouver, built by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1825, was the commercial hub of the entire Pacific Northwest, a place where fur traders, indigenous peoples, and British officers all converged. The reconstructed fort sits today on a rise above the river, and it remains genuinely worth your time.

Modern Vancouver, WA exists in a strange gravitational relationship with Portland, Oregon just across the river.

Many people who work in Portland live here for lower taxes, and the result is a city with real character that doesn't quite get its due. The waterfront has been rebuilt into an appealing riverside park, and the historic Uptown Village neighborhood around Main Street has the kind of independent shops and cafes a city twice the size would be proud of.