Is Vancouver safe for solo female travelers?

Solo travel experience

Vancouver is such a cool city to visit, with great access to the outdoors and amazing options for food. In total I spent about a week here in summer 2023, and am heading back to Canada to see more of the beautiful country. I stayed in a hostel in a female only dorm. The hostel was super friendly and I felt very safe. A word of warning, there is a significant drugs problem in the city among homeless people, which can be quite shocking, though I never felt threatened or unsafe during my time there, and I was recommended by friends a particular road/area to avoid. I walked around a lot of the city during the day and evening, really loved Kitsilano for the proximity to the beach and great places to eat and drink - The Cider House, Lucky Taco and Nuba. Stanley Park is a beautiful area to walk or cycle around, I walked from my hostel to Stanley Park, stopping at Greenhorn Cafe on the way (amazing breakfast!) and then walked the 10km around the seawall in beautiful sunny weather. As part of an organised free trip with my hostel, we went and hiked around Lynn Canyon Park, which was great to have a big group of hiking buddies for the day, and the local guides made it super easy showing us how to get there using public transport, and stopping off on the way for breakfast, lunch and ice cream. Such a fab day! While in Canada, I also made it over to Toronto and Niagara Falls, and am heading back again this summer to see more of the country, around Toronto again and up to the Banff and Jasper area for more hiking. Highly recommend visiting Canada!

Solo travel experience

Can’t imagine a more perfect place to do my first solo trip as a young female, felt so safe walking around on my own even at night (which I rarely ever feel safe doing) and the transit there is spectacular!

Solo travel experience

Vancouver is very safe. I stayed at Samesun, which is located in the heart of downtown. Their public transportation is great, and getting out of the city for hikes was easy. Granville Market was fun and I recommend a whale-watching tour.

Vancouver is mostly a safe city/area. It used to be an extremely safe city/area, but as a city’s population grows, inevitably a percentage of bad/dangerous people show up. (Logically, as females, we should avoid walking alone at night in deserted areas in any urban or suburban areas around the world) A certain area that should be avoided (especially at night!) in Vancouver is the Downtown Eastside - especially around the Main St and Hastings St area and a 2 or 3 blocks beyond that intersection. Vancouver has always had a homeless population, but it has grown dramatically in the last 20 years and there are some that can be aggressive or violent due to fentanyl, hard drug addiction or/and untreated mental health issues. Granville St (& flanking parallel streets) downtown has long been the entertainment district with a bunch of bars/clubs and restaurants/cafes. So if you are a young and/or attractive woman, it is quite possible you might receive some attention from men (especially drunk men) at night there, more so during the weekend.

Solo travel experience

I walked around most of the time. But the transportation is convenient here, bus, sky train, sea bus and some share bikes. It’s quite easy to get some tourists spots then. But for the other places which are far away from downtown, need a car will be much more easier.

Group travel experience

Vancouver is awesome. We spent a week here, and I cannot recommend it enough. The skytrain makes travelling inexpensive, and there is do much to do. From the aquarium to the totem poles and even just walking around the city- its a beautiful spot suitable for anyone!