The Vancouver Walking Meetup Group

We are a group of fun and enthusiastic walkers scattered across the Greater Vancouver area who love to exercise and socialize. The organizer, the assistant organizers, and the event hosts are all volunteers. No-one pays us to do this - we just enjoy walking and enjoy sharing our knowledge about places with other people.

Your event hosts spend time and effort describing the walks as completely as possible, so please take the time to read the event description carefully, and maybe re-read it just before the walk so you'll know everything you need to know.
Our walks can be anywhere in the Lower Mainland area, depending on where the organizer of the particular walk ("event") has decided to go. To see where we've walked, check out the list of our past walks, with clickable links to the details about each one.
Some of our walks begin after a 15-minute catch-up time for those who cannot make it to the posted start time. Please read the description carefully to see if it is one of those or not.
If your plans change, please change your RSVP. You can do that any time up to the start of the walk. All walks will take place rain or shine, unless otherwise stated in the event description.
The walks may be round trip walks, which return to the starting point, or they may be "one-way" walks. If you have arrived by public transportation at the starting point, the "one-way" walks will be no problem for you, but if you have arrived by car at the starting point, you will either need to take public transportation back to the starting point, or make prior arrangements with at least one other driver to leave one car at the end point and carpool back to the starting point together.
There is no obligation to attend our walks regularly. Some of our group members are "fair weather walkers" and only enjoy walking when the sun is shining. Some members may decide to take a year or even two off from our group. Come only when you want to.

All of our walks are free of charge.
However, beginning in 2018, we began charging membership dues in order to offset the cost of organizing this group. As the organizer of this group, the main organizer now pays USD 178.99 2x/year to Meetup.com in order to have this website.
You should have paid CA$1 for each year since we started collecting dues.
This did not work very well, as the vast majority of members either didn't know about this or couldn't find the button to pay - only 20 people paid in 2024. Starting in November 2024, the group was changed over to Meetup's new payment system, via Stripe. The initial membership fee was set to $3/year in order to recoup your organizer's losses. If we end up having a surplus, this fee will be revisited after the first year.

If you have an idea for a walk, please post it on the discussion board. If you are interested in leading a walk of your own, we suggest that you come along on at least a couple of our walks so you can get a feel for our "style". Then let the organizer know and she will more than likely make you an event host.
All types of people are welcome to join us on our walks. Your ethnic group, religious background, gender, marital status, job, make no difference to us, and all ages are welcome, as well. Of course we hope anyone needing assistance will come with someone who will look out for them and help them as need be. Your event hosts are not trained to help people with disabilities nor to look after children.
Here are some of the different types of walks we have:

• Weekend walks, which tend to be longer and paced at a normal walking pace. These are exploration walks, where you will see some areas of the Lower Mainland that you might not have seen before.
  Evening repeating fast walks, which are very fast paced - for a nice low-impact work-out. These tend to be in the same area every time, so you always know what you're going to get.
  Weekday repeating walks, for folks who do not have a 9-5 work schedule. These tend to be a smaller group, and the walks are not as long as the weekend walks. The pace is a normal walking pace.

We leave the bigger, more rigorous treks to the various hiking meetup groups, such as the Vancouver Hiking Meetup Group or the Vancouver Outdoor Club, and many of our members are members of one or more of those groups as well.
If you have questions about a particular walk that has been posted, please contact that event host, whose name will be labelled as such on the RSVP list. If you have questions about the group in general, please contact the main organizer.
For our Walk Guidelines, please see this page: Walk Guidelines

Thanks for reading,
Your organizer team
The Vancouver Walking Meetup Group

Legal disclaimer: When you click "Yes" on your RSVP, you, the reader, acknowledge that participation in The Vancouver Walking Meetup events/activities carries with it inherent risks including, but not limited to, the risk of injury. And you, the reader, freely accept and fully assume all such risk(s). It is the participant's individual responsibility to verify that they are in good health and are physically capable of carrying out the activity or any events/activities organized by The Vancouver Walking Meetup. Therefore, in consideration of being allowed to participate, individuals release the Vancouver Walking Meetup, and its event organizers, and members from all liability in respect of any personal injury suffered, any damage or loss of personal property, which may arise out of participation in any Vancouver Walking Meetup events/activities.

Note: If you have any issues with any other member, please do your best to avoid that person, and let us know about it privately after the event.