Pumpkin patches and Halloween outings around Metro Vancouver.

October in Metro Vancouver is a month with two halves. The first is about farms: pumpkin fields open across the flat delta land of Richmond and Delta and out along the Fraser Valley, and a weekend wagon ride through the mud becomes a small family ritual. The second half belongs to Halloween itself, when the city’s parks, museums and gardens stage evening events and whole streets of ordinary houses turn into open-air displays.

Picking a pumpkin patch

Most farms open their patches from late September and close on or just before Halloween. Weekends are busy everywhere, so weekdays or the first weekend of October are quieter. Rubber boots are not optional after rain, and most farms now sell timed tickets online for weekends, which is worth doing before you drive out.

• Closest to Vancouver: Richmond Country Farms, a polished, full-featured patch with a wagon ride, barn show and animals, ten minutes from Steveston.
• Quietest and prettiest setting: Westham Island Herb Farm in Delta, reached over a one-lane wooden bridge and surrounded by big skies and birdlife.
• Classic family farm with a mountain backdrop: Laity Pumpkin Patch in Maple Ridge.
• Biggest day out: Maan Farms in Abbotsford, with one of the region’s largest corn mazes, a winery and separately ticketed haunted attractions after dark for older visitors.

Halloween events for families

• Stanley Park Ghost Train is the city’s longest-running tradition: a miniature train through lantern-lit forest with a different theme each year. Tickets sell out, so book early.
• Burnaby Village Museum gives its 1920s heritage street an old-fashioned Halloween, with the restored carousel glowing at dusk. Gentle enough for the youngest children, and next door to Deer Lake’s fall colour.
• VanDusen’s Glow in the Garden is the calm, beautiful option: hundreds of carved pumpkins and illuminated autumn trees reflected in the garden lakes.

Neighbourhood displays

Some streets decorate for the pleasure of passers-by, and Trinity Street in Hastings-Sunrise is the best known, warming up for its famous December lights with porch pumpkins, skeletons and glowing yards in the final week of October. These are private homes: stay on the sidewalk, keep noise down after dark and never enter a yard. We only list streets with a long public tradition of decorating, and never individual addresses.

Before you go

Every farm and event on this list sets its own dates, prices and weather policies each year, and they change. Each place page links to the operator’s official site and shows the date we last checked it. The images on these pages are original SpotsAround illustrations of how the places typically look in season; they are not photographs from this year’s event.