Headed4Vancouver

Hi All,

We're visiting Vancouver for 3 weeks and wondering if it's worthwhile taking a trip over to Victoria for the day. From what we can find out so far, we could get the ferry from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay, but then it seems like you can only drive down to Victoria, i.e. there's no busses? We do have a hire car, but it soon mounts up the cost to take that over too.

Any recommendations on whether it's a good day out?

rgilbert

Unless you want to do something specific it's probably not worth it. The ferry ride over is really lovely though and you might get lucky and see some whales.

PaulandNikki

Not worth it for the day, try and get a couple of days on the island though and spend a morning (or afternoon) going out looking for whales. You can get a bus from downtown Vancouver to downtown Victoria, think it's about $50 or so.

maddhobs

You could try Pacific Coachlines http://www.pacificcoach.com/ They do schedule trips to Victoria, Victoria Excursions and Hotel packages and take you right to the bus terminal in the middle of Victoria. Hope this helps.

Surrey Expat

When we came over on vacation we did it for a day and it was quite enjoyable, albeit a long day. Catch the early morning boat, say 0700, this is the spirit class. Go to the restaurant at the front end (Pacific Buffet) Awesome breakfast and excellent value, way better than the cafeteria. Do the same on the way back, get the 9pm and dinner in the PB. Get there in plenty of time as there may be a wait.

Best to take a car, by the time you try and get around on the bus it is hardly worth the trip. things to see, harbour (nice restaurant for lunch by the harbour), Empress Hotel, Butchart Gardens, perhaps a drive up the Sooke peninsula. You can book a spot on the boat for something like $15 extra.

Another option is fly over with Harbour Air out of Vancouver straight into Victoria. Costs a bit more though. On a nice day the flight over the Lions gate and out over the gulf islands is quite spectacular.

Judy in Calgary

If you're in Vancouver for three weeks, I think it's worth going to Victoria, even if only for a day.

I second Surrey Expat's advice.

With that having been said, however, there are several ways of getting to Victoria.

Maddhobs mentioned Pacific Coach, which is an all inclusive bus-ferry-bus option.

Surrey Expat mentioned the car-ferry combination and the Harbour Air floatplane.

You also can catch a Vancouver city bus to Tsawwassen, catch the ferry as a foot passenger, and then catch a Victoria city bus to downtown Victoria or Butchart Gardens.

The more independence you have, the more expensive the form of transportation. The less indepedence you have, the cheaper the form of transportation. But then isn't that always the way it is? If you have only a day in which to visit Victoria, you would appreciate the indepedence and the resulting efficiency that a car would give you.

Still, if you used public transportation all the way, you could still visit downtown Victoria, which is adjacent to the harbour. Even if all you did was explore the area around the harbour (and enjoy the view of the Gulf Islands during the crossing), I still think it would be worth it (and pretty cheap if you used public buses at either end and crossed as foot passengers on the ferry).

For a full description of your transportation options, see the TripAdvisor Wiki article called Vancouver: Getting from from Vancouver to Victoria.

Here are some more TripAdvisor Wiki articles about Victoria.
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Surrey Expat

Fly at least one way, it's pretty from the air. If you want a ride give send me a PM.

Headed4Vancouver

Many thanks for all the advice. It sure sounds tempting, but with only 4 real days left of our visit, we're beginning to think that we'll leave some things until we move here permanently, when we'll have more time to take them in.

We're doing Grouse Mountain on Thursday and I'm still hopeful of getting some more interviews in before we leave on Sunday. Having confirmed that Vancouver is for us, we think we should concentrate on making sure we can move our here in our last few days. With that in mind, I've got to make some phonecalls!!

Thanks again for the advice.