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Transportation questions Vancouver and Victoria

Transportation questions Vancouver and Victoria

Old Mar 25th, 2017, 10:29 PM
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Transportation questions Vancouver and Victoria

Hello all. We are planning a trip to Vancouver and Victoria from Seattle for our family of four. We live near Phoenix ,but always try to escape the heat at some point in the summer. We will be taking the Amtrak Cascade to Vancouver, staying a couple of days, taking the ferry to Victoria, staying a couple of days and then flying back to Seattle. My question is regarding transportation options once we reach Swartz Bay. We are staying at the Empress in downtown Victoria. Originally I had thought to take the PCL bus (is that right?)from the ferry landing to downtown, but looking at the cost of the bus times 4, I wonder if there are other options? Are taxis readily available?
Also any tips on public transit in Vancouver would be helpful. We are staying at the Hampton Inn on Robson downtown ,but want to get out to Capilano Suspension bridge one day. Do we need to rent a car or is there a bus line or shuttle and how much time does that add to the trip?

Thanks in advance for your help.
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Old Mar 27th, 2017, 08:14 AM
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Check out website Hello BC for help with travel planning.
I have taken the bus from ferry to downtown. I dint recall cost but I do remember it was rather a round about trip. Maybe there is an express bus, but I definitely was not on it.

I believe there is a shuttle from downtown Vancouver to Capilano Bridge.
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Old Mar 27th, 2017, 05:21 PM
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Yes, there is a free shuttle that goes from downtown to Capilano. We caught it at the Blu Horizon, but there were several stops so just google to find the route.

For Vancouver, we just used the Hop on Hop Off bus to get around. It worked well for us in the spring, but I have heard that it can be overly crowded during the summer and so that might not be ideal if that is when you are visiting.
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Old Mar 27th, 2017, 06:40 PM
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Thank you for the information. We will be there the last 4 days of July, so I'm sure it will be crowded. We won't mind crowds; we'll be so grateful to be out of the intense summer heat at home. I understand there is a transit daypass you can buy for the day. Can you purchase it on the HOHO or is that for the Skytrain and seabus ( is that correct?) ?
Does anyone know if it's possible to get a taxi from Swartz Bay to downtown? Are there some available to people coming off the ferry like there would be at an airport?
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Old Mar 29th, 2017, 12:07 PM
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I found public transport in Vancouver to be excellent. See:

http://www.translink.ca
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Old Mar 29th, 2017, 03:42 PM
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Thanks, thursdaysd.
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Old Mar 30th, 2017, 10:42 AM
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Hi,

Where you're staying in Victoria is a great location because most of the city's highlights will be nearby. They have a really good transit system as well! If you're coming into Swartz Bay from Vancouver, there will be lots of buses and taxis readily available. The bus should only be $2.50/person or $5/person for a full day's pass.

Here's a good website for Victoria that has some info on different transportation etc.:

www.victoriabc.ca/getting-around/
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Old Mar 30th, 2017, 05:11 PM
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I wouldn't bother with the HOHO in Vancouver, even if temperatures will be cooler than what you're used to. It's an inefficient use of your time, it's expensive ($45 per person compared to the $9.75 for the Translink day pass). But most importantly, the Vancouver HOHO buses only drive a loop around the small, walkable downtown core of Vancouver, so I see them as totally redundant. Plus, they stop running around 5 pm or so, so they're only available for the morning or afternoon.

Public transit (Translink) is excellent and runs from before you wake up (around 5 am) until after you go to bed (around 2 am). Geographically it extends to the entire Metro Vancouver area (all the suburb cities like North Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, Surrey, etc.), allowing you to hop on all buses, the entire Skytrain and Canada Line system, as well as the one and only SeaBus (the bus that connects downtown Vancouver's Waterfront station to North Vancouver's Lonsdale Quay). The water taxis along False Creek that connect downtown to Granville Island and Kitsilano are private companies (Aquabus and False Creek Ferries) - but are so affordable (only a few dollars for a ride one way), it almost doesn't matter.

The only benefit to the HOHO is to get a narrated tour. But once you hop on the bus, you wouldn't want to get off because you may have to wait a long time for the next bus in July. And by the time the next bus comes (10, 20, 30, 40 minutes later?), you could have walked to the next stop, or two or three, much faster. Or you could have hopped on one of the regular city buses.

What most first-time visitors don't realize is that downtown Vancouver is really tiny and walkable. It only takes 20 minutes to walk from the north end of downtown Vancouver to the south end, and about 30 minutes to walk from the east end of downtown to the west end of downtown. You don't need a bus tour to see this part of the city. If the HOHO buses took you outside of downtown to other neighbourhoods, I might be more inclined to recommend it.

If you do decide to use Translink, Google Maps is the best app to use to help you navigate it. Just plug in an address and it'll tell you how to get there via Translink.

BTW - all prices I've quoted are in Canadian.
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Old Apr 5th, 2017, 06:22 PM
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laurissamarion and BC_robyn,- thank you so much. That is exactly the information I was looking for. I know I can always count on the good will and expertise of the fodor's community.
We are really looking forward to our trip.
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