hollie holt

In mid August we will be traveling from Philadelphia to Whistler via Seattle. Is it worth it to try to use 24 to 36 hours of our vacation to get from Vancouver to Victoria? If so, how should we get there and where should we stay?<BR><BR>Looking forward to any experienced insights!

sue

why not save a bit of time and stay in vancouver instead; a lot more to do and see.

April

If I was coming all the way from Philadelphia I would probably want to include Victoria. You could do it in a day trip if you wanted. The float plane is quick but not cheap. (And actually you could take another float plane from Victoria back down to Seattle if that is your final destination.)<BR><BR>There seems to be a bit of upset going on at the ferries lately. The least painful way of getting there is by bus, which you can take from downtown Vancouver to downtown Victoria. In Victoria, if you wanted to go to Butchart's Gardens, you'd need to decide whether to take a bus, bus tour or rent a car. With a car you can drive along the scenic waterfront to the peninsula - perhaps stopping at Mattick's Farm or Sidney, and driving to the top of Mount Douglas or Mount Tolmie, neither of which are very high but give a bit of a birds-eye view.<BR><BR>If you already had a car, however, it might be best to fork out the extra $15 for a reservation on the ferry.<BR><BR>On a short visit it might be best to stay around the inner harbour. Laurel Point, Ocean Pointe, Victoria Regent and Coast Hotel are right on the water. There are many establishments nearby like the Queen Victoria Inn, Chateau Victoria, Executive House, Royal Scot Suite Hotel, Beaconsfield inn, Best Western Inner Harbour, Days Inn on the Harbour, Harbour Towers, Ramada Huntingdon, Embassy Inn, Magnolia Hotel, or the older Helm's Inn. I don't know what would suit you best. <BR><BR>I hope you're saving some time for Vancouver.

Mike Bilinski

"There seems to be a bit of upset going on at the ferries lately."<BR><BR>More like near-riots the RCMP had to be called out a Tswassen three times last weekend to calm irate drivers who had been waiting hours in the hot sun.<BR><BR>In any case Victoria is a quaint tourist trap but offers nothing like Vancouver-give it a miss.

sue

yeah, with the ferry situation all the more to miss victoria!

jenny

hollie,<BR><BR>we visited vancouver the beginning of july for 4 days. we decided we wanted to see victoria so did a day trip on our 3rd day. the trip itself will take about 3.5 hours each way (35 min drive to/from tswassen, 45 min wait to get on the ferry, 1.35 for the crossing, 30 min drive to/from victoria). we didn't have much trouble with the ferries, we opted to take the first one, 7 a.m. over and the 4 p.m. back. it is a bit expensive, $55 CAD each way for one car and two passengers. total commute time was about 7 hours. we spent only about 5 hours there. it's a very pretty city, and different from what we have here in california, but there was nothing overwhelmingly spectacular about it. perhaps we just didn't get a chance to see what those who stay longer do, however. <BR><BR>we had dim sum in chinatown, toured the city streets and visited some of the shops, walked through the empress hotel and had afternoon tea, visited the Royal BC Museum, took a guided tour of the Parliament Buildings. the town was charming, the weather was wonderful, the ferry ride was fun and the views were very pretty. we were exhausted when we got back. <BR><BR>how long is your vacation? i would say that if it's really short and you have lots of things you want to see in vancouver, you might want to save victoria for another trip. this is what all the fodor's locals say, and what the locals whom we met while in vancouver said as well.<BR><BR>we talked about our trip over dinner at bishop's when we got back into vancouver and decided that although the town made for a nice visit, it didn't live up to the expectations that we had formed based upon recommendations from family and friends. we were happy that we went and could see it, but we probably wouldn't go again if we were to visit vancouver for less than a week. <BR><BR>if you do decide to go, i think you should try to stay at the empress. i thought it was beautiful and very centrally located. (but again, that was the only hotel i visited so you might want to rely on the experts.)<BR><BR>so have a great time and enjoy yourself whatever you do!