GlenC

My husband and I will be in Vancouver for 3 days in mid August, at the conclusion of our first cruise to Alaska. We arrive in Vancouver on Saturday morning and depart for home (in Toronto) on Tuesday. We would like to go to Victoria one day(Sunday), Whistler on Monday and spend Saturday sightseeing around Vancouver. Is this a feasible plan or too rigorous??
What time does the last ferry leave Victoria?? We would love to see Butchart Gardens by night. Kindly give us some ideas of other things to do/see in Victoria for the day. Whistler is optional but we would love to go. Is it worth doing in this short visit?? what are the travel times?? things to see/do?? All suggestions would be appreciated.

PS. We are in our low 60's, fairly fit, love sightseeing around towns/cities and gardens, historical sites and love shopping.

live42day

sounds busy, but doable. You can see the ferry schedule at bcferries.com. It will be Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay. last ferry is at 9PM. You can also take a sea plane or helicopter. Are you renting a car? I personally would either do just Vancouver as there is so much to see, or just Vancouver and Victoria. I think you are trying to cram too much in and wont remember anything.

leuk2

If your budget will allow, take the float plane from Vancouver to Victoria. A spectacular trip, you arrive in the Inner harbour in Victoria(i.e. downtown). It will take you 30-45 minutes as opposed to taking half a day,once you figure in waiting,driving, etc. on the ferries. However the trip on the ferries is pretty spaectacular as well. Ithink doing Victoria and Whistler would be too much. Choose one and do two nights. It would be easy to spend two nights in Victoria. It would also be very easy to spend two nights in Whistler. It depend on what sort of a trip you want. Do you want to go hiking in the mountains?(Whistler), or walking around a city seeing the sites,including whale watching tours,(Victoria). Regardless each place would be good. You can't go wrong no matter what you decide. But I don't think you can do it all in three days.

GlenC

Thank you leuk2 and live42day, you have helped us to make the final decision. We have decided to leave Whistler for another trip. The floatplane idea is a great one! we will explore it further- do you happen to know a company or website for it? We could use the floatplane one way and return by ferry. Since we will be doing a whale watching tour in Juneau, we will pass on doing that again. What are some things to do/see in Victoria apart from Butchart Gardens? Give us an idea of what can be done in one day in Victoria - realistically. Suggest a good place to have lunch/dinner??

leuk2

Harbour air is probably the largest of the float plane co. Spend some time just walking around the inner harbour. B.C. museum is good. I'd recommend Cafe Brio for dinner. There are previous posts regarding restaurants in Victoria. See if you can locate them.

leuk2

Harbour air flies from downtown vancouver. Approx 10 minute walk from cruise ship terminal at Canada Place. They also fly from Richmond, minutes from south terminal at YVR. Harbour air has a website(Harbourair.com) I think. It is cheaper to fly from Richmond, But if you are staying downtown its about a 25 dollar cab ride.
Also in Victoria, they have these little harbour ferries that go to different areas of the harbour. One of the highlights of our last trip with the in-laws. They loved it. Very small boats-seat maybe 10 people. They also do harbour tours.

GlenC

Thanks leuk2. Excellent information

lvk

Just fyi, I checked with both Harbour Air and West Coast Air www.westcoastair.com before booking with Helijet (helicopter) instead of a float plane for our upcoming trip. The super-saver fares of $129 one way are competive with the float plane fares of $99-$135. The helicopter allows up to 50lbs. of luggage per person, while the float plane allows only 25.

lvk

Um, that word would be competitive.

Here's a thread with restaurant suggestions:

http://www.fodors.com/community/cana...ere-please.cfm