Help with last minute trip to Vancouver/ Island (Time Sensitive)
 

I am a solo traveler trying to plan a last minute trip from the Midwest to Vancouver from June 24 through either June 29 or 30. Am debating the length of time... Which is where this forum comes in.

I'd like to see Vancouver and Victoria and have some thoughts on how to split the time. Though, I am starting to second guess my decision after hearing so many on the forum suggest that others focus their short trips just on Vancouver.

Allowing 2 days for travel, I would spend 2 full days in Vancouver and 2 full days on the Island. I don't want a lot of heavy activity but really just enjoy the outdoors and see some beautiful scenery.

As for the Island, I think I would stay in Victoria, maybe bike around for one day to see the city and the Gardens, then possibly take the VIA train to Courtenay to see more of the Island and get off and on as I like.

Leave the following day. Should I try to stay another day (in either Victoria or Vancouver) or will what I describe be sufficient to see the area. Thank you!

Vancouver is a big busy city while Victoria is smaller and charming, and has the highest per capita number of cyclists in Canada.

So - it all depends on what your preferences are :-)

Personally, I would stay in Vancouver the entire time...especially at this time of year....the weather is finally turning to summer. If you want, head to Whistler for a night or two and check out the scenery there. You can take the Whistler train for some spectacular ocean/mountain scenery as well. You can also daytrip to some of the smaller gulf islands (Bowen Island is 20 minutes by ferry) for a change of pace.

if you really want to do Victoria then you have to do at least two nights...not worth it for just one night IMO.

jen, i believe the VIA train from victoria to courtney only goes up and back once per day so limit ed opps to jump on and off

cheers
AndrewDavid

2 full days is really a minimum for seeing Vancouver IMO so yes, if you are going to go to Victoria for 2 days, add another day to give yourself 3 in Vancouver.

IMO a better way to use the 2nd day in Victoria than the train would be to rent a car and drive out to Sooke and beyond.

Thanks for the great suggestions. I've pushed my trip back to early July.
Am strongly considering adding Whistler to the trip
and scaling back on Victoria. Without snow are there reccomendations for activities in whistler for an overnight trip I.e. Limited time?) cheers

Whistler is a great place to rent a bike in the summer

If you go to Whistler, do the zip line for us. :) It poured the day we were scheduled, so canceled. There are plenty of trails to hike and bike. You can take the PEAK2PEAK gondola. We enjoyed just strolling through the village; shopping and dining, too. The scenery is the main attraction in Whistler.

Thanks all! Trip booked for July 7-13. Subtracting 2 days for travel, that leaves me with a short 4 days. Thanks to the comments here, am now looking hard at Whistler for an overnight trip. Though, in laws rave about Victoria and environs. Not sure I have enough time.

Whistler vs. Victoria in a smackdown? Any clear winner or totally different scenery? :-)

BOTH have beautiful scenery. I personally am drawn to nature by water, more than mountains. I will say this- we don't plan on going back to most places we visit, since we'll never be able to see it all. But we will go back to Vancouver Island one day. Had we known, we would have spent less time in Vancouver and more time there. That could be because we've been to a lot of metropolitan cities, whereas, I can't think of any place that is like Vancouver Island. I think it's more a personal preference vs. one better than the other.

You'll be getting all kinds of opinions...so I'll add mine! We loved, loved, LOVED being in both Victoria and Vancouver. We spent 2 nights in Victoria (not enough! too short! gosh, needed much more time here) and spent 4 nights in Vancouver (this was a good amount of time, but we still wished we had another 1 -2 days). Butchart Gardens (outside Victoria) was more spectacular than we anticipated and although we spent over half a day here, we still did not see it all. We didn't have time for museums in both locations. We walked all around Stanley Park in Vancouver and really wished we'd allowed another day to explore it further. So, if you add Whistler to your itinerary, you may be glad you saw a little extra, but you may wish you'd allowed that time in Victoria or Vancouver. Remember that travel time eats up time for exploration opportunities. Good luck with your plans and have a great trip!

Thanks for the new replies. SOCALOC, that's how I feel. A big city is a big city at the end of the day so I was drawn initially to VI but have heard the trip to Whistler (which can be done in a day and gorgeous so I hear) could be worth it. Great info--thanks! Where did you stay in Victoria?

Hi JenM08- we stayed at the Inn at Laurel Point in the Erickson Wing. We would definitely stay there again. Everything met our needs- location, service, ambiance and food. It wasn't cheap though- well to us anyway. :) But it was worth it.

http://www.laurelpoint.com/

I hope I'm not giving the impression Vancouver isn't worth visiting. It is. Very pretty and lots to do. On our trip, we had 5 nights that we split, with 2 nights up to Whistler in between. The reason: we worked our schedule around a Canucks game. Boy, talk about passion! That experience was priceless. Anyway, 4 nights in Vancouver would have been enough for us. We only had 2 nights on Vancouver Island and and headed back to Seattle from there. That was not nearly enough. By way of default(we missed the last tour bus to Butchart Gardens)we had to rent a car to get there. Our mistake ended up being a reward. The taste of scenery we saw driving around stirred our desires to see a lot more.
I wish you the best of luck that your desires will be fulfilled. It's tough when you don't have months to visit somewhere. :)

The fact that you are from the MIDWEST keeps me of the mindframe that you wouldn't harm yourself if totally ditching Victoria in favor of Vancouver.

As Vancouver isn't on the way to anywhere significant, the chances of your getting to return anytime soon are small-ish. Vancouver is routinely the "most livable city in North America" and it deserves all of the interest you can take.

(as it is July 6, you're soon to leave and might not see this in time, but I'm suggesting anyone else who reads on this topic should really consider before taking the considerable time away from Vancouver needed to see Victoria)

Vancouver has so much to offer (I was there just last week and there was still SNOW up in the mountains - on July 1) and it is easily enough to entertain you without the need for hours-long ferry rides to and fro...

I live in Vancouver and I've been to the Mid West. You will love visiting Vancouver! The drive or train to Whistler is spectacular and you won't regret any time spent that way.

If you take a car, the ferry trip to Victoria is quite time-consuming, especially counting that you have to line up in advance and wait for the ferry, then hope you don't have to wait extra because the ferry is full! The best way to get to Victoria (for the visitor) is to take the bus from downtown Vancouver. It drives straight on to the ferry and takes you directly to downtown Victoria, no hassle, no waiting, no anxiety. Using the bus you can go see Victoria and come back in a single day. (A very long day, but again you can sleep on the bus!) If you choose a tour bus from Vancouver, you can add Butchart Gardens to the itinerary; otherwise you will not get to see it because it is quite far out of downtown Victoria. The ferry ride itself goes through some amazing scenery. But if gardens are your thing there is the Van Dusen and the Queen Elizabeth and the Nitobe gardens in Vancouver which are all pretty top-class.

It really doesn't matter what you decide ... it's all great!

Actually, with only four days it's a waste to spend all that time going to Victoria. Stick with Vancouver and Whistler. Rent a bike and ride around Stanley Park seawall and rest in the sand at Sunset Beach. That's what Vancouver's all about.

As Vancouver isn't on the way to anywhere significant, the chances of your getting to return anytime soon are small-ish.
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Hi Northwestmale. I agree with this point. The comment below - not so much. The OP said ( I don't want a lot of heavy activity but really just enjoy the outdoors and see some beautiful scenery.) Out of the three locations, IMO, Vancouver has the most activity. Scenery to me is a natural setting vs. massive concrete buildings with a large populated area and scenery. As much as Vancouver has to offer and depending on your wants and needs; some people actually do prefer Vancouver Island. Different strokes for different folks. While I was researching our trip last fall- I saw many comments saying they wanted spent more time on the island and less in Vancouver. I should have listened. It's a personal preference vs. one is better than the other. :)


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but I'm suggesting anyone else who reads on this topic should really consider before taking the considerable time away from Vancouver needed to see Victoria)

As a Vancouver Islander, I think it would be a shame to miss the spectacular ferry ride, downtown Victoria's inner harbour, and Butchart Gardens.

Enjoy your trip.

Decoratordale

I would totally agree. We spent a week in Vancouver and I wondered why we bothered. We ended up in the same Zara, Armani etc etc shops as we would have done in Manchester, England.

Our second week in Sooke was a whole new world.

Interesting, Sooke is right across the Sooke basin from me!! It is indeed a small world.

Glad you enjoyed our "neck of the woods".