rattravlers

We are flying in on a Thursday evening at 7pm from the east coast. We will leave that Sunday on an Alaskan cruise. Traveling w/teens (19 & 16). I have been reading all sorts of trip reports & am still torn as to whether to split our time between Vancouver & Victoria or just forego seeing Victoria at all....Thursday night would have to be spent in Vancouver & then I'm thinking Friday night too....would it be too much of a hassle to travel to Victoria Saturday morning & stay the night & then head to the cruise on Sunday? BTW, where is the cruise terminal in relation to Vancouver? Obviously, we would only get to see a bit of each place but they seem so different from one another & both with so much to offer....the ferry trip sounds lovely too....our trip is in late June. thanks for the input.

Carmanah

Don't bother with Victoria this time around because the time you have is the absolute minimum time you'll need to experience a taste of Vancouver. Even then, 3 full days would be ideal for Vancouver.

The ferry from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay (Vancouver-Victoria) is lovely, but you're taking a cruise already through equally lovely waters. Note that it takes 3+ hours to get from downtown Vancouver to downtown Victoria by car/bus and ferry *one way*, so just getting to Victoria from Vancouver even as a day trip would take 6 hours out of your day. And splitting the time between Vancouver and Victoria doesn't give either city justice.

There's plenty to do for 19 and 16 year olds in Vancouver in June that I think you'll be wishing you had more time. So for this time around, stay put in Vancouver.

Carmanah

Oh, and there are 2 cruise ports in Vancouver. One's at Canada Place, which is located at the north end of downtown Vancouver, right in the heart of the business district. The other is called Ballentyne Pier, which is off in a vacant industrial part of Vancouver, a 10 minute cab ride east of downtown. Either way, you'll want to stay right in downtown Vancouver somewhere nearby Robson Street, False Creek, the West End, or Yaletown, as everything will be within walking distance, and regardless of what cruise port you'll be using, you'll only be a short cab ride away. By short, I mean anywhere from 2-3 minutes, or 10 minutes max.

Daniel_Williams

I love Victoria, but I'm with Carmanah here... stay in Vancouver. So much to appreciate in greater Vancouver that even with 2 full days, you'll be sad that you don't have several days longer. (My first trip, I went for 4 days and was sorry I didn't have a few days longer!)

Stanley Park, West End, English Bay Beach one day... maybe Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge and Grouse Mountain the second day... or potentially Kitsilano and UBC-proximal sights like the Museum of Anthropology and Wreck Beach the next day.

Enjoy! Daniel

rattravlers

Thank you for confirming what I thought I knew to be true! And thanks for the great Vancouver tips.

NorthwestMale

The kids will love Vancouver.

Let them get out and roam around to their heart's content, so they can combat the confines of the cruise ship later.


In late June it will be light out PAST 10:00PM and you'll be in one of the safest cities of its size on the continent.

Vancouver is also the sort of place where you could land @ 7pm having done zero research about the town, and still entertain yourself in grand fashion for 2 1/2 days.

With that scenario as a possibility, I wouldn't make the aggravating effort to get to Victoria.

(curiously, lots of Victoria's appeal comes indirectly from it being so darn inaccessible to the masses. I'm less than 100 miles from it and have been there once in the last 35 years)