cd

I have been trying to do Priceline 4stars because I understand from someone on this board that a 4 star hotel is attached to the airport. However, have been rejected so after we return from Victoria, we need to find a hotel for overnight before flying home the next day. I am going to try 3 stars but don't know if I should limit the area to the airport or also chose Vancouver. Do most hotels have shuttle service to the airport? Would it be best to just stay in the airport area? We do want to enjoy that last evening in Vancouver. Thanks!

Carmanah

The Fairmont Vancouver Airport is the luxury hotel attached to the airport.

The Vancouver Int'l Airport is located in Richmond which is the city across the river from Vancouver and about a 20 minute drive from its downtown. While most, if not all airport hotels have free shuttles, those airports would be located in Richmond. Hotels located in Vancouver, despite being about a 20 minute drive away, generally don't have free shuttles from the airport.

Staying at an airport hotel is great if you're just using it for an overnight stay, or if you don't mind spending $20 on cab rides each way into Vancouver. Staying at an airport isn't really *that* big of a deal if you're going to have a car.

However, if you're carless, you don't want to pay a minimum of $40 in cab fares to and from the airport hotel in Vancouver, *and* you want to enjoy your last evening in Vancouver, just stay in downtown Vancouver - somewhere where you can walk to the restaurants and perhaps some scenic look-out points like Stanley Park or English Bay (for the sunset).

cd

Thanks Carmanah. We will be coming back to Vancouver via Swartz Bay to Twassassen (sp???) from Victoria. What area of Vancouver is that in? Would we want a hotel close to that ferry and are there cabs available when we get off the ferry? Thanks in advance.

Judy_in_Calgary

The ferry terminal that serves Victoria is Swartz Bay, about 30 minutes' drive from downtown Victoria.

The terminal on the mainland side of that ferry voyage is Tsawwassen, which is about 20 minutes to the south of Richmond, where the airport is located. The airport, in turn, is about 20 minutes south of downtown Vancouver, as Carmanah said.

So, both the ferry terminal and the airport are south of downtown, but about 20 minutes apart from each other.

How were you planning to get from Victoria to the ferry terminal at Swartz Bay?

Something you could consider doing is catching the Pacific Coach Lines bus. It picks you up in downtown Victoria, takes you to Swartz Bay, and boards the ferry. Once the bus is parked on the ferry, you climb out the bus and wonder around during the crossing of the Georgia Strait. When the ferry docks at Tsawwassen, the Pacific Coach Lines bus disembarks and rides to Vancouver Airport and on to downtown Vancouver.

If you took the Pacific Coach Lines bus, you could climb off it at the airport if you liked. From the airport you could catch a complimentary shuttle bus to a local hotel, if that's where you'd decided to stay.

Alternatively you could stick with the Pacific Coach Lines bus if you were going all the way to downtown Vancouver.

Tsawwassen doesn't have anything like the selection of hotels, restaurants, sidewalk cafes, etc., that Vancouver has.

Richmond also does not have the vibe that Vancouver has.

My choice would be to stay in downtown Vancouver or the West End. The West End is a sort of seemless extension of downtown, except that it takes on a residential tone rather than a business tone. It has a lot of apartment buildings (a mixture of highrise and medium rise buildings and even a few low rise ones). It's located between downtown and Stanley Park.

Here's a website about the West End:

http://www.seethewestend.com/

If you do decide to go with Pacific Coach Lines, their fare includes the ferry ride and the two bus rides at either end.

Here's their website:

http://www.pacificcoach.com/

cd

Thanks Judy
We will be returning from a cruise and then taking the ferry to Victoria for two days. Once in Victoria, we have rented a car as the PCL was 130.00 pp and there are 4 of us. So, on the return we will drop off our rental and take the ferry back to Vancouver. And, that's where I am kinda lost. Stay in Downtown Vancover or go directly to the airport. Thanks for your input!

rkkwan

cd -

I still don't understand your itinerary.

You get off your cruise in Vancouver, right? Why don't you take the PCL coach to Victoria and back? One-way fare is ~$35, roundtrip ~$67. Once you're in Victoria, you can rent a car or you can use public transportation there.

I mean, how are you planning to get from your cruise to the ferry? Tsawwassen is in the middle of nowhere.

cd

rkkwan
Thanks for your reply because I am not real sure what we are doing either. We end our cruise the 27the of May in Vancouver. We then have reservations in Victoria for the 27 and 28 th and planned on taking the ferry over to Victoria. We have a car rental once we are in Victoria. We have hotel reservations in Victoria for the 27 and 28 and plan on returning to Vancouver the 29th to fly home on the 30th.

cmcfong

I don't know if you are interested in the Fairmont, but it is a marvelous hotel with an excellent spa and restaurant. I went hiking for a week in Whistler with a group of four couples. We came back, enjoyed a lovely day in Vancouver, then retreated to our elegant and spotless rooms at the Fairmont. There are periodic specials on the Fairmont website and we got our rooms for about $150 US. Well worth it. Very high comfort standard and the ease with which we were able to catch our 0600 flights was much appreciated.

rkkwan

cd -

About your trip to Victoria, roundtrip PCL fares from Vancouver is C$67. So, four of you is about C$270.

If you rent a car in Vancouver instead of Victoria, you'll pay ~C$34 for the car each way, plus ~C$10 per person each way. So, roundtrip for 4 in a car will cost about ~C$150. That's less than taking the coach for 4 people, and you gain some flexibility when it comes to hotel for the last night after you come back to the mainland.

This way, you can get a 3* near the airport for that last night. Don't need to rely on hotel shuttle or anything.

Tanya

I would investigate flying directly out of Victoria to your destination home instead of returning to the Vancouver airport.

cd

Thanks to everyone for some really solid advice.

cmcfong: I was trying for the Fairmont by bidding 4star Vancouver Airport on Priceline. Never went high enough. that's why we decided to drop to a 3star for a lower price.

rkkwan: I will have to reinvestigate prices of the ferry for PC vs car rental in Vancouver vs car rental in Victoria. Is it a longer wait to get on the ferry if you have a car? And is there a car rental near the cruise port? That way we could leave the cruise boat, get into our rental car and drive to Twass (however you spell that) That might be cheaper then taking a cab to Twass (sorry) riding the ferry to Victoria and then renting our car. I will check into that.

Tonya: Flying out of Victoria would be less hassle but all four of us are using FF miles so I think that would probably not be possible. They sometimes are hard to use.

cd

rkkwan
Also, regarding, "
Like NorthwestMale says, only go for a hotel in the "Vancouver" zone, 4*. There are three "free rebid zones" you can use - Delta, Langley, Surrey - so you have lots of "free rebids" to use. Hard to overpay." Are you saying there are no 4 stars in those area's and that is why they are free rebids?

rkkwan

cd - Yes, that's what I mean. But make sure you check on Priceline.com whether those zones still have no 4*. Things may have changed between now and when I wrote my post.

And I put quotations around the word FREE because it simply means you can get to bid again without waiting for 72 hours. You still have to raise your bidding price.

Tanya

You don't want to have a car going across, especially on a weekend. There can be long wait times. Better to walk on, that way you are guaranteed any boat you want.

I checked Air Canada flying out of Victoria and it is around $135 plus per person direct to Vancouver airport. I am sure there are other airlines that do short hauls. Again, I would check out the seaplanes - may be the easiest for you - they take off out of Vancouver harbour and land in Victoria harbour.

I found getting to and from the ferry terminals without my own vehicle a pain if you dont' want to take the bus.

There are lots of hotels just outside of the airport. Nothing fancy but ok for putting your head down for the night. Most are serviced by shuttles. Check out Comfort Inns, etc.

cd

Once again I thank you rrkean and tanya for arming me with information.

I made three columns on paper with the prices involved regarding my options. The winner was renting a car in Vancouver for after we depart the cruise ship and driving to the ferry port and taking the car to Victoria with us. This way we have a car to drive the island should we chose and coming back we have a car to take us to our hotel and then to the airport the next day.(Just a 25.00 drop off fee for picking it up at one place, dropping it off at another.

Tanya, I will make reservations for the car at the ferry, I can do it online. I just need to determine what time. The ship pulls in to Vancouver at 8am on a Sat so I'm thinking of making reservations at 10.00? 2hrs to get off the ship, pick up the car and drive to the ferry port?

rkkwan: The only other thing I need to do is make our hotel reservations. Since we have a car, thinking of just getting a 3 star in downtown Vancouver. I will try the 4 stars first.

Carmanah

2 hours is cutting it really close. I'd strive for 11am instead.

The reason why I say this is because if you have a reservation, you have to be at the ferry terminal about 30-45 minutes before it's set to sail.

It takes about 45 minutes to drive from downtown Vancouver to the ferry terminal.

I don't know how long it would take to get off the cruise ship (I'm not familiar with procedures).

I also don't know how long it would take to rent a car.

What's important to know is that the drive between Tsawwassen and Vancouver is partially done by freeway, but partially done by regular city roads. While it's not a complicated drive at all, if you're not familiar with the layout of the city, I'd give yourself the extra hour just so you don't feel rushed to the point of panic.

Once you get to the Tsawwassen ferry terminal, there's a market place with coffee shops, a food court, gift shops, etc, so if you arrive a bit early, you're not going to be stuck waiting in your car.

cd

Thanks Carmanah! With that infomation I will make our reservations at noon because I also do not know how long any of that can or will take. That way we'll just have lunch at the food court while we wait. Thanks again.