Seattle to Victoria via the Clipper
 

I would appreciate anyone's feedback in regards to taking the tour boat Clipper from Seattle to Victoria. I will be visiting my son in Seattle and would like to visit Buchart Gardens. Any recomendations for staying overnight in Victoria and when is the best time in the year to see the gardens.

I think I would enjoy the scenic nature of this excursion but it does seem a little pricey. Would I need to rent a car in Victoria or are their busses to the gardens. Thank you.

Hi Miss Maple,
The Clipper is a very fast and good passenger ferry and not really a tour boat. It is pricey, but it is fast and easy from Seattle. You wouldn't need to rent a car. You can get buses to Buchardt Gardens.

I think spring and summer are best for seeing the flowers in the northwest. In winter, they do a light show at the gardens around Christmas time. We visited last year and the theme was the 12 days of Christmas (from the song). It was cold and lovely, but not a floral experience.

There are lots of excellent hotels and B&B's to stay in Victoria. Many are within an easy walk of the town. We stayed in a B&B last time called the Abigail's Hotel. It was very romantic and well located. Run a search on this website and you'll come up with a lot of places. You might also want to try the Canada board. Some people swear by the "biggie," the Empress, but I've heard others say it is overpriced and the rooms are small.

Other people may criticize this post, but since it's October now it's worth noting that the Clipper can experience very rough water conditions on it's crossing. Beware if you are prone to motion sickness. More than 50 passengers were ill on my last ever Clipper trip (and yes, that included me).

We visited Buchart Gardens last October and happened to hit perfect weather. There were plenty of flowers blooming, and the sunken garden was just unreal. I got inspired and came home and re-planted half my back yard.

We took the Clipper out of Seattle, and for the most part it was a pleasant trip. My wife and I enjoyed a group of small school kids in uniforms and ties on board doing an overnight field trip. On the way back, the speed of the boat hitting the waves felt like we were taking off airborne for about 45 minutes or so. My wife had to close her eyes to keep from getting sick, but that doesn’t happen to all people. I did go into “what if” mode however, and I noticed the captain had to slow down a bit. On the bright side, the sight of Seattle’s lights at night was beautiful, and we had a great dinner afterwards.

We took the trip to Victoria last minute and didn’t pre-plan arrangements to the gardens. On board the Clipper, they try to induce you to buy “last-chance” sight-seeing bus fares to the gardens that are quite expensive. I don’t give in easily and held out. When we disembarked, we were immediately approached by a few rickshaw guys anxious to give us rides. I asked one for directions to a city bus and where I could exchange my money. He was extremely helpful.

We exchanged our money there, something I highly recommend, caught the city bus to the gardens, had time to come back and tour the Miniature Museum, shop a bit, exchange our money back, and catch the Clipper back. It all worked perfect for virtually no planning!

I would not recommend taking the Clipper in the winter. We booked an overnight package a few years back for Valentine's Day and were not able to return via the Clipper due to rough seas. Instead they bused us back via the Canadian ferry system and we got home at 2:00am instead of at 9:00pm as planned. Granted we did make it home safely, but why take the chance of having this happen?

You can save the cost of the hotel (but more for transportation) - and save a lot of bumpy water time if you think about flying on the scheduled floatplane from central Seattle to Victoria - www.kenmoreair.com. They also have overnight packages, although a day trip is quite easy.

I enjoyed the trip on the Clipper but think of it more as a summertime activity. I wouldn't do well myself if we encountered rough water.

Thank all of you for your replies. I am looking at visiting in May - June. I think I read a post about taking the train up (business class recommended) to Vancover and then CA ferry over. Stay one or two nights and then take the Clipper home. My initial impression for lodging seems that staying on Victoria is expensive -- not sure if that is because the hotels include the GST or not.