Butchart Gardens - Victoria, BC

I'm not sure this is the correct place to ask, but we will be visiting this port on our Alaska cruise this summer. We will be there with the Emerald Princess on June 16th from 7pm to Midnight. This seems like a really odd time/stop for this cruise, but we are really excited to see the Butchart Gardens if we can possibly make it work. Our family is 5 adults (ranging from 19-78). According to the garden website, they will be open until 10pm that night (Starting June 15th) but the fireworks will not be happening until later in the summer.

I'm looking for the best way to get the 5 of us to the garden and back and give us the most possible time to see the garden. We have 3 VERY avid gardeners in our group and 2 who at least enjoy visiting gardens. My son is probably the least excited about yet another garden, but even he is used to spending hours at gardens when we travel and I think he will be interested in the lighting they use in the evening.

I would really prefer not to do the ship's excursion. They only provide 1 hour 45 minutes at the garden and I suspect that some of that would be wasted waiting for everyone to get off the bus when arriving and boarding everyone back on the bus when leaving. Ideally, I would like us to have at least 2 full hours there.

Would taking a taxi be a reasonable way to do this? How difficult would it be to get a taxi at the cruise pier and, more importantly, how difficult would it be to get a return taxi from the garden?

It looks like the usual "shuttles" that run to the garden during the day will not be an option. The latest one I could find leaves downtown Victoria at 7pm and we are only just arriving at 7pm. Even if they were to add departures, I am concerned that we would waste too much time getting to the shuttle, waiting for everyone to board, etc.

Would a car service/limo make any kind of sense? It would have the advantage of running on our schedule and being pre-booked (unlike a taxi) but I suspect the cost might be a little crazy for this purpose!

We took a cab from the pier to the gardens two years ago. Since you have five in your group you will need to look for a minivan taxi. There should be plenty of cabs waiting for passengers needing rides. Before you get in I'd discuss the pickup at the gardens for later - you may have to offer to give him an extra good tip to get him to come back for you... The gardens are off in the distant suburbs and not where cabs would normally pick up passengers. We had a little difficulty getting a taxi back and we were in Victoria from 12 Noon until 12 Midnight - we went right to the garden after getting off the ship and were ready to go back around 5 PM. The ride is about 25-30 minutes in normal traffic. The taxi driver we had gave me his phone number to call for a ride back but he wasn't interested when I called him... We finally found a taxi that we shared with a couple ladies who were trying to get back too. If you get off the boat at 7 PM sharp don't expect to be to the garden before about 7:45 - that's only going to give you about two hours to look around. Don't dawdle!

I agree with SuperCrewBear, I would take a taxi and you will need a taxi van and I would discuss with the driver about picking you up. Set a pickup time and do tip nicely.

Keith

This is one time I'd take the ship's tour. Choose the garden areas you're most interested in (the website has a map online; click on GARDENS, then Map), and walk fast!

If you can find a car rental still open (not likely in Victoria, it's a 'roll the carpets up at 5pm' government town!) that's by far your cheapest and most flexible option. Failing that, the cab ride is a much better prospect than the ship tour IMO.

Given how overpriced ship tours are for this excursion, I'd be inclined to simply pay your cabbie to wait for you while you're in the gardens - taxi wait time is charged at a little under CAD$42 per hour, and I am very confident that it would still be much cheaper to pay that on top of the actual ride fares than to pay for the ships tour for 5. Knowing your cab is right there waiting, no risk of a no-show, seems worth the spend too (your total fare will be most likely $50-60 each way driving, so you're looking at approx $200 for the cab to spend two hours on-site as well as drive you to and from, plus your entry fees of approx $35pp, for a grand total of approx. CAD$375). Call it $400 to allow for tipping on cab fare part, or approx US$300 all-in.

The cabbie should love this option - the odds of getting another fare from Butchart when he drops you are slim, so rather than a long unpaid ride back into town (and the same again to come get you, which is why calling a Victoria-based cab from Butchart has a definite risk factor involved!) he gets to have a nap and still earn some cash.

Unless the ship tour is less than US$60pp (no chance - I'd guess this year it's more likely to be US$80+) you'll not just save money but will also have a better experience as you'll get there before the cruise horde so will be able to get around the gardens faster, be able to leave when you want, and your risk of not getting back in time is also minimal since it's not a firework night - wait until after the cruise buses leave and you could actually manage well over 2 hours in the gardens (~30min drive without traffic, need to be back on ship by 11:30pm, so you could stay at Butchart until almost 11pm but remember it's about $8 extra per hour per person for the cab's wait time).

If you wanted to lock in the exact pricing, rather than worry about the meter, you could also book a limo - minimum hourly rates for a 'mid-size' limo is $90, and there's enough competition you will be able to find folks charging that. Even booking 4 full hours plus your Butchart entry fee likely still saves you money over the ship tour's bus ride... although it will still cost more than a cab even if traffic is horrendous and drives the meter up a lot.

This is one time I'd take the ship's tour. Choose the garden areas you're most interested in (the website has a map online; click on GARDENS, then Map), and walk fast!

I agree. Given the very short time you are in Victoria, I would be very nervous booking this on my own.

googled it

https://www.taxicab.com/services/

bluebird cabs says you can book up to 11 months in advance...you could book a minivan for both ends of the trip to the Gardens...

we used the shuttle bus from downtown victoria so cannot vouch for anything...gardens are great

Wow- Thanks to everyone for all the thoughts/ideas/information! I hadn't even thought of paying a taxi to just wait for us. Going to go over these thoughts with the rest of the family and see what the consensus is. Thank you so much for taking the time to respond :)