Best Options to get from Vancouver to Victoria...9 people

Hello All,

My extended family (9 of us) are flying into Vancouver on Friday, July 13th for a 7 night inside passage cruise starting on Saturday, 07/14. Four of us on the trip have already been to Victoria and Butchart Gardens, but we would love for those who haven't to be able to see them both...on Friday.

Our challenge is "time". Our flights arrive at 11:42 AM from Dallas on Friday. I figure it will take at least 60 minutes to get through customs...possibly 90. That puts us leaving the airport around 1:15 PM with what will likely be a decent amount of luggage.

We are staying in downtown Vancouver that night (Hyatt Regency). The only real option I have considered so far is:

1. Rent two cars at airport
   
2. Take cars to hotel to drop off luggage (note: this could be optional to save time).
   
3. Drive to ferry terminal, board ferry w/ car, cross water in ferry
   
4. Depart ferry at Swartz Bay
   
5. Drive to Victoria and/or Butchart Gardens for a visit
   
6. Drive back to Swartz Bay terminal, board ferry in car and cross water
   
7. Drive cars back to airport and return cars at airport (avoids hassle of next morning return of cars, but maybe that's an option worth considering since I assume we can get to the cruise terminal anytime before Noonish...Holland America if that matters).
   
8. Take skytrain (potentially with luggage in tow) to metro stop next to Hyatt Hotel (Burrard Station)
   

That will, admittedly make or a pretty long first day (after 4 hours of flying) as I'm sure we won't roll into the Hotel until 9 or 10 pm, but I'm not sure how else to pull it off at this point. Hotel is already booked and non-refundable (a Victoria Hotel stay the first night might have been better, but has its own hassles).

Anyway, is anyone seeing any other options? Is this too ambitious given the time we have?

Thanks!

Unless you take flights to / from Victoria, I would say that is too ambitious with the time frame and number of people. You would probably be close to midnight getting back to the hotel and settled into your rooms. That would make for a long day, especially if you left Home before 7:00 am to go to the airport.

There are numerous things to see in Vancouver that would be much less stressful and time consuming- Stanley Park, Capilano Suspension Bridge, etc. Most are accessible by Hop On Hop Off Tours or Public Transportation.

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If you're actually serious about this there is only one even close-to-good option - change your inbound flights to YYJ instead of YVR, and the earliest time you can possibly manage and schedule taking the first ferry back on departure day, with an overnight on the island.

If your flight change fees & prebooked hotel would be higher than $200pp, instead fly from YVR by floatplane - the extra time getting to the hotel will be more than offset by the vast time saving by flying (~45mins including check-in time, compared to at least 2.5 hours driving a car onto the ferry). The bigger planes out of YVR allow proper sized bags to fly with you - the smaller planes used downtown from the harbour have much tighter luggage restrictions. You could even be organized enough to store bags at YVR overnight with CDS, then only take an overnight bag to and from Victoria.

A delayed flight, a bad storm or mechanical issue that impacts ferries (or cars), a strike, exhausted people not appreciating what they are seeing, someone screwing up while behind the wheel due to a poor night's sleep combined with a long day, one of your party having a DUI they forgot to mention so they don't even get into Canada... and at best a too-short visit to Butchart or Victoria, certainly not both, are the immediate problems that spring to mind! In short, you could not pay me enough to schedule a car-rental based trip per your original plan (well that's actually a lie - if you paid me so much that it would refund my entire cruise and flight cost, removing any financial risks, I'd be willing to schedule a ridiculous plan like this!

Aside from flying, you’re being way too ambitious. The gardens are great but I’d stick to Vancouver which has its own stuff that’s pretty cool as mentioned above. If you miss ferries, you eat a huge loss on the Hyatt and that’s a really, really long day even if you do make the ferries.

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Sorry but this is the most ridiculous ideas I've ever heard. Just enjoy your afternoon and evening in Vancouver.

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I'm another vote for "don't try it". Remember, the ferry runs on scheduled departures so you need to factor THAT into your timeline both for getting to Victoria AND back. And as others have mentioned, sometimes the service shuts down.

How upset would you be if you had to stay the night in Victoria and HOPE you could get a reservation on the first ferry back to Vancouver, possibly causing you to miss your cruise.

For no cost, easy access, and a surprisingly comparable experience, just visit the Queen Elizabeth Park gardens right in central Vancouver. For an extra C$6.50 you can visit the superb Bloedel Conservatory right in the park (full of colorful birds) and if you're still in need of gardens, you can visit the nearby VanDusen Botanical Garden, complete with maze.

http://vancouver.ca/parks-recreation-culture/queen-elizabeth-park.aspx

http://vancouver.ca/parks-recreation-culture/bloedel-conservatory.aspx

http://vancouver.ca/parks-recreation-culture/vandusen-botanical-garden.aspx

QE Park -

Bloedel Conservatory -

VanDusen -

I live here, and I wouldn't do this; its not quite "lottery ticket" odds, but the margin for error is almost nonexistent and that gets even smaller when you factor in outbound traffic to the ferries on a summer Friday afternoon in Vancouver.

This may be one of the few "unanimous" response threads here on CC! I really appreciate the feedback and some of the important nuances you guys shared (like traffic, potential for missed ferry rides, etc.). Looks like we will be pursuing other options like Stanley Park, QE Park, Capilano Suspension Bridge, Grouse Mountain, maybe just hang out in town, etc.

Thanks all for your honest assessments!