Victoria - Whales and Gardens?

[April7901]

Is it possible to do a whale watch trip out of Victoria and visit Butchart Gardens?

 

We arrive in Victoria at 10:00 AM, and leave at midnight. I'll be visiting in early May, so the Gardens will close by 6 (leaving time to wander the city/downtown area).

 

If it's at all possible to avoid an expensive cab ride, or the loooong public transit ride, that's certainly preferable.

 

I guess I'm wondering if there's a tour company that combines both. I haven't seen anything from NCL (my line) about one, and Google isn't cooperating either. I figured if anyone knew, they'd be here!

[cruiseryyc]

Same answer I gave on your other post on the Alaska forum:

 

Here is a link for Cruise Victoria which will get you out to the Gardens.

 

http://www.cvstours.com/

 

As far as whale watching, even though you're there for the whole day it might be a lot to do both the Gardens and whale watching. But here are a couple of links to whale watching tours.

 

http://princeofwhales.com/

 

http://www.orcaspirit.com/

[April7901]

Same answer I gave on your other post on the Alaska forum:

 

Here is a link for Cruise Victoria which will get you out to the Gardens.

 

http://www.cvstours.com/

 

As far as whale watching, even though you're there for the whole day it might be a lot to do both the Gardens and whale watching. But here are a couple of links to whale watching tours.

 

http://princeofwhales.com/

 

http://www.orcaspirit.com/

 

Yes, thank you. I've found any number of companies that will get me to either/or - what I'm hoping for is "both." It doesn't seem like much to ask - a three hour whale tour would be back by 2-ish at the latest. That would still give several hours at the Gardens. But it seems that perhaps this is impossible.

[cruiseryyc]

I have been overruled by other posters on the Alaska forum, you should be able to do both the whale watching and the Gardens in the time you have in Victoria. Enjoy!

[no fuss travel]

The Gardens may be open later than 6 pm as our days are getting longer then. At that time of the year, you may not see whales on the trip and if it is anything like the May's we have been having for the past couple of years, very wet.

[martincath]

Late to the party here, but potentially useful info is that the gardens are only open until 5pm in Spring season (until mid-June). I see that it was already suggested to do gardens first then whale-watching over in the Alaska forum answers, which is definitely the way to go.

 

Whale-wise we have resident Orca pods, so the time of year is irrelevant - they're either feeding close enough to Victoria to reach the pod that tour or they aren't. May might still have a few Greys hanging around as they head north up the coast mostly in April, but some lag behind (one swam right up to Granville Island in Vancouver in May 2010).