HELP WITH WHAT TO DO IN VICTORIA BC ONLY THERE 6-10PM

[Lorey2007]

Our time in Victoria will be 6-10pm and will need some direction of what we can do from others who have done similar.

We are in our mid 70's and DH has walking disability he & is very slow. We have 5pm dining and would like to leave the ship between 6 and 6:30 is that enough to get a taxi for a 7pm thirty minute horse carriage ride?  Are taxi's readily available?  Is that possible?

After the carriage is it possible to catch a 8pm excursion with the ship?  I have no idea where the RCL excursions meet. Or are there tour vendors on the street or in a certain area that offer a short tour of the city? If we need to get a cab back to the ship would I have to call one?

Just beginning research on this and appreciate any tips, advice of what we can do in this time frame.

[martincath]

Carriages will queue up close to the pier entrance if you book through the cruiseline - but do check their pricing vs buying direct, as even if you have to take a cab to your carriage by the time you pay in CAD and remove the sometimes hefty cruise cut you could save a packet! Only two local companies - Victoria Carriage and Tally Ho - and both seem to have identical pricing as they generally always have done. You might be able to negotiate a pickup at the pier with a direct booking - but I'd be loathe to do so unless they offer a refund if your ship doesn't port, as sometimes weather conditions mean Victoria is skipped.

 

Sometimes the cruiselines will offer a wide variety of tours even on these short stops, which does avoid any hassle if the port does not happen compared to booking direct - city tours, whalewatching, even a Butchart Gardens visit might be on the table. Without being able to walk rapidly and over distance, Butchart would be a bad idea though -beautiful but rather large.

 

CVS tours are the big local player, with their main meeting spot outside the Fairmont Empress hotel slap-bang in the Inner Harbour area (lots of Ye Olde looking buildings lit up at night, e.g. Parliament which unfortunately does not offer evening tours of the interior). Most of the other tour companies use this stretch of road as their main spot too, as it's central and very easy to find - but any cruise contracted ours will load you up right at the pier. The Grayline HOHO bus stops running too early to be useful - even in high season the last loop starts at 5:30pm, returning to the Empress at 7pm. These days I'm not sure who else survived Covid intact - e.g. Big Bus still appear on local tourism sites but seem to have ***** down - but at the very least CVS still seem to be offering a variety of options.

 

If the Royal BC Museum is open late - which they always used to be in TheBeforeTimes on Fri/Sat evenings - I can heartily recommend a visit here. It's top-notch, and while big enough to entertain you for some time not so huge that it couldn't be enjoyed by someone using a walker, just focus on the exhibition areas that are of most interest rather than trying to see them all.

 

Other than Royal BC, I tend to just use short stops in Victoria for beer-drinking - there's a wide range of vaguely UK style pubs all over downtown, some with live music, and two of them (Swans and Spinnakers) not only brew their own Brit-style beers, but serve them 'live' and at the correct temperature. Don't worry, they also have a 'too cold for beer to taste proper' cellar as well if you didn't grow up in real ale country;-)