Victoria BC- Butchart gardens or explore the city

[40yearcruiser]

I was afraid it would be difficult, if not impossible, to see anything of Victoria. Since we've never been there we are very disappointed not to have a reasonable port time. And it's even worse now than when we booked the cruise. Originally the arrival time was 7 pm and we were later notified that it was changed to 8:00. Hopefully some day we'll get there in the daytime.

[Blackduck59]

2 hours ago, 40yearcruiser said:

I was afraid it would be difficult, if not impossible, to see anything of Victoria. Since we've never been there we are very disappointed not to have a reasonable port time. And it's even worse now than when we booked the cruise. Originally the arrival time was 7 pm and we were later notified that it was changed to 8:00. Hopefully some day we'll get there in the daytime.

 

I'm not sure what the rest of your itinerary is, whether you fly out of Seattle immediately at the end of your cruise or if you have some time after the cruise but you could the "Clipper" ferry from Seattle and spend the day here and return in the evening. Or you could fly into Victoria a couple days before the cruise and take the Clipper to Seattle from here to Seattle. There are options but it would be so much easier if the cruise line just did a proper stop here.

I hope you have a chance to properly see our town some day, enjoy your cruise even if you are short changed by a token port visit.

[40yearcruiser]

On 8/8/2022 at 1:03 AM, Blackduck59 said:

 

I'm not sure what the rest of your itinerary is, whether you fly out of Seattle immediately at the end of your cruise or if you have some time after the cruise but you could the "Clipper" ferry from Seattle and spend the day here and return in the evening. Or you could fly into Victoria a couple days before the cruise and take the Clipper to Seattle from here to Seattle. There are options but it would be so much easier if the cruise line just did a proper stop here.

I hope you have a chance to properly see our town some day, enjoy your cruise even if you are short changed by a token port visit.

Thanks for the suggestion, but we fly out of Seattle the day we disembark. Hopefully another time we will get to visit Victoria.

[Blackduck59]

11 minutes ago, 40yearcruiser said:

Thanks for the suggestion, but we fly out of Seattle the day we disembark. Hopefully another time we will get to visit Victoria.

I'm sorry you won't have a chance to see our little city. I hope you enjoy your cruise. Perhaps if you are cruising out of Seattle or Vancouver in future fly into Victoria before the cruise and then you could get to Vancouver by BC Ferries or to Seattle on the Victoria Clipper. Just something to consider when making future plans, being you can't count on a decent port stop here from most cruise lines.

Cheers.

[Redtravel]

Butchart is nice. I stopped there on a land tour which included 2 nights stay in Victoria. However, given one day in Victoria, I would stay in town.  Visit the museums, see the totem poles, shop, stop at the Fairmount for tea, and enjoy the waterfront.  
 

[Redtravel]

On 8/30/2022 at 8:30 PM, Redtravel said:

Butchart is nice. I stopped there on a land tour which included 2 nights stay in Victoria. However, given one day in Victoria, I would stay in town.  Visit the museums, see the totem poles, shop, stop at the Fairmount for tea, and enjoy the waterfront.  
 

Back from cruise.  Had 2 days in Victoria.  Did just what I said.  The shuttle bus from pier passed by some of the big sights.  Main shopping street is government st. It is still in decent shape. With the Canadian dollar down, we got some great bargains.  The on,y bummer was that the ship had to leave the dock at 5 pm and could return next morning. 

[Cbtours]

On 8/14/2022 at 2:13 PM, Blackduck59 said:

I'm sorry you won't have a chance to see our little city. I hope you enjoy your cruise. Perhaps if you are cruising out of Seattle or Vancouver in future fly into Victoria before the cruise and then you could get to Vancouver by BC Ferries or to Seattle on the Victoria Clipper. Just something to consider when making future plans, being you can't count on a decent port stop here from most cruise lines.

Cheers.

So getting to Victoria from Vancouver? we're flying into vancouver 5 days before our cruise. Our flights are booked, we preferred the most direct flights from Australia. But I'm thinking we can get some kind of excursion (or do it yourself) from Vancouvet particualrly to see butchart gardens. How easy is this to achieve? Any recommendations? (this is once in a lifetime bucket list trip for us).

[Blackduck59]

6 minutes ago, Cbtours said:

So getting to Victoria from Vancouver? we're flying into vancouver 5 days before our cruise. Our flights are booked, we preferred the most direct flights from Australia. But I'm thinking we can get some kind of excursion (or do it yourself) from Vancouvet particualrly to see butchart gardens. How easy is this to achieve? Any recommendations? (this is once in a lifetime bucket list trip for us).

I think there must be excursions from Vancouver to Butchart Gardens. BC Ferries offers ferry and stay packages which may work for you. There is way more to Victoria than Butchart Gardens so if you can spare an overnight you should.

There are frequent flights daily both from airport to airport or harbour to harbour as well as helicopter flights.

I guess if Butchart Gardens is the goal and your time is of the essence you could fly Vancouver to Victoria, rent a care, drive to Butchart Gardens (it's closer to the airport than downtown) spend a few hours there, drive back to the airport and fly back to Vancouver. You will see the garden but little else.

If you intend to hire a car on arrival at YVR then I might suggest you drive from the Airport to Tsawwassen Ferry terminal. It is a nice 1 hr 35 minute passage to Swartz Bay. You could either proceed in to Victoria or go directly Butchart Gardens (it's on the way). Give yourself at least 4 hours at the garden. Stay on the island overnight, explore Victoria for a bit and return via ferry to Vancouver.

[cruiseryyc]

Here you go, lots to choose from on this website.  If you end up doing it on your own, highly suggest you stay one night in Victoria; especially if you end up renting a car and driving over.

 

https://vancouvertours.com/tour/victoria-butchart-gardens-tour/

 

[Cbtours]

14 hours ago, cruiseryyc said:

Here you go, lots to choose from on this website.  If you end up doing it on your own, highly suggest you stay one night in Victoria; especially if you end up renting a car and driving over.

 

https://vancouvertours.com/tour/victoria-butchart-gardens-tour/

 

very helpful

[Cbtours]

On 10/7/2022 at 3:56 PM, Blackduck59 said:

I think there must be excursions from Vancouver to Butchart Gardens. BC Ferries offers ferry and stay packages which may work for you. There is way more to Victoria than Butchart Gardens so if you can spare an overnight you should.

There are frequent flights daily both from airport to airport or harbour to harbour as well as helicopter flights.

I guess if Butchart Gardens is the goal and your time is of the essence you could fly Vancouver to Victoria, rent a care, drive to Butchart Gardens (it's closer to the airport than downtown) spend a few hours there, drive back to the airport and fly back to Vancouver. You will see the garden but little else.

If you intend to hire a car on arrival at YVR then I might suggest you drive from the Airport to Tsawwassen Ferry terminal. It is a nice 1 hr 35 minute passage to Swartz Bay. You could either proceed in to Victoria or go directly Butchart Gardens (it's on the way). Give yourself at least 4 hours at the garden. Stay on the island overnight, explore Victoria for a bit and return via ferry to Vancouver.

Thanks for the info. Will investigate, though driving in another country is not our forte. Now that adventurous lol. But great info.

[cruiseryyc]

Not sure what your budget is, but here is another option - a pricey one 🙂

 

https://harbourair.com/tours/spend-the-day-in-victoria/

[marco2111]

Just spent a few days in Vancouver and Victoria. We rook the ferry to Victoria from Vancouver, and stayed two nights. We then took the public bus to the gardens, ($5 all day ticket) so we could spend as much time as we wanted. We missed going to the butterfly garden on the same bus route but others enjoyed that too. Really enjoyed Victoria and wish we had spent more time there