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Tell me about Victoria BC

BobandBrenda

By BobandBrenda,
in Alaska

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BobandBrenda

BobandBrenda

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One of our ports is Victoria, BC and so far the shore excursions are a garden, teatime, butterflies and 3 pub crawl and most are in the eighty dollars and up. None of my group want to go to a garden, see butterflies, teatime, or a pub crawl. Is there anything close to port? We have me in my 50s, my husband 50, his mom in 80 and his sister in her late 50s.

So were not zipline people but I cant see us hanging out in a garden.

Thanks for any help

 

Brenda

Peoria, AZ

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Yukon

Yukon

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Whale watching (for orca, unlike Alaska which is for humpbacks) is the main "active" excursion. On the assumption that you're doing a short late-afternoon visit, this is one of the cases where booking through the ship will work best.

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SeattleCruiselover

SeattleCruiselover

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One of our ports is Victoria, BC and so far the shore excursions are a garden, teatime, butterflies and 3 pub crawl and most are in the eighty dollars and up. None of my group want to go to a garden, see butterflies, teatime, or a pub crawl. Is there anything close to port? We have me in my 50s, my husband 50, his mom in 80 and his sister in her late 50s.

So were not zipline people but I cant see us hanging out in a garden.

Thanks for any help

 

Brenda

Peoria, AZ

 

Depends on what time of day you will be there????

 

(NOTE: Please go over the the spring training complex after Friday and give the M's pitchers and catchers a thump on the head or two, and warn them that things had better be better this season.....:D)

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tetleytea

tetleytea

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Do all the Inner Harbour places not stay open late if a cruise ship is in port? We stayed at a week in Victoria for our honeymoon (and let me tell you...Victoria is the primo place to honeymoon), and we had no problem finding plenty of things to do. We stayed busy the whole time, day and "night".

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SeattleCruiselover

SeattleCruiselover

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Do all the Inner Harbour places not stay open late if a cruise ship is in port? We stayed at a week in Victoria for our honeymoon (and let me tell you...Victoria is the primo place to honeymoon), and we had no problem finding plenty of things to do. We stayed busy the whole time, day and "night".

 

Yeah, but, for some reason Princess does not (and maybe the others are the same) offer excursions to Butchart for their evening visits, and it is too far from the cruise terminal to get there and back in the limited four hours that you have in port, so timiing does have a bit to do with it.

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Putterdude

Putterdude

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Having eliminated most of the major attractions in Victoria you may just enjoy catching the shuttle from the Ogden Point pier (about $7 pp rtn) which drops you off in front of the Empress Hotel. From there you may care to stroll through the historic Empress Hotel, go for a little walk to the unique shops of Government St. come back and enjoy the buskers who preform on Esplanade of the Inner Harbour during the summer and if you are there late enough see the lights come on on the Provincial Legislature Buidling. All of the aforementioned is free.

If you wish you can take a horse drawn carigage trip and there are a couple companies who offer this service. Victoria really is a lovely city and it would be a shame to visit there without at least seeing some of it.

www.victoriacarriage.com/

www.tallyhotours.com/

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NancyIL

NancyIL

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Yeah, but, for some reason Princess does not (and maybe the others are the same) offer excursions to Butchart for their evening visits, and it is too far from the cruise terminal to get there and back in the limited four hours that you have in port, so timiing does have a bit to do with it.

 

We're in Victoria from 7 p.m. until midnight in late May, and the Golden Princess has an evening excursion to the Butchart Gardens.

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Breezey

Breezey

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We are in our 50's as well. Putterdude had some great ideas.

 

Victoria is a lovely city and no need for expensive excursions. There are nice art galleries and shops to wander.

 

You might want to reconsider and check out the Butchart Garden website. This is no ordinary garden and I thought the same about not wanting to go but after seeing the photos of the place, we do plan on spending a couple of hours there.

 

As for tea, afternoon English tea is an experience in itself.

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inkmahm

inkmahm

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We are in our 50's as well. Putterdude had some great ideas.

 

Victoria is a lovely city and no need for expensive excursions. There are nice art galleries and shops to wander.

 

You might want to reconsider and check out the Butchart Garden website. This is no ordinary garden and I thought the same about not wanting to go but after seeing the photos of the place, we do plan on spending a couple of hours there.

 

As for tea, afternoon English tea is an experience in itself.

I love just wandering through Victoria shops. Putterdude did give great advice.

 

I've also been to Buchart gardens twice now because I've gone with people who love to garden. I'd say if you plant your own flowers and you are really into them, it's worth a visit. For me, I like looking at flowers but I can easily do the whole place in an hour. It's okay, but not tops on my list of excursions.

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rubytue

rubytue

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I'm seriouslly considering doing one of the walking ghost tours! I don't have the link handy. If anyone is interested, i can pull it up tonight and repost it. We've done Butchart, so i want something totally different.

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Breezey

Breezey

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I love just wandering through Victoria shops. Putterdude did give great advice.

 

I've also been to Buchart gardens twice now because I've gone with people who love to garden. I'd say if you plant your own flowers and you are really into them, it's worth a visit. For me, I like looking at flowers but I can easily do the whole place in an hour. It's okay, but not tops on my list of excursions.

 

We wouldnt do it as an excursion either just something to do for an hour or so to look at the pretty flowers :) We went to Victoria a few years ago for a few days and wandering around the shops was just great so am happy to do that again. Some ports are just more conducive to wandering than spending a pile on excursions. I do love afternoon tea but not in a large tourist setting so we found one that has been highly recommended on Trip Advisor that we plan on going to as well.

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Putterdude

Putterdude

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Prince of Whales which is one of the older an likely the largest whale excursion tour operator uses principally Zodaics but does have other vessels as well. Another one that comes high recommended is Orca Spririt and they do operate larger vessels....ones that have restrooms.:)

http://www.princeofwhales.com/

http://www.orcaspirit.com/

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Yukon

Yukon

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Now how are you being transported to see these whales?

Im not going in a vessel same size or smaller than a whale.

 

We went with Five Star Whale Watching (booked through HAL the day before we arrived), and the boat is far larger than any whale - you can see photos of our trip at http://www.youralaskacruise.com/reviews/2007/page6.html

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Yukon

Yukon

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We are booked on the HAL evening whale watch on a "high-speed Expedition catamaran." -- Any idea how this boat looks or who the vendor might be? Thanks.

 

Sorry, the above link was the wrong one. We were on it in 2007 during our cruise on the Amsterdam - a very comfortable boat with both enclosed and open-deck seating areas - http://www.5starwhales.com/

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