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Victoria Transportation

ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION

Victoria International Airport is 20km north of downtown on Hwy 17. The Akal Airporter shuttle bus heads downtown (where it stops at major hotels) every half-hour between about 4.30am and 1am; a single fare for the 45-minute journey is $13 (tel 386-2525, 386-2526 or 1-877/386-2525, www.akalairporter.travel.bc.ca ). Leaving the city for flights, you should call to arrange pick-ups . Otherwise contact Harbour Air (384-2215 or 1-800/665-0212, www.harbour-air.com ) or West Coast Air (tel 388-4521 or 1-800/347-2222, www.westcoastair.com ), who operate efficient and quick float planes between Vancouver’s port and Victoria’s downtown Inner Harbour: both companies share terminals in both cities ($89; planes leave roughly hourly; crossing time is 30 minutes). The bus terminal is downtown at 700 Douglas and Belleville, close to the Royal British Columbia Museum; the central VIA Rail station is at 450 Pandora St (tel 1-800/561-8630), about seven blocks north of the Empress Hotel , but you’ll only arrive there if you’ve managed to get a seat on the lone daily train from Courtenay and Nanaimo.

The best in-town means of transport are the tiny Inner Harbour ferries , worth taking just for the ride: try a $10 evening “mini-cruise” around the harbour (tickets on Inner Harbour or book at the infocentre). You’re unlikely to need to take a local bus anywhere, but if you do, most services run from the corner of Douglas and Yates. The fare within the large central zone is $1.75 - tickets and the DayPass ($5.50) are sold at the infocentre, 7-Eleven stores and other marked outlets, or you can pay on board if you have the exact fare. For 24-hour recorded information on city transport, call the Busline (tel 382-6161, www.bctransit.com ). Other potentially useful private bus lines for onward travel from Victoria include Laidlaw (tel 385-4411 or 1-800/318-0818, www.victoriatours.com ) at the bus terminal, responsible for scheduled services across the island to Duncan ($10 one-way), Chemainus ($12.50), Nanaimo ($17.50), Port Alberni ($30), Tofino ($47.50), Ucluelet ($47.50), Courtney ($35), Campbell River ($40), Port Hardy ($84.10) and points in between (no reservations are necessary or taken for Laidlaw services). Also useful are Gray Lines of Seattle for a once-daily service to Seattle inclusive of ferry (leaves 10am; $40; tel 206/626-5208 or 1-800/544-0739). The West Coast Trail Express, 3954 Bow Rd (tel 477-8700 or 1-888/999-2288, www.trailbus.com ), is a high season-only shuttle service (March-Sept) for connections to Port Renfrew and Gordon River (both $30) via French Beach, Jordan River, China Beach and Sooke for the southern trailhead of the West Coast Trail and the newer Juan de Fuca Trail , as well as links to Bamfield and Pachena Bay (both $50): it also runs between these and other destinations, notably between Bamfield and Port Alberni ($22). Book seats in advance during office hours (March-April Mon-Fri 8am-noon; May-Sept 6.30am-1.30pm & 5.30-8pm).

GETTING TO VANCOUVER ISLAND

There are three ways to reach Vancouver Island - by bus and ferry, car and ferry, or air. Most people travelling under their own steam from Vancouver use the first means, which is a simple matter of buying an all-inclusive through-ticket to Victoria. More involved crossings to other points on the island, however, whether from the Canadian or US mainlands, are worth considering if you wish to skip Victoria and head as quickly as possible to Port Hardy for the Inside Passage ferry connections, or to Strathcona or the Pacific Rim parks. You can also reach Victoria directly from Vancouver Airport by inclusive coach and ferry arrangements

Foot passengers from Vancouver

If you’re without your own transport, the most painless way to Victoria from Vancouver is to buy a Pacific Coach Lines (PCL; tel 604/662-8074 in Vancouver, 250/385-4411 or 385-3348 in Victoria; toll free tel 1-800/661-1725) ticket at the Vancouver bus terminal at 1150 Station St, which takes you, inclusive of the ferry crossing and journeys to and from ferry terminals at both ends, to Victoria’s central bus station at 700 Douglas St. Buses leave hourly in the summer (first bus 5.45am; last bus 8.45pm from July to early Sept, 7.45pm the rest of the year), every two hours in the winter: total journey time is about 3hr 30min and a single ticket costs $26.50 ($51 return). No bookings are necessary or taken: overflow passengers are simply put on another coach. The ferry crossing takes 95 minutes, and offers some stunning views as the boat navigates the narrow channels between the Gulf Islands en route. Be sure to keep your ticket stub for reboarding the bus after the crossing. Coach drivers give you all the practical details en route. It’s also worth stocking up on food on board, as subsidized ferry meals are famously cheap (queues form instantly). You can save yourself about $15 by using public transport at each end and buying a ferry ticket separately ($9 peak season July to early Sept; $8.50 shoulder mid-March to June, mid-Sept to mid Nov & mid-Dec-Jan 1; $7.50 the rest of the year), but for the extra hassle and time involved it hardly seems worth it. A similar all-inclusive bus/ferry arrangement also operates from Vancouver to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island via the Horseshoe Bay Terminal, about fifteen minutes north of West Vancouver on Hwy 1. You can reach the Horseshoe Bay Terminal by taking bus #250 or #257 from Georgia Street. The ferry charges are the same for foot passengers.

By Car from the Lower Mainland

BC Ferries operates four routes to the island across the Georgia Strait from mainland British Columbia (tel 1-888/223-3779 from anywhere in BC; otherwise tel 604/444-2890 or tel 250/386-3431 in Vancouver, Victoria or outside BC, www.bcferries.com ). Reservations on all routes are essential in summer if you want to avoid long waits, and can be made up to 90 minutes prior to sailing. The most direct and heavily used by Victoria-Vancouver passengers is the Tsawwassen-Swartz Bay connection, the route used by Pacific Coach Lines’ buses. Tsawwassen is about a forty-minute drive south of downtown Vancouver; Swartz Bay is the same distance north of Victoria. Ferries ply the route almost continuously from 7am to 10pm (sixteen sailings daily in summer, minimum of eight daily in winter). Car tickets cost $32 at weekends (noon Fri to last sailing on Sun) and $30 on weekdays in high season ($28.75/$27 in shoulder season, $24.25/$22.75 in low. A bike costs $2.50 year-round. The Mid-Island Express from Tsawwassen to Nanaimo, (Duke Point terminal) midway up the island, has eight or so departures daily on the two-hour crossing. More boats cover the Horseshoe Bay-Nanaimo (Departure Bay terminal) route, a 95-minute journey from a terminal about fifteen-minutes’ drive from West Vancouver. Note that a new ferry terminal, Discovery Point, has been opened at Nanaimo for the first of these crossings. Fares for both these routes are the same as for Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay. The fourth route is Powell River-Comox, Powell River being some 160km northwest of Vancouver on the Sunshine Coast.

Ferries from the United States

Travellers from the United States have several options. Coach and ferry inclusive arrangements are offered by Gray Lines of Seattle, who operate a once-daily service in each direction between Seattle and Victoria (currently leaves 5.30am; $39 one-way, $70 return; tel 250/344-5248, 206/626-5208 or 1-800/544-0739). Washington State Ferries, 2499 Ocean Ave, Sidney (in Victoria tel 250/381-1551 or 250/656-1531 in Sidney, in Seattle tel 206/464-6400 or 1-888/808-7977 in Washington only) runs ferries from Anacortes, ninety minutes north of Seattle, to Sidney, thirty minutes (and 30km) north of Victoria (summer 2 daily in each direction, winter 1 daily; 3hr-3hr 30min), with one of the two summer departures travelling via Orcas and Friday Harbor on the San Juan Islands. Passenger fares are around US$7 (US$2 from the San Juan Islands), a car and driver US$37 (US$15 from the San Juan Islands). Car reservations are required from Orcas and Friday Harbor and can be made by calling at least a day in advance (tel 360/378-4777 in Friday Harbor).

Black Ball Transport, 430 Belleville St, Victoria (in BC tel 250/386-2202, in Washington tel 360/457-4491 or 1-800/633-1589) operates a ferry across the Juan de Fuca Strait between Port Angeles on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula right to Victoria’s Inner Harbour (1-4 daily; 95min). Passenger fares are around US$7 and US$29 for cars. Reservations are not accepted. Car drivers should call ahead in summer to have some idea of how long they’ll have to wait.

For foot passengers, and day-trippers in particular, a speedier option is Victoria Express’s service from Port Angeles (2 daily late May to late June & Sept to mid-Oct; late June to Aug 3 daily; 55min) to Victoria’s Inner Harbour. The fare is US$12.50 one-way, US$25 return. Ferries run only from mid-May to mid-Oct. For information and reservations, call 250/361-9144 (Canada), tel 360/452-8088 (Port Angeles) or tel 1-800/633-1589 (Washington). Alternatively, the 300-passenger-only Victoria Clipper catamaran travels between Pier 69 in downtown Seattle and Victoria’s Inner Harbour in three hours or two hours if you take the more “Turbojet” departures (250 Bellevue St, Victoria; tel 250/382-8100 in Victoria, tel 206/448-5000 in Seattle or 1-800/888-2535 outside Seattle and BC). There is one sailing daily in each direction from January to March and mid-September to December; two sailings daily in the first half of May and second half of September; and four sailings daily from mid-May to mid-September. Tickets prices vary according to season - US$55 single, US$91 return off-season, US$60/99 for three-hour crossings and US$69/115 for the Turbojet in summer.

By Air

Several provincial airlines as well as Air Canada fly to Victoria, though it’s an expensive way to make the journey if you’re only coming from Vancouver. Open return fares from Vancouver typically run to around $140, excursion fares around $100. If you are going to fly, however, it’s more fun and more direct to fly from Vancouver harbour to Victoria harbour by helicopter or float plane: Harbour Air and West Coast Air fly from the Tradewinds Marina just west of Canada Place in Vancouver. Helijet Airways (tel 604/273-1414) fly from the helipad to the east. Kenmore Air, 6321 NE 175th, Seattle (tel 206/486-1257 or 1-800/543-9595, www.kenmoreair.com ), runs scheduled seaplane services (US$95 one-way; 45min) between downtown Seattle and Victoria’s Inner Harbour.