Drive to Vancouver and Ferry Ride to Vancouver Island

19^thSeptember 2019

It looks like another variable weather day as we leave Whistler, heading to Victoria. 

Soon we arrive in Squamish, only 40 km from Whistler, and decide to get some breakfast. With great expectations of finding a nice little café, after driving around looking, we eventually settled on Macdonald’s. A bit sad really, but choices were limited. We have now hit the coast and the next part of our drives is down the rugged Pacific Coastline.

The Sky to Sea Highway is aptly named, as if clings to the very steep escarpments running along the coast. Scenery is once again stunning, but there is little chance to stop and take photos.

Once we reach the outskirts of Vancouver, we are back in suburbia and traffic. Unfortunately to get to the BC Ferry Terminal to catch the ferry to Victoria, we have to drive right through the centre of the city. This is tedious and time consuming, and a bit exciting with some pretty erratic drivers on the road.

By the time we reach the ferry terminal it is 10.57am, we have just missed the 11 am ferry, so wait around for the 12 noon one. There are shops and cafés there , so we stretch our legs and wait till 11.40am when they will start loading the ferry.

Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal Vancouver

Our Ferry

They are big ships, and it is very foggy today, so fog horns are occasionally blasting. The course to Victoria weaves through some narrow passages between outer islands, and we pass lots of other ferries going to other ports and a few small yachts sprinkled in amongst them.

There is a reasonable fog as we leave port

One of the smaller island ferries passing through te narrow passage between islands

Arrival at Swartz Bay Terminal on Vancouver Island precisely on time at 1.30 pm, and the ferry is quickly unloaded.

Approaching Swartz Bay Terminal on Vanvouver Island

Attractions here that are on our must see list include the Butchart Gardens, which happens to be on our way to Victoria, so we decide to go there on our way to Victoria and our hotel for the night.

It is not hard to see why the gardens are such a tourist magnet.  Established by Jennie Butchart in 1904, the estate included an abandoned limestone quarry, which was transformed into a sunken garden to complement the many other themed gardens throughout this expansive estate. The original house remains there, there are cafes, gift shops, restrooms everywhere, even a carousel for kids (under cover of course). Yes, we did get some light rain during our 1.5 hour stroll around the gardens.

Here are just a few photos.

The Sunken Garden

Japanese Garden

Having ticked one item off our list, we drive to our hotel. The Royal Scot Suites Hotel. We walked into a huge room, with it’s own kitchen and dining room. The décor is a bit dated, as are the kitchen appliances, but otherwise a very comfortable room. Out the front is a old bloke in a kilt playing the bagpipes. He seems to do this a few times over the next few hours.

We are within a stones throw of Victoria Inner Harbour, a working harbour and one of the items on our must see list. Victoria is the capital of BC, and Parliament House is only a few hundred metres from where are staying. Fog horns from ferries coming and going can be heard in the distance from our room.

Once settled in and rested, it was approaching dinner time and we sought advice from the hotel reception before taking off along the waterfront to find somewhere to eat. There are lots of options, some quite close, but all within around 300m of our hotel. 

After looking around the immediate area, the furthest we ventured was to fisherman’s wharf, a group of floating “houses” that are used as restaurants, offices for tourist activities  (like whale watching) and some look like residences. They are very colourful, and sit just next to a marina. We quickly came to the conclusion that it would be a great lunch spot, but no so flash in the evening, especially since the light rain had returned.

Eventually we gravitated back to the restaurant across the road from our hotel, which served pub food, but had many more patrons, always a good indicator.

We went for a walk after dinner down to the harbour and past Parliament House which was really lit up.