The Victoria Visitors Centre is centrally located Downtown, at the shore of the Inner Harbour, and…read morefrom the Fairmont Empress Hotel. It's a cool Art Deco building and was originally an Esso gas station. The tower vaguely looks like the Empire State Building. This is a good place to begin your explorations of Victoria and "Up Island". It's also within easy walking distance from the cruise ships and ferries and close to popular attractions (Royal BC Museum, Parliament Building, Beacon Hill Park, etc.) and shopping. The friendly folks at the Front Desk can give you good advice on places to see, tour packages, and dining options. There's also a large selection of brochures and posted information if you want something more self-directed.

This center is located dockside nearly across the famous Fairmont Empress Hotel. Easy to find…read more Restrooms are located below the Visitors Center by going down the steps towards the boat dock. I didn't see a wheelchair ramp. Talented musicians played their tunes and a budding juggler attempted an act- amusing. A food truck selling Poutin (steak fries, cheese curd, brown gravy) was located at the corner of the boat dock and the government bldg. US dollars are accepted at stores.

The BC Ferries Swartz Bay Terminal is located near Victoria on Vancouver Island (specifically on…read morethe Saanich Peninsula, about 30 minutes north of downtown Victoria).  It forms the island end of the major ferry route connecting Vancouver Island to Tsawwassen, which is the terminal located south of Metro Vancouver.

I've taken this ferry from Victoria to Vancouver a handful of times over the years. This was the…read morefirst time I had reservations. Because of an accident, I had to change my reservation to a day earlier. We needed to get off the island ASAP and get back to the states in case my wife needed to see a doctor or be hospitalized. Customer service was good to work with. They listened to my story and helped me change my reservation a couple of times. No waiving of fees, not that I was hoping for fee waiver. They did their job and was able to make reservations on the ferry that my wife wanted. Car boarding instructions was a little unclear. I wanted to keep my wife in the car as we made our crossing. I was told that we were supposed to go up to the seating area. Later on I found out that she could've stayed in the car. It was a nice ferry ride from Victoria to Vancouver. It was very smooth compared to the Port Angeles to Victoria ferry ride where it was a little rough. Also, the BC Ferry to/from Victoria and Vancouver is scheduled for almost every hour. BC Ferries is like a well oiled machine. I most likely will take it again to make up for what our medical emergency made us miss.

We used Island Time Tours for a private tour to Bouchard Gardens. She made it incredibly easy for…read moreus as cruise ship passengers to see this world-class garden even though our stop over was relatively short. The pricing is reasonable and well worth the cost. Colleen, the owner, was our tour guide -- she was so informative, kind, and fun. She made the drive extra special by giving us a full history of the gardens and a mini driving tour on the way home of downtown Victoria. Highly recommend doing this!

Wow, what a great time find! We came to Victoria on the Clipper, just before New Year, and my wife…read morewanted to take a winery tour, so we ended up booking Island Time Tours while on the boat over. We were thinking it would be in a large bus with 40-50 other people and I was not excited about it, and we were surprised the next day when Coleen met us in her small party type bus that only seats about fourteen people. There were only four of us and it felt like we were going out for the day with friends. Coleen was very personable and informative, and with only four of us it felt like we were going out with friends for the day. We don't think it was just because of our small group but how Coleen just seems to be. It turned out to be more than just a winery tour as she pointed out various sights and places of interest. We only went to two wineries and an apple cider farm because of the time of year. Coleen appeared to have a good relationship with the wineries that made it more personable. We had a great lunch that was included in the price. Actually, I am not even a wine drinker but I really enjoyed the entire day because it was more than just tasting wine. We started at the boat terminal but she dropped us all off at our hotels. We had planned to go to Bucthart Gardens the next night and were going to take the typical large bus with 40-50 people, like we had done before, and found out that Coleen also runs tours to the Gardens. We decided to go with her and she picked us up at our hotel and again, there were only four of us. The cost was the same as with the large bus tour, but so much more enjoyable since she takes the back roads with less traffic and also get into places easier because of the small van. Victoria is one of our favorite the places to go and finding Island Times Tours has been a great and we will surely use them again.

Pro: Old timey limo service with a complete knowledge bank with Gilles…read more Con: The Daimler is a little crowed for four large people. My wife and I got off our honeymoon Disney cruise and met Gilles by chance at the dock. I usually want to hire local drivers vs taking a tour bus and this was the best service I have ever received. After getting into the car with another couple, we took off to Victoria's famous Butchart Gardens and beating the tour bus there by 40 minutes. Gilles told us stories about the car and the island, waited for us to tour the garden and had an umbrella ready when we ran back to him in the expected rain. If you are ever in the area and are in need of a car service, hire Gilles. I know the Daimler is a treasure, but it was the owner/driver that completed our experience.

Just had Gilles drive for me and my GF's birthday celebration. All was good until the last 5…read moreminutes. Gilles decided to aggressively "educate" me on the history of Quebec. After deciding I had enough of listening to his angry rant about how much he hates English speaking Canadians I asked to leave his vehicle. He got in my face and told me he was "trying to upset me" and see if I would break. I guess he just proved the stereotype of classic French Canadian attitude. He seems to have forgotten his role as our driver and decided to take his anger out on paying customers. Very disturbing and he ruined the entire experience. Time to retire Gilles!

Beautiful ferry terminal here at Tsawwassen. We arrived here unreserved and had to wait out 2…read moreferries before we got on one. But the little play area and the cafe mall kept her 5 year old pretty engaged through the 2 hours of wait time. Lots of food options at the terminal, so no worries about refreshments. and lots of open grass areas for pets to laze and go. Staff make very timely announcements and ensure transparency with delays as quickly as they can. One sincere advice - please make reservations during peak hours, it is so much better. Once abroad, the ride is amazing. Ferries are well maintained and clean.

Call me crazy but the spicy ultimate crunch on the ferry is one of my favourite chicken burgers,…read moreand I eat a lot of chicken burgers. Maybe it's the destination that makes it good, maybe it's that you're usually travelling with family, who knows? The ferry it's self although sometimes annoying to drive on, has been improved lots by the reservation system! Walk on has never been a problem ever. Ferries are nice inside for the amount of traffic they see and perfectly fine for a hour and a half boat ride. Some complain lots about the ferries for some reason? Book in advance and show up 30 minutes before the sailing and it'll be a much more pleasant experience!

I've taken the Coho numerous times both on foot and with my car and it's one of my favorite…read moreexperiences in the PNW. It's a very convenient way to visit Victoria for a day as a walk-on passenger and a helluva lot cheaper than the Clipper. If you do take your car, I'd highly recommend you return via the BC ferry out of Swartz Bay. The sail to Tsawwassen on the mainland is absolutely spectacular and it's well worth the added driving distance back to Seattle.

We took the ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria. The ride itself was nice, though a tad rough. In…read moreorder for you to make the crossing, you need to bring travel ID, like a passport, passport card, or NEXUS card, as you are crossing into another country. The ferry ride itself was about 90 minutes. It took another 30-45 minutes to get off the ferry and go through Canadian customs (border patrol). The ferry drops you off in a great location in the Victoria Harbor. We liked the ferry and the ride. Dealing with customs, whether USA or Canada is always rough.

Seriously disappointed. Mike seemed like a nice guy but my family and another family were flat out…read morebaffled by the lie he told us. He no-showed us after we both paid-in-full for an evening sail, and additionally, heard him confirm with the visitor guide team that we was available. (I heard his voice through the phone) Only later to tell us he didn't see any bookings and hadn't heard from anyone about booking a sail. Our guess is Mike didn't see it worth the time due to the limited number of bookings. (It was only 5 of us total for the evening. Mike told me the afternoon sail was 22.) I can totally understand the business case of not wanting to take 5 people out, but how about setting up a system that lets the patron(s) know this well in advance. We lost an evening of not sailing but also the lost opportunity to the other things that were going to do at the same time. Disappointing...

The Three Hour Sail was by far the highlight of my trip to Victoria. What an adventure. I would…read morehighly recommend.

Beautiful little terminal shared with Harbour Air. Comfy indoor seating and heated outdoor area…read more Complementary coffee, tea, and a few snacks. On the water, in between The Flying Otter and Red fish Blue fish.

I've never been on a seaplane so I was understandably nervous. BUT IT WAS AWESOME!…read more The staff was very friendly and super helpful with the exception of one reservation agent we dealt with but she transferred us to someone who was much more helpful and kind. He made an awesome suggestion for the hotel we stayed in. Our pilot was super nice and very patient with us since we wanted to take a million pictures in front of the plane The flight itself was so smooth I actually prefer it to commercial flights. If you want to take a quick weekend trip to Victoria BC then you should totally fly Kenmore Air. It's much quicker then the clipper and honestly not that much more expensive.