Victoria & Groupon

[travelinmoma]

I know this isn't exactly Alaska, but it is a stop on our cruise, so I thought I'd ask. I'm looking at some Groupons for Victoria. One is for the Big Bus Victoria hop on/hop off tour. Has anyone done this? It would be about $20pp. Is that a good price? It also includes Robert Bateman admission. Would we be able to get to one of the hop on points from the pier without having a car? We are doing the Butchart Gardens tour through the cruise ship, so if possible, we could also pick it up from there.

The other one is for pizza at the Lido Waterfront Bistro. Has anyone ever eaten here? Tasty? Can we get to it easily without a car?

Thanks for all of your help.

[martincath]

First off, cancel the cruiseline Butchart tour. The very fact you have time to consider any other options in addition means you have a long port day rather than the all-too-frequent evening-only PVSA-compliance stop, so you can easily use CVS shuttle buses for both a hefty discount (~CAD$80pp) AND a superior service thanks to flexible time at the gardens - cruise tours in my experience only give you 2 hours or less, and it's simply not enough to do them justice even if you don't plan to have Afternoon Tea while you're there.

 

Your mention of family suggests that renting a car would be an even bigger saving AND even better for flexibility of timing - ticket price at Butchart runs up to $35pp in summer, and a rental car is usually cheaper than bus tours even for 2 people let alone a larger group. If for whatever reason you refuse to drive yourselves (basically same road rules as US, speed limits/distances in km rather than miles is the biggest difference but of course the car speedo/'mileometer' is also in km so just match the numbers like at home) hiring a cab to drive you there and back will run $60 each way, maybe less in light traffic, so is comparable to the shuttle buses as soon as you have 4 people.

 

As to the HOHO - sorry, we're local enough to Victoria that we just pootle around by ourselves so have never taken it. But $20 a ticket compared to double that is a no-brainer if you want to do any downtown touring by bus - even if you just rode around the circuit once without getting off you'll experience much the same as a 'regular bus tour' which will cost a lot more. The fact you can choose to hop on & off is a nice bonus. Victoria downtown is very compact though - depending what you actually want to see it might be quite feasible to just walk around, including from the pier in the first place (30mins very leisurely pace gets you to the heart of the harbour where the Empress Hotel, floatplanes, Royal BC Museum, Parliament, etc. are found).

 

Personally I'd skip the pizza groupon though - Lido is a bit of a tourist trap, and in general unless a resto is brand-new and trying to build clientele the very fact they're using a Groupon deal at all is a warning sign that they cannot compete with their peers on quality. These guys have been running for 10 years... there's no way they should need Groupon if they're actually any good at what they do! It's perfectly walkable though - I walk further every time we stop in Victoria to get to Swans Brewpub on Pandora, another couple of blocks up

[travelinmoma]

Thank you for all of your advice. It really helps a lot. There are only two of us, and I was able to score the Butchart Gardens tour for $55pp which seemed cheaper or about the same as the DIY price. It's up to $75pp now! :o I think 2 hours will be plenty for us.

 

It sounds like the HOHO bus will be worth it, so I think I'll go ahead and buy that. It's so nice to be able to get information from an "insider". Thanks again!

[martincath]

Thank you for all of your advice. It really helps a lot. There are only two of us, and I was able to score the Butchart Gardens tour for $55pp which seemed cheaper or about the same as the DIY price. It's up to $75pp now! :o I think 2 hours will be plenty for us.

 

It sounds like the HOHO bus will be worth it, so I think I'll go ahead and buy that. It's so nice to be able to get information from an "insider". Thanks again!

US$55 is indeed a very good price! Arguably better value than CVS as you save the walk downtown... See if they'll drop you off downtown rather than back at the pier to smooth your finding a HOHO stop - the Inner Harbour on Government Street outside the Empress hotel is a popular bus tour dropoff/pickup, and it's just a block up Government to the Big Bus Welcome Centre in case you have to hand in your Groupon there rather than on the bus itself (if the latter, there's a stop right across from the cruise pier, Ogden Point).