Victoria BC transportation

[Bluestar01]

Hello, 

We’ll be in Victoria BC in couple of weeks, hoping to see Butchart gardens, however, trying to decide on DIY vs cruise excursion. Found out there aren’t Uber or Lyft. What’s the best transportation to reach Butchart gardens from port terminal?

 

thanks.

[1025cruise]

I could be mistaken, but assuming your stop is the normal "evening to satisfy the PVSA stop" I believe the gardens are only open for cruise ship tours in the evening. But don't hold me to that.

[cruiseryyc]

Yes our answers depend on the timing of your time in Victoria.  Slight correction to the first post, the Gardens are open until 9:00 p.m. every night, its only in April/early May when they are still on winter hours that they open specifically for cruise ship tours in the evening.

 

You could take a taxi for a cost of around $60 CDN each way, but the taxis don't wait out there for fares so you will have to make sure to order one to be there when you want to leave.

 

You could walk/shuttle to in front of the Empress Hotel and catch a CVS Shuttle.

 

https://www.cvstours.com/

[Langley Cruisers]

Looks like OP is porting in Victoria on Friday Aug.30 from 4:00 - 11:59 pm. There is certainly enough time and daylight to visit the Gardens but it will be a bit of a rush, assuming the ship is cleared just before 5 pm and pax can start disembarking.

 

Thanks for the link, cruiseryyc- just for info I did a mock booking and the bus leaves the Empress at 5:00 and at 7:00 (nothing at 6). Personally, I think this is not the way to go.

 

I recommend OP take a ship's tour in this instance. 

[martincath]

With a midnight departure OP could stay in Butchart until kicking out time, wait an hour for a cab to arrive, and still make it back to the dock by the usual '30 mins predeparture' time so personally I'd find a DIY cab based trip to be extremely low risk if they port at 4pm. 4pm arrival is very tight for the 5pm CVS shuttle though, even if they queue up at the gangplank before anyone else there's still the minimum 10mins by cab/30mins walk to the Empress. The 7pm shuttle makes for just as short a visit as ship tours tend to be, so I would agree that shuttle is not the right approach on this visit.

 

Car rental might also be viable if OP is willing to risk dropping keys in the slot without getting an inspection done on return - I think it's been a few years since I can recall any fake repair scams happening in Victoria 😉

[cruiseryyc]

Well yes now that I know what time they are arriving, the CVS shuttle is not the way to go.  

[Langley Cruisers]

2 hours ago, cruiseryyc said:

Well yes now that I know what time they are arriving, the CVS shuttle is not the way to go.  

 

Yes but it absolutely is on longer visits. 😍 I thank you for the link.

[c-cruise]

With your port time and the distance to the gardens I would just go with the cruise line tour.

[Bluestar01]

Thanks for your advises & insights. 

[DaveOKC]

1 hour ago, c-cruise said:

With your port time and the distance to the gardens I would just go with the cruise line tour.

But be sure to find out how long the tour will allow you in the Gardens.  Most people seem to think that 2 hours is a minimum, with 3 being much better.

[c-cruise]

1 minute ago, DaveOKC said:

But be sure to find out how long the tour will allow you in the Gardens.  Most people seem to think that 2 hours is a minimum, with 3 being much better.

We found a couple hours to be plenty (made 2 loops around), but we'd been there a few times before.