Help planning 2 days in Vancouver/Victoria pre-cruise in May

[TeanneTX]

My SIL and I will be going on an Alaska cruise out of Vancouver in May.  This will be her first trip but its my 3rd.  We will be staying at the Westin Bayshore hotel for 3 nights and will have 2 full days to explore the area.  We're both in our late 60's, healthy but the usual issues someone our age has.  Joints ache and we don't have the stamina we used to.  I do want her to see Butchard Gardens and Stanley Park.  I looked at tours to the Gardens and Victoria but they seem all to be about 12 hrs and not sure we have the stamina for that.  Is the city of Victoria a "must see" or can we skip that.  I've been to the Gardens and Stanley Park but would love to see them again.  I just don't want to over-do things and than we're both exhausted.  I also have no idea where our hotel is in relation to the cruise terminal.  We don't want to rent a car but we're fine with using public transportation.  I know we want to do the horse drawn carriage ride in Stanley Park.  Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

[Cbtours]

12 minutes ago, TeanneTX said:

My SIL and I will be going on an Alaska cruise out of Vancouver in May.  This will be her first trip but its my 3rd.  We will be staying at the Westin Bayshore hotel for 3 nights and will have 2 full days to explore the area.  We're both in our late 60's, healthy but the usual issues someone our age has.  Joints ache and we don't have the stamina we used to.  I do want her to see Butchard Gardens and Stanley Park.  I looked at tours to the Gardens and Victoria but they seem all to be about 12 hrs and not sure we have the stamina for that.  Is the city of Victoria a "must see" or can we skip that.  I've been to the Gardens and Stanley Park but would love to see them again.  I just don't want to over-do things and than we're both exhausted.  I also have no idea where our hotel is in relation to the cruise terminal.  We don't want to rent a car but we're fine with using public transportation.  I know we want to do the horse drawn carriage ride in Stanley Park.  Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

Following. We are coming from Australia to do 14 nights cruise return to Vancouver may 6-20 and have 5 nights prior at Pan Pacific. Really hoping to see Butchart too 🥰

[kayehall]

19 hours ago, TeanneTX said:

My SIL and I will be going on an Alaska cruise out of Vancouver in May.  This will be her first trip but its my 3rd.  We will be staying at the Westin Bayshore hotel for 3 nights and will have 2 full days to explore the area.  We're both in our late 60's, healthy but the usual issues someone our age has.  Joints ache and we don't have the stamina we used to.  I do want her to see Butchard Gardens and Stanley Park.  I looked at tours to the Gardens and Victoria but they seem all to be about 12 hrs and not sure we have the stamina for that.  Is the city of Victoria a "must see" or can we skip that.  I've been to the Gardens and Stanley Park but would love to see them again.  I just don't want to over-do things and than we're both exhausted.  I also have no idea where our hotel is in relation to the cruise terminal.  We don't want to rent a car but we're fine with using public transportation.  I know we want to do the horse drawn carriage ride in Stanley Park.  Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

I googled the hotel.  It is right on the water.  Looks like a nice property.  Thanks for the heads up.  I will look into pricing it for our trip.  Google says it is a 16 minute walk to Canada Place (cruise terminal).  1.4km or 0.87 of a mile.  But with luggage?  Maybe they have a shuttle?  Worth asking.  Enjoy your trip!!

[cruiseryyc]

A day trip to Victoria to see Butchart Gardens will be 12-14 hours, unless you take a seaplane from Harbour Air.

 

https://harbourair.com/flights/

 

Victoria is not a "must do" especially if you only have two days to work with.

 

[TeanneTX]

7 minutes ago, cruiseryyc said:

A day trip to Victoria to see Butchart Gardens will be 12-14 hours, unless you take a seaplane from Harbour Air.

 

https://harbourair.com/flights/

 

Victoria is not a "must do" especially if you only have two days to work with.

 

I looked at the cost for RT on HarbourAir and wow-over $400 per person.  I'm afraid I'll have to skip that.  Too pricey for me.  I think we'll just do a tour to the Gardens one day and than Stanley Park the 2nd day and skip Victoria.  

[martincath]

Butchart Gardens is on the Island - about a half-hours drive from Victoria. There's no way to avoid either a LOT of time or a LOT of money if you want to see them from Vancouver! I believe Harbour Air's tour - which includes a shuttle and entry to the gardens - is set at a little over $500pp at the moment.

 

Frankly, while Butchart is an excellent garden you can see plenty, including better Asian gardens, right here in Vancouver - Dr Sun Yat-Sen is literally the best example of a Chinese Scholar's garden outside Suzhou and is downtown; the Japanese garden out on the UBC campus even offers traditional tea ceremonies; there's a large Botanic garden and arboretum out there too, including a Treewalk; UBC also has a nice (but small) rose garden with phenomenal sea views, and the rose garden in Stanley park is bigger and better than Butcharts. Queen Elizabeth Park has two quarry gardens - neither anywhere as big as Butchart, but the larger one is still pretty impressive and the price can't be beat at $0. QEP also has Bloedel's tropical dome garden full of trees and birds (this does have an entry fee, but single digits - and combo tickets with the nearby VanDusen Botanic garden shave the price even keener).

 

Price of carriage rides is insane these days -  the hourly rates for your own carriage are now ~double the cost of return flights to Victoria! Even the trolley, which jams up to 26 people on, runs $50 a pop (Seniors do save a few bucks on that). The best ways to see the park are on foot or by bike - eBike rentals make things much easier on your legs, but since it's entirely flat around the Seawall it's a really easy ride on regular bikes round the perimeter... just don't try to cycle up to Prospect Point unless you're feeling energetic!

 

If your SiL has never seen the city, a HOHO tour would work well - they don't seem to have a stop at the Bayshore right now, but they have in the past (not sure how well HOHO has bounced back since Covid closures - Summer season used to include 2 loops, many stops, including very close to the Bayshore - but right now the nearest stops are Blue Horizon or Marriott Pinnacle Hotels, both ~900metres walk from the Bayshore.

 

Day Passes on transit are also a great value - there are bus stops close by, and you can transfer from those to SkyTrain and Seabus all day for only CAD$8.65 if you're >65. QEP and UBC are pretty easy to get to by transit, and there's even a bus stop in Stanley Park (the #19 from here is a pretty good 'tourist bus' for you as it runs from the park within a block of your hotel, right through downtown, Chinatown, and then onto Mount Pleasant enabling convenient transfers to lots of other bus routes as well as SkyTrain). Any service along Cordova including #19 link up with the #50, the other good 'tourist bus' as it takes you to Granville Island and then on to QEP.

[Cbtours]

20 minutes ago, martincath said:

Butchart Gardens is on the Island - about a half-hours drive from Victoria. There's no way to avoid either a LOT of time or a LOT of money if you want to see them from Vancouver! I believe Harbour Air's tour - which includes a shuttle and entry to the gardens - is set at a little over $500pp at the moment.

 

Frankly, while Butchart is an excellent garden you can see plenty, including better Asian gardens, right here in Vancouver - Dr Sun Yat-Sen is literally the best example of a Chinese Scholar's garden outside Suzhou and is downtown; the Japanese garden out on the UBC campus even offers traditional tea ceremonies; there's a large Botanic garden and arboretum out there too, including a Treewalk; UBC also has a nice (but small) rose garden with phenomenal sea views, and the rose garden in Stanley park is bigger and better than Butcharts. Queen Elizabeth Park has two quarry gardens - neither anywhere as big as Butchart, but the larger one is still pretty impressive and the price can't be beat at $0. QEP also has Bloedel's tropical dome garden full of trees and birds (this does have an entry fee, but single digits - and combo tickets with the nearby VanDusen Botanic garden shave the price even keener).

 

Price of carriage rides is insane these days -  the hourly rates for your own carriage are now ~double the cost of return flights to Victoria! Even the trolley, which jams up to 26 people on, runs $50 a pop (Seniors do save a few bucks on that). The best ways to see the park are on foot or by bike - eBike rentals make things much easier on your legs, but since it's entirely flat around the Seawall it's a really easy ride on regular bikes round the perimeter... just don't try to cycle up to Prospect Point unless you're feeling energetic!

 

If your SiL has never seen the city, a HOHO tour would work well - they don't seem to have a stop at the Bayshore right now, but they have in the past (not sure how well HOHO has bounced back since Covid closures - Summer season used to include 2 loops, many stops, including very close to the Bayshore - but right now the nearest stops are Blue Horizon or Marriott Pinnacle Hotels, both ~900metres walk from the Bayshore.

 

Day Passes on transit are also a great value - there are bus stops close by, and you can transfer from those to SkyTrain and Seabus all day for only CAD$8.65 if you're >65. QEP and UBC are pretty easy to get to by transit, and there's even a bus stop in Stanley Park (the #19 from here is a pretty good 'tourist bus' for you as it runs from the park within a block of your hotel, right through downtown, Chinatown, and then onto Mount Pleasant enabling convenient transfers to lots of other bus routes as well as SkyTrain). Any service along Cordova including #19 link up with the #50, the other good 'tourist bus' as it takes you to Granville Island and then on to QEP.

Thanks this is brilliant info 🥰

[TeanneTX]

On 1/18/2023 at 3:04 AM, martincath said:

Butchart Gardens is on the Island - about a half-hours drive from Victoria. There's no way to avoid either a LOT of time or a LOT of money if you want to see them from Vancouver! I believe Harbour Air's tour - which includes a shuttle and entry to the gardens - is set at a little over $500pp at the moment.

 

Frankly, while Butchart is an excellent garden you can see plenty, including better Asian gardens, right here in Vancouver - Dr Sun Yat-Sen is literally the best example of a Chinese Scholar's garden outside Suzhou and is downtown; the Japanese garden out on the UBC campus even offers traditional tea ceremonies; there's a large Botanic garden and arboretum out there too, including a Treewalk; UBC also has a nice (but small) rose garden with phenomenal sea views, and the rose garden in Stanley park is bigger and better than Butcharts. Queen Elizabeth Park has two quarry gardens - neither anywhere as big as Butchart, but the larger one is still pretty impressive and the price can't be beat at $0. QEP also has Bloedel's tropical dome garden full of trees and birds (this does have an entry fee, but single digits - and combo tickets with the nearby VanDusen Botanic garden shave the price even keener).

 

Price of carriage rides is insane these days -  the hourly rates for your own carriage are now ~double the cost of return flights to Victoria! Even the trolley, which jams up to 26 people on, runs $50 a pop (Seniors do save a few bucks on that). The best ways to see the park are on foot or by bike - eBike rentals make things much easier on your legs, but since it's entirely flat around the Seawall it's a really easy ride on regular bikes round the perimeter... just don't try to cycle up to Prospect Point unless you're feeling energetic!

 

If your SiL has never seen the city, a HOHO tour would work well - they don't seem to have a stop at the Bayshore right now, but they have in the past (not sure how well HOHO has bounced back since Covid closures - Summer season used to include 2 loops, many stops, including very close to the Bayshore - but right now the nearest stops are Blue Horizon or Marriott Pinnacle Hotels, both ~900metres walk from the Bayshore.

 

Day Passes on transit are also a great value - there are bus stops close by, and you can transfer from those to SkyTrain and Seabus all day for only CAD$8.65 if you're >65. QEP and UBC are pretty easy to get to by transit, and there's even a bus stop in Stanley Park (the #19 from here is a pretty good 'tourist bus' for you as it runs from the park within a block of your hotel, right through downtown, Chinatown, and then onto Mount Pleasant enabling convenient transfers to lots of other bus routes as well as SkyTrain). Any service along Cordova including #19 link up with the #50, the other good 'tourist bus' as it takes you to Granville Island and then on to QEP.

Wow-great info.  So many options.  Thank you so much.

[lobsternight]

Well done @martincath, all good advice.  Victoria is nice, and the scenery going to and coming from is fantastic, but with limited time I would pass.

 

The Westing Bayshore is a great location in Coal Harbour.  A block to bike rentals for Stanley Park, and also located on a nice seawall walk that goes towards the cruise terminal.  Lots of nice places to eat.  Also explore up Denman Street towards English Bay, easy walk, very vibrant area, active until late at night.  Just take a cab to the ship, bit of a long walk with luggage.  Cab will get you there in under 5 minutes