Butchart Gardens by bus

[pocka]

I will be in Victoria from 10 am till midnight on April 23 on the Statendam 4 day repositioning cruise. I would like to go by city bus to the gardens rather than wait for the one and only cruise tour. I want to have time to visit the museum also and everything closes about 4:30. Has anyone done this. Was it hard to make connections? Can you get a bus right at the pier? Will the driver take american cash? Any help appreciated. Pocka

[Time2sail]

Lots of information on the Alaska Port of Call here on CC. These questions about taking a bus to the Gardens have been answered by Budget Queen and others. Find her posts, she is the greatest at giving details to all of our questions about Alaska. :)

[CanadianMAG]

Unless their transit system has changed I would not recomend it. I remember having to take the bus once and the time between each bus was a long time, so it was a lot of time waiting. Why not rent a car? Victoria is easy to dive in, however there are a lot of one way streets.

[Budget Queen]

I have taken the city and disagree- it's a good option for the about $1.50ca cost? Get the schedule to avoid the long waits mentioned. Pick up is on Douglas behind the Empress and up across from the Mac Donalds. Purchase something there for ca. change? They MAY take US money without exchange on the bus?? http://www.bctransit.com/regions/vic/

Grayline used to run a shuttle for about $5, inquire if this is still available?? A good resource is the Victoria Visitor center.

[Sailboater]

The cruise ship pier is some distance from the main tourist area (museum, Empress, etc.). You have two options, there is generally a shuttle that takes you to the main area or you can walk on the walking trail that follows the shoreline from the breakwall (beyond where the ship docks) to the breakwall and marina in front of the Empress. If it is a nice day and you are in good physical shape it is a beautiful walk.

The area around the Empress is "tourist central". The visitors center is at the far end of the breakwall in front of the Empress. On the street immediately in front of the Empress are several kiosks that sell tours of various types including a Buchart Garden tour. The Museum (fantastic place by the way) is to the right of the Empress as you face it with your back to the bay. If it were me, I would head in to town on whatever free shuttle they are running and go to the Museum first. You can either get tickets for the Buchart Garden tour before you go in for a late afternoon tour or wait and take your chances on getting tickets after you've done the museum. You might also want to check out the Crystal Gardens on the "back" side of the Empress (Douglas street?).

As far as them taking the American dollar, yes, virtually every place in Canada takes American money -- your exchange rate is frequently less than what you get at a bank but rarely do they gouge you. There are cash machines all over the place where you can use your debit card to get Canadian currency if you really want to. Most major tourist attractions take credit cards as well -- even the horse drawn carriage rides (usually found between the museum and Parliament Building or the street beyond the Parliament Building towards the ships pier).

Victoria is a beautiful city and very friendly to tourists. We frequently travel up there on our sailboat from Olympia and really enjoy the friendly hospitality.

[weluvcruisin']

We were in Victoria last Spring...my DH was in meetings so I got a tour bus outside the Empress Hotel, I think it leaves every couple of hours and you can stay at the gardens as long as you like. I got the first tour in the morning, spent about 1 1/2 - 2 hours there then got it back to town. It's really rushed at the gardens, they are beautiful and extensive but it can be done. I think the tour bus was around $30 Canadian.

[pocka]

Thanks to all of you for helping with my question. I will now proceed to use the info to check out what's best for us. Pocka