Victoria visit post cruise

My parents would like to do a post cruise excursion to Victoria from Vancouver. Does anyone know of any companies that will pick us up from the cruise terminal, keep our luggage and return us to the Marriott in Richmond after the tour? I'm sure it's asking for a lot but I thought the brilliant minds in this group might know, or have a suggestion for me to follow up on.

Thanks so much!

Is this a day trip to Butchart?

If so, be aware that it's a very long day .... 30 minute drive from Vancouver to Tsawwassen where you line up for the ferry, a 90 minute ferry ride, another 30 minute drive from Sidney harbor to Victoria.

Pacific Coach has tours and transportation only between Vancouver and Victoria. http://www.pacificcoach.com/

(if they are flying home from Seattle, they could take the coach TO Victoria, then use the Victoria Clipper for Victoria-Seattle. )

My parents would like to do a post cruise excursion to Victoria from Vancouver. Does anyone know of any companies that will pick us up from the cruise terminal, keep our luggage and return us to the Marriott in Richmond after the tour?.....

Many of the Alaska cruises make a stop in Victoria as the last port before Vancouver.

If your parents are on one of them, it would save them a lot of time and backtracking simply to disembark at Victoria.

When doing a downline disembarkation that way, you are supposed to notify your cruise line and clear it with them in advance, but it is pretty routine and done all the time.

If they do that, they will probably want to book a hotel room in Victoria instead of Richmond.

I suspect the op is either doing a 7 day return from Vancouver or a 7 day southbound itinerary and they do not stop in Victoria. What they are asking for is a bit of a tall order without spending the night of disembarkation in Vancouver. Just so the op is aware, a tour to Victoria takes 12 to 14 hours which may make it a long day for someone getting off a cruise ship. However, Vancouver Tours (Land/Sea Tours) are the people I would contact, they do offer a daily tour to Victoria but I am not at all sure that they would be able to do one from Canada Place on the day of your arrival. It may also be worth your while to contact Pacific Coach Lines and see if something would dovetail with them.

http://vancouvertours.com/

http://www.pacificcoach.com/Sightseeing-Tours/Victoria/Royal-Victoria-Excursion-RV1

I suspect the op is either doing a 7 day return from Vancouver or a 7 day southbound itinerary and they do not stop in Victoria.......

I recently completed a round trip cruise out of Vancouver that had the last stop in Victoria on the day before the Vancouver disembarkation, and a number of passengers disembarked in Victoria, so that is what was on my mind.

But that is not the typical Vancouver round trip cruise.

It is the round trip cruises out of Seattle that typically do the Victoria port stop on the last day before returning to Seattle.

Thank you for your suggestions. We are on a Holland America land/sea tour southbound. We do not stop in Victoria and although it makes for a long day my parents still want to take the tour. Looks like I will need to make some phone calls to find out if a tour group is willing to hold our luggage. I'm guessing that since the tour is around 13 hours, the bus will leave pretty early and we won't have time to go to Richmond to our hotel first.

Thank you for your suggestions. We are on a Holland America land/sea tour southbound. We do not stop in Victoria and although it makes for a long day my parents still want to take the tour. Looks like I will need to make some phone calls to find out if a tour group is willing to hold our luggage. I'm guessing that since the tour is around 13 hours, the bus will leave pretty early and we won't have time to go to Richmond to our hotel first.

If you are not locked into a tour company already, you might check with Harbour Air. It's only a 30 minute flight to Victoria. They have a free shuttle because they shuttled us to the ship for free. And I'm fairly sure they would store your luggage for you while you were gone. You might check with them on how much it would be for a round trip flight for the day over there. Their location in Victoria is really close to the Fairmont Empress, and you could walk up Government Street to shop, or take a carriage ride, or even a water taxi around to the Fisherman's Wharf area. We love Victoria.

Thank you for your suggestions. We are on a Holland America land/sea tour southbound. We do not stop in Victoria and although it makes for a long day my parents still want to take the tour. Looks like I will need to make some phone calls to find out if a tour group is willing to hold our luggage. I'm guessing that since the tour is around 13 hours, the bus will leave pretty early and we won't have time to go to Richmond to our hotel first.

With Vancouver Tours they normally take your luggage along with them and with Pacific Coach Lines they operate large coaches and will take along you luggage.

Maybe check out the Prince of Whales tour http://princeofwhales.com/vancouver/ we saw the boat from Vancouver pull in while we were in Victoria this past weekend so I asked the girl about it. I wasn't aware of this tour, Seems like a decent tour when time is tight. Maybe they can arrange to store your luggage for you at their office also?

You can also take a helicopter over to Victoria http://blog.helijet.com/book-now/. It is a few minutes away from the dock. We decided to spend one night in Victoria and fly home from there- no more than flying from Vancouver. See the gardens, tea at the Empress, night in Victoria, then back home.

A less expensive option then Helijet is Harbour Air which operates a float plane service between Vancouver Harbour and Victoria Harbour. Both have luggage weight restrictions which you need to be aware of.

http://www.harbourair.com/

Never would I ever do a day trip of Victoria by ferry. Way too short time in Victoria/area. It is well worth a couple days. Otherwise, I too would suggest using Harbor Air. I've used them, one way with good service.

BQ and I have had this discussion many times over the years and while I somewhat agree with her, I will say that many, many people do the trip in a day. Its a long day, something in the order of 13 hours from door to door and its not certainly not an in-depth tour, its usually a quick drive around Victoria which with a pop. of about 350k is pretty compact, a visit to the Royal BC Museum, then a tour of Butchart Gardens. There is lots of daylight hours during the summer months and the ferry trip through the Gulf Islands, particularly Active Pass is an extremely pretty part of the excursion. It really comes down to how much of Victoria do you want to see and do.

A less expensive option then Helijet is Harbour Air which operates a float plane service between Vancouver Harbour and Victoria Harbour. Both have luggage weight restrictions which you need to be aware of.

 

 

http://www.harbourair.com/

We used Harbour Air and they were excellent to work with. I went ahead and purchased an extra seat to accommodate the extra luggage weight.....but they ended up refunding that seat back to me and offered to take our luggage over on a different flight. Our suitcases were waiting for us when we arrived.

We used Harbour Air and they were excellent to work with. I went ahead and purchased an extra seat to accommodate the extra luggage weight.....but they ended up refunding that seat back to me and offered to take our luggage over on a different flight. Our suitcases were waiting for us when we arrived.

That is what they normally do but if the flights are full people tend to panic if they can't take their luggage with them or can't be guaranteed when is will arrive....so that I is why I gave them the luggage restriction link. :)