Victoria excursion advice {to Butchart or not to Butchart?}

Cruisers, here's my dilemma. 10-day Alaska inside passage with my parents and grandfather in June. The last port of call is in Victoria, BC. We drove up to Victoria just a few years ago and did Butchart gardens, butterfly museum, as well as Victoria downtown (Miniature museum, Craigdarroch Castle..). I'm open to visiting the gardens again, but a little iffy on paying $75 to the cruise to not be able to stay the whole day or even during the golden hours of sunset. :( Any interesting cruise excursions that you've been on or other places here that I might be missing that would be worth checking out? (I'd say we could wander around town, but we did last time and without internet or yelp we were lost! haha)

First time cruiser doing her homework! ;)

The second time I visited Butchart Gardens I did the excursion that included a flower tasting. I think the description included a beer or wine tasting too. It was far more than that. We had tasted beers, wines, hard ciders, and flowers. They also served lots of food. The description sounded like we would just have snacks, but there were so many that it was enough for a meal. Our ship docked in the evening, so we did see the gardens at sunset, under fairy lights and then had the tasting. It was a highlight of the trip.

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Grand Princess out of SF, yes? So according to Princess itinerary you are in port 7am - 2pm, which is certainly much better than many PVSA-compliance stops at 7 hours in port (say 6 hours to allow for being back on board in plenty of time).

Not-Butchart options - Abkhazi Gardens, Beacon Hill park, Hatley Castle, Royal BC Museum (I could spend 6 hours in here easily, especially if you take in an IMAX movie or two), a whale-watch (a full length independent one, not a cut-down-to-get-back-quick-for-higher-price cruiseline version) with a very high chance of seeing Orcas, which are easier to see and much more active than the humpbacks up in Alaska - and also much cheaper, approx CAD$120/US$90. If it were me, having already seen the gardens and wandered downtown I'd choose the whale-watch (there should be several boats available at 9am, from zodiacs to big covered cats).

But so you know what you're actually comparing, you can do definitely Butchart more flexibly and much cheaper than the $75 Official-Princess-Gouge-The-Punters rate! So that you're making your decision based on full info, the local cost of a nice & easy trip to the gardens on a comfy coach is <CAD$65pp with CVS Tours (currently <US$50).

Make your own way downtown (20min direct walk, 40min nice walk along the harbourfront, or $10 cab ride - for $10pp CVS will shuttle you from the pier themselves, but a cab is cheaper for 2+ people) and get on the first bus of the day outside the Empress hotel at 9am. Come back on the noon bus - or 1pm if you feel up to the risk of being late!

You could even just about manage taking public transit with that time-frame, arriving slightly before the gardens open at 9am would be quite feasible even with reduced Sunday bus frequencies - the 75 route to Butchart is a whopping $2.50 each way (best to buy a Day Pass as same cost as 2 tickets, $5, and allows unlimited transfers). $5pp + the entry fee at the gardens of ~CAD$34 makes the cheapest possible visit under CAD$40/US$30, but you would be spending 60-90 minutes each way on a transit bus - not the comfiest trip.

Other alternative - hire a cab at approx $60 each way, so if you split this among 4 people it's comparable to the CVS tour cost, but you have total flexibility of time. This is the best way to maximise time at the gardens, as you don't need to deal with picking up and returning a rental car (Victoria rental offices seem to open late and close early!) as you can get there right as they open and stay as late as 12:15pm (~45min drive) while still having an hour of padding in case of disaster.

Thank you for such detailed information! I think we've decided Butchart gardens isn't really worth it for the short amount of time. What I'm wondering now is about the bus that takes you from the port to downtown (that's offered through the cruise). Where in downtown does it leave you off? And if I wanted to visit the Empress Hotel is that a closer walk from the ship or the downtown bus?

Thank you for such detailed information! I think we've decided Butchart gardens isn't really worth it for the short amount of time. What I'm wondering now is about the bus that takes you from the port to downtown (that's offered through the cruise). Where in downtown does it leave you off? And if I wanted to visit the Empress Hotel is that a closer walk from the ship or the downtown bus?

Unless you're traveling solo, that bus is a total ripoff. At $10 or $11pp, often USD, it's already at least as expensive as a cab (~CAD$10 each way from pier to Empress) for a couple and much more if there are 3-5 of you. In terms of route, they run to the harbour - where the Empess is.

Victoria know which side their bread is buttered on - they do everything to ensure that cruisers leave the ship and come downtown, to the extent of putting signs up on the streets to show you the walking route. As I mentioned before, if you go directly to the Empress (pleasant surburban streets, very Little England with lots of flowers in gardens) it's about 20mins; sticking close to the water's edge roughly doubles the distance.

The Empress is a sensible landmark for navigating on foot, or using cabs. That part of the harbour has the Royal BC Museum & Parliament (IIRC you're visiting on a June Monday, so self-guided touring is allowed as well as the best-to-book-in-advance-guided tours), whale-watching boats and water-taxis, pubs & restaurants, buskers and the tourist info office all in close proximity.

Walking further up Government Street takes you past lots of shops and into the super-tiny-but-historic Chinatown. Between the buildings and the red double-decker buses you may feel you've already stepped through a portal to somewhere in London, but from Fan Tan alley it's just a couple of blocks to further 'British-up' your visit by sampling cask-conditioned, hand-pulled ales served at the correct temperature (Swans brewpub has two beer cellars - a regular North American too-cold-to-actually-taste-the-beer-fully 40F and hey-wow-now-I-understand-what-the-subtle-flavours-of-malt-and-hops-actually-are 50F).