How to pay for bus to downtown Victoria?

[knot knormal]

Will the Canadian buses accept American dollars or coins? I am doing several walking tours and don't want to convert alot of dollars that I won't need. Any suggestions?

[Urban trekker]

If you are talking city transit buses your American coins except the new golden $$ should work in our machines - the machines don't accept bills at all - however if you are in downtown Vancouver you can always go to any of our rapid transit stations and they will accept CDN $$$ as well as debit cards and credit cards for ticket purchases and if you are buying a day pass from the independent merchants they would probably take your US$$ but you won't get much in the way of exchange.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[knot knormal]

Thanks, Dennis....so my American quarters will work on the bus? Great! Hate to have to exchange too much money and BAC won't take it back.

[c-to-sea]

A couple of suggestions - if you are only planning a couple of bus rides, change a US$5.00

bill for 2 CA $2 coins and 4 quarters. The fare is $2.25 and this will work for 2 rides.

 

If you are planning several rides, a day pass is CA$7.00. Change from a US $10.00 bill

leave about enough for a cup of coffee along the way.

 

http://www.bctransit.com/regions/vic/?p=1.txt

[calicruising]

when you get off the ship in Victoria, there is a little exchange booth right before the gift shop. They will exchange your USD's for CDN and if you don't spend it all, they will cash it back to USD upon your return to the ship as long as you show them your receipt that you got it from them earlier. This was in effect a couple of years ago.. so it is possible that it still is that way.

Good luck and have a great time!

Will the Canadian buses accept American dollars or coins? I am doing several walking tours and don't want to convert alot of dollars that I won't need. Any suggestions?

[scottbee]

Will the Canadian buses accept American dollars or coins? I am doing several walking tours and don't want to convert alot of dollars that I won't need. Any suggestions?

 

Yep, they will happily accept US coin, but it will be at par. Not getting exchange on $2.25 is probably not going to kill you

[knot knormal]

Thanks so much for the great directions and link to the transit system. One other question, do you know how far/long it is to walk from the port (RCCL Rhapsody, next week) to downtown?

 

And we will use your directions to the money exchange - gotta have a Canadian beer or two!!

 

Thanks, Christie

[scottbee]

Thanks so much for the great directions and link to the transit system. One other question, do you know how far/long it is to walk from the port (RCCL Rhapsody, next week) to downtown?

 

And we will use your directions to the money exchange - gotta have a Canadian beer or two!!

 

It's about a mile if you walk. This map should help you get your bearings.

 

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=100934763039761071004.0004665d7f3e28f06866d&ll=48.423106,-123.371315&spn=0.016518,0.04549&z=15

 

If you have any more questions, let me know, I lived in Victoria for a long long time.

[Av8tor]

Thanks so much for the great directions and link to the transit system. One other question, do you know how far/long it is to walk from the port (RCCL Rhapsody, next week) to downtown?

 

And we will use your directions to the money exchange - gotta have a Canadian beer or two!!

 

Thanks, Christie

 

The Port at Victoria has shuttle busses running from the pier to downtown and back as long as ships are in town. They are big blue Cruise Victoria busses that run about every 10-15 minutes. They drop/pick-up downtown on Government St about 2-3 blocks up from the Empress. Cost yesterday was $6.50us or $7.00can for an all day pass with tickets available for purchase at the pier only (as far as I know). Most downtown spots can be easily walked from the drop point but the Van Isle brewery and Spinnakers might be a quite a hike.

[scottbee]

The Port at Victoria has shuttle busses running from the pier to downtown and back as long as ships are in town. They are big blue Cruise Victoria busses that run about every 10-15 minutes. They drop/pick-up downtown on Government St about 2-3 blocks up from the Empress. Cost yesterday was $6.50us or $7.00can for an all day pass with tickets available for purchase at the pier only (as far as I know). Most downtown spots can be easily walked from the drop point but the Van Isle brewery and Spinnakers might be a quite a hike.

 

For $2.25 (Cdn) you can take the local city bus which is 8x/hour from in front of the cruise terminal, and go as far as you want ...

[knot knormal]

Thanks everyone!