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Commercial Drive/St may have some interesting Latin American and
Italian shops, as would the East Indian area around Main and 41st.
Anne Garber has published a book(s) on shopping in the area.
Major malls include: Pacific Centre (downtown), with the smaller
Vancouver Centre and Harbour Centre nearby, Metrotown (Burnaby,
at a Skytrain station), Lonsdale (North Van), Oakridge,
Richmond Centre, Brentwood, Guildford, Coquitlam centres, etc.,
but I again recommend browsing in neighbourhoods instead.
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| VICTORIA AND VANCOUVER ISLAND
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| Here is an expanded version from the long day/weekend trips section:
visit Victoria and Vancouver Island, especially Long Beach and its nearby clearcuts (including the 'black hole'). Go whale watching (this might take longer), near Tofino and Uluwet? There may be excursions from Vancouver as well. This is seasonal. Hiking the West Coast Trail is also recommended (I haven't done it). While in Victoria, have tea at the Empress hotel, check out Harpo's for live music. The Royal Theatre is supposed to be nice, too.
Here is more detail:
museums: wax, provincial, Royal BC and heritage museums
amusement parks: miniature world, heritage village, an underwater park, a seaworld, a breakwater/scuba diving facility. There is a tourist info centre in the inner harbour.
etc: horse carriages, tours of the legislature, other touristy stuff
Butchart Gardens. Come before sunset and stay after dark. They are lit up at night, and there are fireworks in the summer.
go up north to Nanaimo, check out the museums and displays there and the parks and shorelines and boat tours along the way.
restaurants: Pagliacci's (Italian) on Broad St. (downtown). San Remo (Greco-Roman) near Quadra and Hillside. Rebecca's (seafood), Wharf St. Camille's (romantic) in Bastion Square, downtown Chandler's (seafood). Milestones, Wharf St., near info-centre. (All of these were others' romantic picks, not mine.)
walks/hikes/drives around Victoria:
Drive to the top of Mt. Doug park and enjoy the 360 degree view. The top of Mt. Tolmie also has a good view of the city.
The newly-opened Butterfly World on W. Saanich Rd is beautiful, especially if you've got an hour or two to kill on a rainy afternoon. You walk among the butterflies; they may even decide to land on you.
The town of Chemainus has about 20 murals on the outside of their buildings. It's about an hour's drive from Victoria. Lots of small shops. Great for picture-taking. Enjoy the view from the Malahat on the drive up. For casual walks around Victoria, you can do any of:
Beacon Hill Park
walk from West Bay marina in Esquimalt all the way to downtown, stop at the ice cream place on Government St, and walk back or continue on past the Inner Harbour, Fisherman's Wharf, and all the way to Clover Point and back to Esquimalt. If you do this whole walk, you'll be tired!
Or, take a shorter route: after Fisherman's Wharf head south to the breakwater, look at the Olympic Mountains in Washington State, & return to Fisherman's Wharf, buy the take-out fish & chips (YUM!), and take the tiny harbour ferry back to Esquimalt. Avoid the neighbourhood pubs like Spinnaker's in Esquimalt; we locals don't want outsiders to monopolize our favourite places. :-)
scenic driving routes from the ferry terminal to Victoria:
Drive out the Juan de Fuca coast past Sooke to Jordan River and beyond. The road ends at Port Renfrew, where there's Botanical Beach Provincial Park. Takes about 2 hours to get there from Victoria. Beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean. Some sweeping clearcuts on the way, too. If you can find it, go down to Sombrio Beach, about 2/3 of the way to Port Renfrew. (No overnight camping at Botanical Beach.) There's also Mt. Work Regional Park, on the Saanich Peninsula near Brentwood Bay. Climb up the hill, or go down to McKenzie Bight on Saanich Inlet. Both really nice hikes.
Take a left off the Pat Bay Hwy. at the Petrocan just before Elk Lake, so you go down through Cordova Bay and Mt. Douglas Park. This will get you onto Shelbourne St.
On the drive in from the ferry, you can detour to Island View Beach. Hang a left on Island View Road. There's a traffic light at the intersection and some kind of big red barn on your left. Also, just off the highway is Beaver/Elk Lake. Stop for a picnic if it's a nice day. You can also walk completely around the two lakes (they're joined so most people actually consider it one lake). The walk is about 8km.
You can also turn right off the Pat Bay Hwy. at McTavish and then left on East Sanich Rd. It isn't as fast as it is along the Pat Bay, but it is much nicer. East Sanich Rd. will eventually merge with the Pat Bay again before Sayward (the Petrocan mentioned above) so you can follow that route as well.
Nanaimo, not far from Victoria, hosts an annual bathtub race and Marine Festival. Here is a description for 1993: The Bathtub race is on July 27th. The annual Naniamo Marine Festival is from july 17-July 25. On the 17th: Bathtub parade, 18th: Chub silly boat race. For more info (or future year dates) call 604-754-8474. You can watch the race from Nanaimo, no tickets are sold. Parking is limited. Its worth seeing. Also you can take a small ferry to Newcastle Island for a picnic. We take our boat up to Nanaimo to watch it.
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| Detailed Ferry/Plane Information: |
| Detailed Ferry/Plane Information: |
| There is a passenger-only boat (no cars) between Seattle WA and Victoria BC, called the Victoria Clipper. It is a jet catamaran and makes the trip in about 2.5 hours. Service is once a day in winter, with up to four trips per day in summer. Reservations are recommended; phone 206-448-5000 in Seattle, 604-382-8100 in Victoria, or 800-888-2535 (US and Canada, I believe). The adult summer fare (until October 3, 1993) is $52 US one way; round trip is $85 US, or $69 US with a restricted 14-day advance booking fare. Check in early if you want a chance at a window seat. (1993 info)
A car ferry is operated between Port Angeles WA and Victoria BC by Black Ball Ferry. This too runs daily in winter, and up to four times a day in summer; the trip takes 1.5 hours. Phone 206-622-2222 in Bellevue WA, or 604-386-2202 in Victoria. (This info from 1992.)
A car ferry is operated from Anacortes WA via the San Juan Islands to Sidney BC by the state of Washington. Phone 206-464-6400 in Seattle, or 800-542-7052 from elsewhere in Washington, or 604-381-1551 or 604-656-1531 in Victoria and/or Sidney. (This info partly from 1991-92.)
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| The province of BC operates car ferries from the mainland to Vancouver Island on 5 routes. From south to north:
Tsawassen to Swartz Bay (trip time 1 hour 35 minutes)
Tsawassen to Nanaimo (trip time 2 hours)
Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo (trip time 1 hour 35 minutes)
Powell River to Little River (trip time 1 hour 15 minutes)
Prince Rupert to Port Hardy (trip time 15 hours (in 1991))
Tsawassen and Horseshoe Bay are south and north of Vancouver respectively, not far outside the metropolitan area. Powell River cannot be reached by road; from Vancouver you take a (scenic) ferry from Horseshoe Bay to Langdale on the 'Sunshine Coast', then a 90-minute drive, then another (scenic) ferry from Earls Cove to Saltery Bay. Prince Rupert can be reached by road only from the east.
Swartz Bay is near Sidney, about 20 miles north of Victoria on the Saanich Peninsula. Nanaimo is about 70 miles northwest of Victoria, and Little River is near Comox, a further 80 miles on. Port Hardy is near the northern tip of the island.
Each of the first four routes listed costs $21.50 for a car and $6.00 for each adult (including the driver of a car), one way. The same fare applies to the shorter Sunshine Coast ferries, but is charged in only one direction. All these routes generally tend to run every hour or two, except for the Powell River route which runs 4 times a day.
In 1991, the Prince Rupert to Port Hardy route cost $142 for a car and driver, or $68 for a passenger alone. This included sleeping accommodation although the trip is not overnight. The route operated every 2 days in the summer and twice a week in the winter. Reservations required; phone 604-386-3431 in Victoria.
For 24-hour recorded schedule information, phone 604-685-1021 in Vancouver, 604-656-0757 in Victoria, 604-753-6626 in Nanaimo.
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| Airplane Access, as of May 1993 |
| Another way to get to Vancouver Island is by the Air BC seaplane, which runs from downtown Vancouver to downtown Victoria. Air BC is an affiliate of Air Canada, so any travel agent or Air Canada office should be able to make reservations; I have the phone numbers 604-688-5515 for Vancouver and 604-360-9074 for Victoria.
Until September 30, 1993, they are offering a $99 return fare, with a maximum 7-day stay; to use this fare you must use flights between 9 am and 2:30 pm.
There are also flights from Vancouver airport to Victoria airport, with several airlines, and there are probably direct links to Victoria from Seattle and/or Bellingham, for U.S. travellers
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