Vancouver Island

Having spent a busy week in Vancouver city with Dad, we fancied chilling out for a few days on Vancouver Island.

Dad had long wanted to visit Vancouver Island, as his Canadian born mother had often talked about it. Coming from a tiny island in the English Channel, I’m drawn to other islands around the world. I was amazed to discover it’s much bigger than I imagined - 400 times the size of Jersey!

There are a couple of ways to get to the island from Vancouver, namely by air or sea. As Dad loves the sea, I thought a BC Ferries transfer would be a lovely experience for him, and with the slim possibility of seeing Orca whales in the channel, it was a must-do.

Thanks to the travel expert at TrailFinders (Kane) who booked our crossing, we made our way to the Pacific Central Vancouver bus terminal and boarded a coach to Tsawwassen (about an hour’s drive away). To our surprise the coach drove straight on to the large ferry where we disembarked for the 1.5 hour crossing. We didn’t spot any whales, but the scenery as we sailed through channels separating several islands was beautiful.

We stayed at The Inn at Laurel Point.
The hotel is perfectly situated at the tip of Laurel Point with 180 degree views of both Victoria’s inner and outer harbours. We had studio suites with spectacular outer harbour views, even with landscaping work being carried out in front of the rooms. The suites were huge with the largest bathroom I’ve ever seen in a hotel. The bath tap was so powerful that within minutes the huge tub was almost overflowing with bubbles! Pure luxury.

The harbour was a hive of activity and sitting on the terrace watching the comings and goings was wonderful.
To our delight we discovered the seaplanes we’d seen in Vancouver landed right outside the hotel, the busiest period being the morning and evening commuter times. Day trip ferries from Vancouver arrived around 7:30am.
Charming little yellow and green water taxis take passengers to and from various stops around Victoria harbour (during the summer months they perform a water ballet). Add to this the odd kayak, fishing boat or luxury motorboat and you can imagine how busy it gets.
Dad was in 7th heaven!

One of the surprising facts we learned about Victoria, is that it’s the capital of British Columbia - not Vancouver, as you might expect. It’s hard to think of it as a city, as the atmosphere is so relaxed and there are very few high-rise buildings. Many historical building facades have been maintained and the beautiful parliment building, with its statue of Queen Victoria, stands imposingly in front of the harbour.

We took the obligatory bus tour on our first day to learn a bit more about the city and surrounding area, and find places we might want to re-visit.

We couldn’t wait to get back to the Fisherman’s Wharf, which was only a 5 minute walk from the hotel (about a 15 minutes walk from the inner harbour).
A working harbour at one end and a residential and tourist attraction at the other. The eastern end pontoons are surrounded by brightly coloured floating food kiosks, shops and privately owned houseboats called float homes. There’s even a B&B float home that you can stay in. It’s like no other place I’ve been - so pretty. It must be strange having a home here, but each one is lovingly painted and decorated.
There’s lots of eateries, so we had lunch there. I can highly recommend a Margherita pizza from the Pirate Pizza Company and the mini doughnuts from the pretty Sweets kiosk. Dad had a spicy prawn cocktail from the Mexican Seafood kiosk.

Beacon Hill Park is 200 acres of beautiful parkland. There’s lots of footpaths linking various sports fields, playgrounds, water parks, gardens and lakes. We even saw several deer roaming freely.
Remarkably, there’s a ‘Mile 0’ statue in the park, indicating the western starting point of the Trans Canada Highway, which runs 8000 km to St John’s, Newfoundland on the east coat. It also has one of the world’s tallest free standing totem poles (127 feet).

One thing I'd promised myself was to go whale watching. I knew it wouldn’t be cheap, but the chance of seeing a whale breaching would have been worth the cost. However, having met a man who’d spent 4 hours on a small boat with people being ill all around him and no sign of a whale, we decided against it.
Note to the wise - some of the tour operators guarantee a sighting. When I asked how they could guarantee it, I was told that it was a ‘life-time guarantee’, so if I didn’t see one this time, when I returned to Victoria I would be taken out for free!

So, instead of whale watching, we headed to Oak Bay about a 10-15 minutes drive from Victoria. It’s quite a big area, but we focused our time around the marina, spending a couple of hours looking at the boats and talking to owners. Dad was in his element. We even found a boat exactly like one he bought about 40 years ago.
We had lunch at the Marina Dockside Eatery which served delicious food. The gluten free peanut butter cookies were so good we brought a few home. Then we wandered along the shoreline where we saw a couple of seals playing in the shallows. Who needs humpbacks and orcas, anyway?

An intriguing sight was the amount of driftwood on the beaches. There were literally tree trunks everywhere. It was the same in Vancouver city. Apparently, it’s due to the severe storms they get up-rooting huge trees along the shoreline, which create large floating sea hazards and wash up on the beaches.

With the weather changing and sky looking ominous, we headed back to the bus stop and passed this beautiful example of First Nation artwork, created from metal. Clearly, a great resting place for passing birds.

Wherever I go, I like to sample local cuisine. There are a few Canadian must-tries, but top of the list is Poutine - French fries, covered in cheese curds and thick gravy. I know, it sounds disgusting, but don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. It’s delicious and I persuaded Dad to order some.
Now, I’ve got a healthy appetite, but my word, when they arrived we couldn’t believe the size of them. Humongous! Each bowl could easily have served two people. It was similar at Frankie’s Diner one morning. Dad ordered pancakes and got a stack with spiced apples and cream, which he couldn’t finish, and my breakfast waffle was literally the size of a dining plate. Knife and fork at the ready, I powered through - well, I didn’t know when I might eat again!

Victoria is charming and, like Vancouver, the people were warm, welcoming and prided themselves on making our stay as good as possible. Our aim was to chill out and we only saw a tiny area in the southern tip of the island. There’s a lot more to see and do around Victoria e.g. Butchart Gardens; Craigdarroch Castle; China Town; Cook Street village; and salmon fishing. And, of course, you could take the 500 km road trip to Port Hardy in the north of the island. I can only imagine the beautiful scenery and wildlife you’d see.