Vancouver Island: Victoria, Butchart Gardens and Tofino

1. Day 1: Arrive in Vancouver

   Vancouver International Airport to your hotel downtown

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Vancouver
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Vancouver International Airport (YVR), on Sea Island about 15 km south of downtown, and a driver meets you in the arrivals hall for the half-hour drive into the city. Plan to land by about 3 pm; the latest arrival time is confirmed with your final itinerary. Your hotel is central, so the rest of the afternoon is easy on foot: the seawall around Coal Harbour, the white sails of Canada Place and the seaplanes landing in the harbour, with the North Shore mountains behind. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the week: two nights here, two in Victoria, two in Tofino, and how the ferries and the one long driving day fit together. Then we walk a few minutes into Gastown, the oldest part of the city, past the steam clock on Water Street, and sit down to a welcome dinner of west coast food at a local restaurant.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Vancouver International Airport (YVR)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Short evening walk into Gastown
   • Welcome dinner

   Free time: Free until the early-evening briefing

2. Day 2: Stanley Park, Granville Island and the Museum of Anthropology

   Stanley Park to Granville Island, then the UBC campus

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Vancouver
   Day 2 details

   We start at about 8:30, before the cyclists and coaches, on the seawall in Stanley Park, a forested park of about 400 hectares on a peninsula at the edge of downtown. Your guide walks you along the water to Brockton Point and its totem poles, carved by artists of several Northwest Coast nations, with the harbour and the North Shore mountains across the water. Our vehicle collects us at the end of the walk for the short drive to Granville Island, a former industrial island under the Granville Street Bridge, where lunch is at the Public Market: smoked salmon, bakeries and produce stalls, with tables beside False Creek. In the early afternoon we drive out to the University of British Columbia and the Museum of Anthropology, whose Great Hall has tall glass walls framing carved poles and house posts, and whose collection includes Bill Reid's sculpture The Raven and the First Men. We are back downtown by late afternoon, and the evening is yours.

   Included

   • Stanley Park seawall walk with your guide to the Brockton Point totem poles
   • Lunch at Granville Island Public Market
   • Museum of Anthropology at UBC, ticket included

   Easier option: Ride in the vehicle to Brockton Point and walk only the shortest stretch of the seawall.

   More active option: Rent a bike and ride the whole seawall loop around Stanley Park, about 9 km, and meet the group at Granville Island for lunch.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free

   Activity: About 4 to 6 km on foot, on flat paths.

   

3. Day 3: The ferry to the island and Butchart Gardens

   Vancouver to Tsawwassen, ferry to Swartz Bay, then Butchart Gardens and Victoria

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Victoria
   Day 3 details

   After breakfast we drive about 45 minutes south to Tsawwassen for the BC Ferries sailing to Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island, about an hour and a half on the water. The route crosses the Strait of Georgia and threads Active Pass between Galiano and Mayne islands; stand on the outer deck as the forested shores slide close, and watch for bald eagles and seals. From Swartz Bay it is about 20 minutes to Butchart Gardens at Brentwood Bay. Jennie Butchart began planting in her husband's worked-out limestone quarry in the early 1900s, and the Sunken Garden she made there is still the heart of the gardens, now a National Historic Site of Canada. We walk it first, then the Rose, Japanese and Italian gardens, with lunch at the gardens in between. Mid-afternoon we drive half an hour into Victoria and check in near the Inner Harbour. The rest of the day is free to walk the waterfront and choose a place for dinner.

   Included

   • BC Ferries from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay, with the vehicle
   • Butchart Gardens, ticket included
   • Lunch at Butchart Gardens

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free in Victoria

   Activity: About 2 to 3 hours at Butchart Gardens on paved paths, with some slopes and steps in the Sunken Garden.

   

4. Day 4: Whales in the morning, Victoria on foot

   The Salish Sea from the Inner Harbour, then Victoria's old town

   • By boat
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Victoria
   Day 4 details

   Victoria's whale-watching boats leave from the Inner Harbour, a few minutes' walk from the hotel, and we take an included three-hour trip in the morning with a marine naturalist on board. Out in the Salish Sea and the Juan de Fuca Strait the boat looks for killer whales, humpbacks, sea lions and harbour seals. Sightings are never guaranteed, and the captain goes where the latest reports are. We book a covered boat with a cabin, so the trip works in wind and rain. Back on shore, lunch is a sit-down meal near the harbour. In the afternoon your guide walks the group through the old town: past the Parliament Buildings, finished in 1898 and outlined in lights after dark, the Fairmont Empress hotel and Bastion Square, and into Chinatown, the oldest in Canada, with its narrow Fan Tan Alley. Your ticket to the Royal BC Museum is included for the rest of the afternoon, and dinner tonight is your choice.

   Included

   • Three-hour whale-watching trip from the Inner Harbour with a marine naturalist
   • Sit-down lunch near the harbour
   • Guided walk: the Parliament Buildings, the Empress, Bastion Square, Chinatown and Fan Tan Alley
   • Royal BC Museum, ticket included

   Optional experiences

   • Afternoon tea at the Fairmont Empress (price shown at booking)

   Easier option: Stay ashore in the morning: the Royal BC Museum and the Inner Harbour at your own pace, then join the group for lunch.

   More active option: In the free late afternoon, walk the Dallas Road waterfront to Mile Zero and back through Beacon Hill Park, about 5 km.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free

   Activity: About 3 hours on the water; dress warmly even in summer. The town walk is about 2 to 3 km on pavements.

   

5. Day 5: Cowichan, Chemainus and across the island to Tofino

   Victoria over the Malahat to Duncan and Chemainus, then Cathedral Grove and Tofino

   • Drive about 4.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Tofino
   Day 5 details

   This is the one long driving day, about 320 km and four and a half hours on the road, because there is no shorter way from Victoria to the west coast. We break it into four stops, so no stretch runs much over an hour and a half. We leave Victoria at 8:30 and climb the Malahat above the Saanich Inlet into the Cowichan Valley, where the streets of Duncan hold dozens of totem poles, and we stop at a local winery or cidery for an included tasting. Chemainus, a mill town that turned to outdoor murals in the early 1980s, is our lunch stop, with a walk around its painted walls. Past Nanaimo we turn west on Highway 4 to Cathedral Grove in MacMillan Provincial Park, where a short loop trail leads among Douglas firs, some around 800 years old. The last stretch crosses the mountains past Port Alberni and Kennedy Lake, and we reach Tofino around 6 pm for dinner together.

   Included

   • Duncan's totem poles
   • Tasting at a Cowichan Valley winery or cidery
   • Chemainus murals walk and sit-down lunch
   • Cathedral Grove old-growth loop trail in MacMillan Provincial Park
   • Arrival dinner in Tofino

   Easier option: Stay with the vehicle at Cathedral Grove, or walk only the first few minutes of the flat loop.

   Activity: Longest day on the road: about 4.5 hours of driving, broken by three stops of 45 minutes to an hour and a half. The Cathedral Grove loop is short and mostly flat.

6. Day 6: Rainforest, Long Beach and Ucluelet

   Tofino to Pacific Rim National Park Reserve and Ucluelet, then back to Tofino

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Tofino
   Day 6 details

   Tofino sits at the tip of the Esowista Peninsula in the territory of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, with Clayoquot Sound to the north and the open Pacific to the west. We start the morning in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve on the Rainforest Trail, two short boardwalk loops through western red cedar and hemlock hung with moss, quiet before the day visitors arrive. A few minutes on is Long Beach, about 16 km of sand and surf, and the Kwisitis Visitor Centre above Wickaninnish Beach, where exhibits tell the story of the Nuu-chah-nulth peoples of this coast. Lunch is in Ucluelet, the fishing town at the southern end of the peninsula road. Then we walk the Lighthouse Loop of the Wild Pacific Trail at Amphitrite Point, with waves breaking on the rocks below and the open water of Barkley Sound beyond. We are back in Tofino by mid-afternoon, with free time before a farewell dinner together.

   Included

   • Pacific Rim National Park Reserve admission
   • Rainforest Trail boardwalk with your guide
   • Long Beach and the Kwisitis Visitor Centre
   • Lunch in Ucluelet
   • Lighthouse Loop of the Wild Pacific Trail at Amphitrite Point
   • Farewell dinner in Tofino

   Optional experiences

   • Bear watching by boat in Clayoquot Sound (timed to low tide)
   • Surf lesson at Cox Bay or Chesterman Beach
   • Sea kayak tour from Tofino harbour
   • Prices shown at booking

   Easier option: Skip the Rainforest Trail stairs and walk the flat sand at Long Beach and the Kwisitis centre instead.

   More active option: Carry on past the Lighthouse Loop on the next clifftop section of the Wild Pacific Trail, and we collect you further along.

   Free time: Mid-afternoon free in Tofino before the farewell dinner

   Activity: About 5 km on foot in short sections. The Rainforest Trail boardwalks have many stairs and can be slippery when wet.

   

7. Day 7: Back across the Strait of Georgia

   Tofino to Nanaimo, ferry to Horseshoe Bay, then Vancouver International Airport

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast
   Day 7 details

   Walk down to the beach before breakfast if you like, then we leave Tofino at 8 am on Highway 4, back over the mountains to the east coast of the island, about three hours to Nanaimo with a coffee stop on the way. At Departure Bay we board the BC Ferries sailing to Horseshoe Bay, about an hour and forty minutes across the Strait of Georgia and into Howe Sound, with the Coast Mountains rising ahead. Lunch is your choice, on board or at the terminal. From Horseshoe Bay it is about an hour through West Vancouver, over the Lions Gate Bridge and through Stanley Park to Vancouver International Airport, arriving mid- to late afternoon, or we drop you downtown if you are staying on. Sailing times change by season, and we confirm yours with your final itinerary. If you would rather skip the drive, scheduled flights run from Tofino to Vancouver, and we can book one for you at extra cost.

   Included

   • BC Ferries from Nanaimo (Departure Bay) to Horseshoe Bay, with the vehicle
   • Drop-off at Vancouver International Airport (YVR) or downtown

   Optional experiences

   • Scheduled flight from Tofino to Vancouver in place of the drive and ferry (price shown at booking)

   Activity: Book a flight leaving after about 6 pm.

Wildlife and weather: Summer is the drier season on the coast, but Tofino can be misty or rainy on any day, and it is cool on the water. Whales are seen in the Salish Sea most of the year, with the best odds from May to September; sightings are never guaranteed. In late summer wildfire smoke can haze the views.

• Vancouver2 nights
• Victoria2 nights
• Tofino2 nights