Vancouver Island Travel Forum

As first time visitors from the UK we are apprehensive on a few things about our trip to Canada.
The first part is all planned Arr. Calgary. Coach & Train thro. The Rockies to Vancouver. Thats where we need help. We are booked in The Sandman Downtown for 7 nights. Only after our agent booked us in did I read the reviews. Everyone said the Hotel was disgusting. I have mailed the company voicing my concerns even pointing out (politely hoping) that as we were on our anniversary an upgrade would be nice. No reply from the company and a definate NO from the Hotel.
So we are in Vancouver for 7 nights...if there is plenty to do with reasonable public transport and reasonably priced tours should we hire a car? Car costs £200 for 12 days.
There is an excellent article in one Forum on this site helping a visitor to Vancouver for 2 days but as we are there for 7 will we become bored?
After that we move to Vanc. Island for four nights.
If we have hired a car we cross by ferry to the Island if not we go by foot+ferry?
When we arrive we need to get to The Sandman in the town of Victoria. If on foot do we use a taxi from the ferry or bus?
Again we need help on what to do when we get there. Do we do Victoria with or without a car?

Then finally not being the richest visitor to Canada we in the UK get 2 Canadian $ to the UK £. We usually eat diner for 2 at an average UK pub for say £14-16. Say 30 dollars would that be equivalent in Canada or would it cost more?

We really want to relax and look forward to our holiday but with not knowing what to expect at The 'uncomfortable, dirty, worn-out (not my words) Downtown Sandman in Vancouver and the poor reviews of our Airline, Globspan we really are apprehensive.

Can anyone out there cheer us up?

We leave a week Saturday.

Thanks. If you want to see some of where I live or are visiting anytime have a look at www.newcastlewalks.co.uk.

Will try and cheer you up a little lol.....

We havent been to Vancouver yet! But have 3 days booked in September before we take a 7 day Alaska cruise. We have heaps booked in for 3 days and wish we had longer. From the research we have done there is plenty to do. Things like

Grouse Mountain - http://www.grousemountain.com/Summer/
Capilano Suspension Bridge and/or Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge.
Stanley Park
Gastown
Chinatown
Granville Island - http://www.seegranvilleisland.com/
Vancouver Lookout - http://www.vancouverlookout.com/
Take a big bus tour - http://bigbus.ca/index.php

Hiring a car will be a great idea....we have one booked for one day to do Grouse Mountain and Capilano.

We only have 1 day for Victoria and we have booked a whale watch cruise and a city and Butchart Garddens tour. Also, we have arranged a couple of floatplane flights which will be awesome over Vancouver and Victoria,

So we reckon 7 and 4 days respectively will be awesome for you. We would love to stay longer but cant.

On the hotel....maybe you could cancel the hotel and book your own.....we had a complete vacation package booked and ended up booking flights ourselves and saved some money.

Good Luck
Col & Sue

Hi, Well you will find Vancouver to be a very nice city and Victoria on Vancouver Island to be very nice.

We were in Vancouver last week of June last year for 7 days, did not have a car and moved around the city easily on foot and occassionally on bus, train and the city ferry to North Vancouver. Plenty to see and do in Vancouver, Grouse Mountain, Lynn Canyon and Suspension Bridge, Stanley Park, the beach, Granville Markets etc etc. We took a day tour to Vancouver Island including Victoria and the famous Butchart Gardens. I think with a rental car on Vancouver Island 2 nights would be plenty.

The saving of 2 nights on Vancouver Island I would put towards a car trip to Whisler or some other destination, most likely I would take a day off Vancouver and make my car trip 3 nights.

We arrived in Calgary and drove to Banff in the Rocky mountains for 7 days, just fantastic and then caught the train to Vancouver.

If your Vancouver accommodation does not work out , we stayed at the Blue Horison Hotel on Robson Street, it was very good and price reasonable.

As for evening dinner I think $30 will be a little tight for 2 persons unless you eat at the markets. $20 each should get you something reasonable, just ask to see the menu before you are seated. There is a good Italian we went to that has a half price Tuesday and other days prices are reasonable. You are welcome to view my pages, you might find something that appeals.

Good Luck,
Mike

There is plenty to do in Vancouver for 7 days. You will definitely not be bored. There is a bus service to Victoria which goes form downtown Vancouver to downtown Victoria which is very resonably priced. You do not need a car to tour around Vancouver or Victoria, it can all be done easily with public transit. If you want to do a side trip to Whistler etc then you will need a car for that part. I am not familiar with the Sandman Hotel downtown but with all there is to do in Vancouver you probably won't be spending too much time at the hotel anyway. If its not too late to change your reservations, I would cancel the train from Calgary and rent a car and drive the route over 2 or 3 days stopping to admire the scenery as you want. A one way car rental from Calgary to Vancouver will be A LOT less expensive than the train.

I don't think $30 will get you far at dinner (especially if you drink alcohol), but $40 would be do-able. Today I had a dinner salad at Milestones (a popular upscale family restaurant in Western Canada) which cost $11.99 before tax. If I'd had something with meat, it would have been more.

Another interesting option to get to Victoria is the new Vancouver -> Victoria whale watching tour run by Prince of Whales. It leaves downtown Vancouver each morning at 8:00 am and docks in downtown Victoria just after 12:00. Along the way you go whale watching. It is for foot passengers only but you can bring luggage on board. They offer a few return choices and you can return on the day of your choice (or not at all!): bus, seaplane or boat (if you leave by boat again you have to leave through the Butchart Gardens, so you can save that for your last day on the island if you're heading back to Vancouver).

There are lots of suggestions in the above posts. I see no reason why you can't cancel your hotel reservations. There should be no penalty if you do this right away. Transportation is readily available in both Vancouver and Victoria so I don't see the need for hiring a car. You can get a bus in Vancouver which will go on the ferry and take you into Victoria. I would spend a day or two less in Vancouver and one more day on Vancouver Island.........but then I am biased.