Vancouver to Victoria Ferry and Coach: The Return Leg

What the return actually consists of

Three legs, in one arrangement. A coach picks up in Victoria and drives to the ferry terminal north of the city. The ferry crosses to the mainland. A second coach runs from the terminal into Vancouver, finishing at Pacific Central Station.

This is a scheduled service in its own right, the BC Ferries Connector, used every day by people travelling between the two cities without a car. You are not on a tour bus; you are on public intercity transport, which is why it is reliable and unglamorous in equal measure.

All of the tickets are part of your booking. There is nothing to buy at the terminal, no separate ferry fare and no coach ticket to collect, which removes the single most confusing part of doing this journey independently.

The ferry crossing, which is the good part

BC Ferries runs one of the busiest and most scenic ferry networks anywhere, and the crossing between the mainland and Vancouver Island threads through the Gulf Islands rather than simply crossing open water. For long stretches the ship is passing close to forested shorelines on both sides.

The vessels are large: multiple decks, seating inside, open decks outside, food available on board, and enough space that the crossing never feels like being packed onto a boat. Most people spend it on an outside deck if the weather allows.

Having flown over these same islands in the morning, going through them at sea level in the afternoon is the reason this day is arranged the way it is. It is the same landscape from two completely different heights.

How long it takes

The coach legs are around an hour each and the ferry crossing itself is about an hour and a half, so the return is roughly three and a half hours of travelling plus the waiting and loading at either end of the sailing.

That is a long time compared with thirty-five minutes in the air, and it is the deliberate trade of the whole trip. The morning is bought fast so that the afternoon in Victoria is real; the evening is spent travelling because travelling through the Gulf Islands is worth spending an evening on.

It also means you should not plan anything tight for the end of the day. Ferries run to a timetable and are generally punctual, and a sailing can still be affected by weather or by loading.

The ferry threading between forested shores in the Gulf Islands

Staying with the coach

The coach drives onto the ferry with you aboard, and drives off at the other end. You leave the vehicle during the crossing and go up into the ship, then return to it before docking. Your luggage stays on the coach throughout.

That arrangement removes the awkward part of doing this as a foot passenger, which involves getting yourself and your bags between a bus stop, a terminal building and a walkway, twice. Here the only thing you carry across is what you want with you on the ship.

Announcements tell you when to go back down. The one instruction that matters is to note which deck the coach is parked on, because a car deck full of identical vehicles at the end of a long day is a genuinely confusing place.

Where it drops you

Pacific Central Station, which is Vancouver's main rail and intercity bus terminal, on the eastern edge of downtown near Chinatown. It is on the SkyTrain at Main Street-Science World, so onward travel to almost anywhere in the city is straightforward.

It is not Canada Place. If you began the day at the seaplane terminal and left something at a hotel nearby, the end of the day involves crossing town to collect it. That is a ten minute journey and a complete surprise to anybody who assumed a round trip returns you to your starting point.

Knowing that in advance turns it from an annoyance into a detail, which is the entire reason this page exists. Anybody who has finished a long day in the wrong part of a city will recognise why it is worth a paragraph.

Doing the return in the other direction

Some travellers prefer the reverse: ferry out in the morning, fly back in the evening. It is a legitimate preference, particularly if you want to arrive in Victoria gradually rather than suddenly, or if you would rather end the day with the flight.

This particular booking is sold one way round only, so if the reverse is what you want you would be assembling it yourself from a Connector ticket in one direction and a separate seaplane seat in the other.

The argument for flying out first is simply that it maximises your time in Victoria. You arrive in the middle of the morning rather than in the middle of the afternoon, and the whole useful part of the day is on the island rather than in transit.

What to do with three and a half hours

Very little, and that is the point. The coach legs are comfortable and most people sleep or read through them without feeling they have missed anything. The ferry crossing is the part to stay awake for, and an hour and a half on an outside deck watching islands go past is a good way to end a day.

There is food aboard the ship and it is the last reliable opportunity of the day, so it is worth eating there rather than waiting until Vancouver and discovering that Pacific Central at nine in the evening is not a dining destination.

And the light matters. On a summer evening the crossing happens in long low sun through the islands, which is the single best thing about taking the slow way home.

Before you book

The journey home

1. Coach out of Victoria

   About an hour from the city to the ferry terminal north of Victoria. Your luggage stays aboard the vehicle throughout.

2. The coach drives onto the ship

   You stay with it, then go up into the ferry for the crossing. Note the deck it parks on before you leave it.

3. About 90 minutes at sea

   Through the Gulf Islands rather than across open water, close to forested shores on both sides. Food is available aboard.

4. Back to the coach

   Announcements call you down before docking. The vehicle drives off the ship with everyone and everything still on it.

5. Coach into Vancouver

   Roughly another hour from the mainland terminal into the city, on ordinary intercity coach service.

6. Pacific Central Station

   The day ends near Chinatown on the eastern edge of downtown, on the SkyTrain, not at Canada Place where it began.