A day in Victoria, Vancouver Island

We caught the 8:30 am ferry from Horseshoe Bay, near Vancouver, to Departure Bay in Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island. The ferry took about 1 hour and 40 minutes. We then headed south and stopped at Chemainus to grab a snack and view the murals around the town. It also happened to be Market Day so we wandered around the stalls for a while.

We then headed to Victoria and arranged to meet at a car park at the harbour. We walked around the harbour for a while and watched some of the street entertainment. We then took a guided harbour tour on the little harbour ferries that do either a Gorge tour, or the Inner Harbour tour. Each of the ferries can legally only take 12 passengers.

After the cruise we continued to wander around the harbour area, walked over to the Empress Hotel, walked through the Parliament building, and then walked around the shops. We wandered back towards the harbour and stopped for dinner at the Swan Pub.

After dinner we headed for Swartz Bay to catch the 9 pm. ferry back to Tsawassen. It was dark by the time we left, and we finally arrived home at around 11:30 pm.

A Day on Vancouver Island Slideshow: Mark’s trip from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia to 3 cities Vancouver Island, Victoria and Chemainus was created by TripAdvisor. See another Canada slideshow. Create a free slideshow with music from your travel photos.