Tag: BC Ferries

This isn’t going to be a story where an infant saves a senior from some horrible fate in the cafeteria. Rather, it was a gorgeous summer sailing from Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo. We were starting or family vacation at last before the madness of the Fall descends. We were seated near the cafeteria when my son says, in hushed tones, “Dad, is that Jimmy Olsen?” My son had successfully recognized Mehcad Brooks of the TV show Supergirl, which films in Vancouver. Later on the sailing I saw him again and stopped him and introduced my son and daughter to him. […]

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BC Ferries is a funny entity. My view has been if you offer reservations, it should be for most of the boat. I was travelling on a July Saturday and knew it was busy because I could not reserve from their online system. I wanted the 9 AM sailing and so I planned to be out the door by 7 AM, assuming a 45-minute drive to Tsawwassen where the ferry terminal to Victoria is. Traffic was light so I made in in 40 minutes and I subsequently was loading onto the 8 AM sailing. This was a surprise considering a […]

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BC Ferries. When you say this name to BC residents, you might not receive entirely enthusiastic responses. Most people place BC Ferries somewhere in the annoying category. Because many Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands communities are cut off without the service, people see it as an extension of the highways and wonder why the cost is so high when most other roads in BC have no tolls. (E.g. a Nanaimo to Vancouver ferry cost $129.15 for one child and three over-12-year-olds and that included the $15 advance reservation fee. The question of why we are charged extra to let BC […]

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When visiting Vancouver Island or its surrounding companions, there is only one ferry company to get people to their destinations. That’s right, I’m talking about B.C. Ferries. Now, I know people say “Eww!” thinking about a public ferry service however, it could be a whole lot worse. It depends on what ferry you take in relation to your destination. For example, if you are traveling to Victoria, tons of people visit there all the time. The boat is going to be much larger and be fit with nicer accommodations such as, the “Coastal Café” an on ferry restaurant/buffet (that ends […]

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Important safety tip … when booking your ferry trip to Salt Spring Island, it’s a good idea to pay a lot more attention to the process than I did. It wasn’t until I went back to figure out what I’d missed did I realize on the BC Ferries schedule did you have to go to the Southern Gulf Islands schedule (www.bcferries.com/schedules/southern/) and then click on Vancouver Departures. On this page you have to navigate to further navigate Tsawwassen to Salt Spring Island (Long Harbour). There it tells you that it’s a three hour trip because you stop at Galiano, Manye […]

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BC Ferries is a crown corporation that is charge of running the ferry system in British Columbia. Many British Columbians are not sure why. In the same way Torontonians complain about the 401, BC residents love to complain about the ferries. This may be because of continuous fare increases and schedule reductions. For example, a car and drive pays $67 one-way from Tsawwassen – Swartz Bay and in 2008 it was $56. (Source www.bcferries.com/travel_planning/fares/archive.html) Despite the cost, any of these ferry rides is a beautiful scenic trip. Most visitors to BC are likely to use either Tsawwassen or Horseshoe Bay, […]

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