Trip to Vancouver Island

[mac_diver]

Hi All,

My wife & I will be going to Vancouver Island this June. We are finalizing our plans now but are confused on how to get there.

We are flying from the Philadelphia / New York area. Our options are 1) fly to Vancouver and take ferry to Namaino; 2) fly to Seattle and drive to Vancouver then take the ferry, or 3) fly to Seattle and drive take ferry from there. For option 3 we are having a tough time getting information but it appears there is a ferry from somewhere in Washington State to Victoria. What do you guys recommend.

Next question, any recommended dives. I'll bring my drysuit and gear. I do not like drift diving. I understand that this is some of the best diving in the world and do not want to miss it.

 

[bhalah]

Hi All,

My wife & I will be going to Vancouver Island this June. We are finalizing our plans now but are confused on how to get there.

We are flying from the Philadelphia / New York area. Our options are 1) fly to Vancouver and take ferry to Namaino; 2) fly to Seattle and drive to Vancouver then take the ferry, or 3) fly to Seattle and drive take ferry from there. For option 3 we are having a tough time getting information but it appears there is a ferry from somewhere in Washington State to Victoria. What do you guys recommend.

Next question, any recommended dives. I'll bring my drysuit and gear. I do not like drift diving. I understand that this is some of the best diving in the world and do not want to miss it.

Sorry, but I don't have any experience using the ferry service from Seattle, but perhaps flying into Victoria Airport will fit into your plans. Victoria Airport Authority - Victoria, BC


Here is a link to an excellent thread discussing Vancouver Island diving.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/western-canada/331392-some-pointers-vancouver-island-diving.html

 

[MarkH]

The Coho ferry runs between Victoria and Port Angeles on the US side (Olympic Peninsula). This ferry takes vehicles. The Clipper catamaran ferry runs between Seattle and Victoria, This is walk-on only. There is also a vehicle ferry (official Washington State ferry line) that runs between some of the San Juan Islands and Sidney, B.C. Sidney is about a 20 minute drive from Victoria. I think this ferry goes to Anacortes which is accessible by road from Seattle. I think most visitors from Washington State drive up across the border to the Vancouver area and then take the B.C. Ferry to either Swartz Bay (near Sidney) or to Nanaimo.
As for recommended dives, Vancouver Island is a big place. It can take 8 hours to drive from end-to-end. If you want to do lots of shore dives and do things other than diving, Victoria would be my recomendation. It's the biggest city on the island and has tons of shore diving access (the Ogden Point Breakwater is always popular if you don't mind a hike) as well as some great boat dives (Race Rocks for example). Moving North, the next big diving area is Nanaimo. It's about a 1.5-2 hour drive from Victoria. They're well known for their artificial reef ex-navy wrecks. There is also a lot of shore diving in this area. If you plan on trying out a wide range of Vancouver Island areas, Nanaimo is pretty central and could be a good base to start from.
About 2 Hours North of Nanaimo is Campbell River (that's the name of the town). The town is seperated from Quadra Island by a narrow, current-swept channel (Discovery Pass). The Quadra Island side is an amazing series of walls and reefs packed with colourful invertebrates. There aren't many bare patches of rock here. If you don't like drift diving though.....this area can get up to 15 knots of current, but I almost start drooling every time I think of all the colour.
Near the Northern tip of Vancouver Island is Port Hardy. I've been living on this island for 10 years, but I've never been up this far (I think I mentioned the driving time). Divers from all over the world say that this is some of the best diving anywhere. Google "Browning Wall".
The exposed, West coast of the Island is mostly remote and Inaccessible unless you have a sturdy boat or a float plane. I've never been diving in this area before so I'll just pass on what I've heard. There are some populated centers where diving infrastructure is in place. Barkley Sound (accessed from Port Alberni, Bamfield or Ucluelet) is probably the most well known. There is also Tahsis (known for its gorgonian corals) near the Northern end of the island and there is also a relatively new dive shop in Tofino (even if you're not a diver, the Tofino/Long Beach area is a stunning place to visit).
These are just the main centers for diving, but there area also dive shops and charters in many other local communities. Most of the dive sites around the island can be visited from one of the mentioned main centers. I should also mention that June is a time of year when there can be problems with visibility due to plankton blooms although it can change from day to day. I have a link below to my website with photos and descriptions of the sites I've been to (mostly around Victoria). I've only covered a small part of the island so far (again, it's a big place).

 

[wedivebc]

Wow Mark, tourism Vancouver Island should have you on the payroll. Great writeup.
I have been to Port Hardy and if Campbell River makes him drool well...
Anyway you would have trouble not finding good diving on the Island and if you haven't already click on the link at the bottom of swankenstein's post. Mark is an excellent (although humble) photographer and has showcased just about every diveable spot on Southern and Central Vancouver Island.

 

[Darnold9999]

Flying that far I would probably just fly in to Victoria. Not sure what the premium is but the ferries are not cheap either at $73 each way for car and 2 drivers. If you are renting a car, driving and taking a ferry you will be essentially spending the better part of two days of your trip driving and sitting on a ferry. One day there and one day back. I figure 4 hours door to door downtown Vancouver - Victoria. I make that trip about 40 times a year. Unless you are traveling at a non busy time get a reservation. Without one that 4 hour trip can be a 5 or 6 hour trip quickly. From Seattle you are looking at driving 4 hours to get to the ferry and then 3 hours or so to to get to either Victoria or Naniamo all depending on what day of the week you travel. The border can be a couple of hours wait at a Sunday after a long weekend or the night before a long weekend and without a reservation when traffic is heavy you can wait two ferries or more. Anacortes is closer to Seattle but the ferry is infrequent and much slower. Better to come across the border and take one of the BC Ferries. Returning you will want to pick your return time to be a time when the border is not busy - the border is a real pain going in the the US these days. Do not forget your passport!

Having said all of that the Victoria - Vancouver ferry is a spectacular trip from a scenery perspective so it is not a mistake to go that way. The Naniamo Vancouver route is not as scenic. I used to do that one 25 times a year or so. Have never taken the Anacortes - Sidney ferry but it is a much longer trip. I believe it stops at least once on the way in both directions.

Others have described the diving on the island pretty well. My favourite spots to dive would be Port Hardy/Browning Wall, Campbell River/Quadra Island, Barkley Sound, Race Rocks and Ogden Point pretty much in that order. Not a huge fan of wrecks so Naniamo does not do much for me - I would dive Dodds Narrows out of Naniamo any time but it is a drift dive even at slack. The vis is pretty much in that order as well with Browning Wall being 80 + and Ogden Point could be down to less than 3 at the surface and open up to 10 to 20 feet at that time of the year. But it is still a nice easy dive with lots to see.

 

[TSandM]

Unless there is a substantial price advantage somehow, I wouldn't fly into Seattle to get up to Vancouver. It's an hour and a half drive to the Anacortes ferry, or a 2 hour drive to the Tswassen ferry in Vancouver, and then you have a long ferry ride (although they are pretty).

What you're going to be able to do once you get there really depends on the length of your stay. As Mark said, driving to Port Hardy takes about five hours from Nanaimo (though again, it's a pretty drive). The diving around Browning Pass is some of the most breath-taking diving I've done anywhere in the world and is well worth the trip, if you have the time. Lodging up there is remote and not inexpensive. I stayed at the Browning Pass Hideaway, which has a wonderful proprietor who knows the waters well, but a less than wonderful boat and pretty primitive lodging (kind of one step up from camping). The other land-based operator up there is MUCH more expensive (that's God's Pocket).

We had a lot of fun diving off Nanaimo. I'd highly recommend the Diver's Choice boat as a dive operator -- it's a very comfortable and well appointed boat, with a swim step right at water level, and the single best ladder I've ever climbed back onto a boat.

I'm not big on drift dives, myself, but the way drifts are done here is to put you in the water at a very high current site, but at or near slack current. We did Dodds Narrows this way, and had the gentlest imaginable drift, where you could stop at any time to look at things, but you had a little assistance with moving forward. It was delightful, and that site is packed with beautiful life.

I think you'll have a good time, no matter what you do, but I wouldn't recommend flying into Seattle.

 

[Darnold9999]

Going to disagree with the time estimates from the Seattle airport to the Victoria or Naniamo Ferries - if you go this route you will want to allow more than 2 hours for this drive. My four hours was worst case when plainning to meet a scheduled ferry. You can do it significantly faster, but you will be going through Seattle and crossing a border both of which can delay you significantly depending on time of day and day of the week.

2 hours would be best case with no traffic in Seattle and no border wait.

Wait times at the border coming in to Canada can range from 5 minutes to an hour on a Friday afternoon. Wait times the other way are roughly triple that. Rarely under 15 minutes and can get up to two or three hours or more on a Sunday after a long weekend.

 

[TSandM]

Darnold, good points about figuring in border delay times. The 2 hours is my drive time from Woodinville to the Tsawassen ferry, and does not include any significant border delay. It can certainly be much longer, especially if one is driving up on a summer Friday afternoon!

 

[rob1967]

As others have pointed out, the ferries are slow, and the further North you get on Vancouver Island, generally the better the viz. So my advice is fly into Vancouver YVR from the East Coast, and from there take a connecting flight to the Island; either Victoria, Nanaimo, Comox, or Campbell River. Or heck, you could even fly into Port Hardy on Pacific Coastal Pacific Coastal - Fly between Vancouver South Terminal & BC communities

Mind you, you may have to book it as a separate ticket rather than a connecting flight.

Since you are going to be at the airport anyway in Vancouver, you may as well keep going with a short connecting flight over to the Island, this will be much faster than renting a car and getting over by ferry. The airlines might try to gouge you if you book it as a connecting flight, so it worth comparing how much you save if you book one flight into Vancouver, and a separate ticket to fly over to the Island. The downside is that if your flight into Vancouver is delayed, they may not help you out if you miss your next flight, but you might save substantial $$ if booked separately.

cheers and happy diving!

 

[nadwidny]

Other option is to fly into Calgary and then to Victoria. Westjet flys direct (May to October) from Newark to Calgary with direct connections to Victoria.

I agree with the others. Fly to the island and get your car there rather than deal with Vancouver traffic and the ferries.