Victoria, on Vancouver Island, is blessed with 4 separate ferry systems.
Three of those systems bring international travellers from Washington State, and one system delivers ferry travelling visitors to Victoria from the BC mainland in Vancouver.
A quick ferry service breakdown shows:
1) Perhaps the most popular ferry service for International travellers to Vancouver Island is the high speed, passenger-only Clipper ferry service based in Seattle.
With daily, year-round service from downtown Seattle to downtown Victoria, a round trip can be made in a day.
Departing from Elliot Bay early each morning, this ferry service takes only 2-3/4 hours to travel through the Salish sea to deliver its passengers into Victorias’ Inner Harbour at 10:45.
The Seattle ferry service increases from one round-trip per day in the winter, to 2 round-trips per day, in the summer – see on site for departure times, costs & reservations.
One can achieve significant savings by combining a ferry booking with a hotel reservation. The package price is guaranteed to provide a lower price than if the ferry & hotel are booked separately.
It is important to note that because of the popularity of this ferry service, reservations both from the Seattle side & the Victoria side, are mandatory as the sailings often sell out well in advance. See www.ferrytravel.com or call 1-800-686-0446 for package information & best pricing.
2) Daily, year-round service from Washington is also provided on the MV Coho operated by Blackball Transportation.
This traditional passenger-vehicle ferry sails daily from Port Angeles to downtown Victoria.
The service sees round trip sailings increasing from 1 trip per day in the winter, to 3x per day in the summer and on major holidays.
3) Washington State Ferries provide a seasonal passenger-vehicle service from Anacortes WA to Sidney on Vancouver Island during the summer months. Sidney is approximately 30 minutes from downtown Victoria and is very close to the world famous Butchart Gardens.
For this reason, a number of international travellers seek passage on this ferry.
4) Lastly, the largest ferry system delivering passengers to Victoria, is BC Ferries.
BC Ferries operate passenger-vehicle ferries with daily sailings between Vancouvers’ Tsawwassen terminal to Victoria’s Swartz Bay terminal.
The ferries sail every 2 hours from 7am through 9pm year-round & sailing increases hourly, during the summer months.
Sidney is approximately 30 minutes from downtown Victoria.