Itinerary for Vancouver Island + WA & OR

jackieblack

Trying to plan an itinerary for next summer, travelling end July/beginning August for 3 weeks.

This is what we've come up with so far

Fly into Vancouver, 3 nights
collect car , ferry to Victoria, 3 or 4 nights
Tofino, 2 nights
Campbell River, 1 night
Port McNeill/Port Hardy, 2 nights
Courtenay/Comox, 1 night
Ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles, stay Port Angeles area 2 nights
Astoria (or nearby) 1 night
Portland 2 nights
Mt Rainier area 2 nights
Seattle (or just outside) 1 night
drive back to Vancouver for flight home

I would be grateful for any comments/suggestions/thoughts
Thank you

littlereddevil

I personally would spend more time in Vancouver and less in Vancouver Island

jackieblack

littlereddevil wrote: »

I personally would spend more time in Vancouver and less in Vancouver Island

Vancouver Island is the main focus of the trip, predominantly for the Orcas and other wildlife. We are not city people and, for us, Vancouver is somewhere to fly in & out of and to get acclimatised to the time difference before collecting the car and heading off.

laughingsheep

I've been over to the west coast of Canada and Vancouver Island a couple of times. Personally, I would bump a night in Victoria for another one in Tofino.
With respect to Campbell River, I guess you are just using it as a stop over on the way further north? We stayed there a couple of nights last year for a bear watching trip and found Campbell River really depressing. However, I would recommend the Coast Discovery Inn if you are just passing through, its cheaper than some of the fancy resorts in the area, is pretty central and is very clean. Down side is it's just a bit dated in places and the superior rooms don't have aircon.

jackieblack

laughingsheep wrote: »

I've been over to the west coast of Canada and Vancouver Island a couple of times. Personally, I would bump a night in Victoria for another one in Tofino.
With respect to Campbell River, I guess you are just using it as a stop over on the way further north? We stayed there a couple of nights last year for a bear watching trip and found Campbell River really depressing. However, I would recommend the Coast Discovery Inn if you are just passing through, its cheaper than some of the fancy resorts in the area, is pretty central and is very clean. Down side is it's just a bit dated in places and the superior rooms don't have aircon.

Thanks laughingsheep, yes campbell River just a stopover as it looks like Tofino to Port McNeil/Port Hardy might be a bit too far to do in a day. Thanks for the recommendation, I will check it out.
We were thinking maybe 3 days (4 nights) in Victoria becasue we are thinking 1 day whale watching, one day to do a boat trip around the Gulf Islands and a third day to explore Victoria itself, but are open to ideas.
If we only do 3 nights (two days) in Victoria we would have an extra day.
How would you spend the extra day in Tofino?

laughingsheep

Hmm, it's difficult, it's all so nice over there!

With respect to Victoria, I would suggest dropping the boat trip round the gulf islands, you'll get some great views coming over on the ferry from Vancouver, there are outside viewing decks on the boat, plus you'll also be out on a boat for the whale watching.

Tofino is very good for outdoors activities - we did an escorted kayaking trip out round the islands while we were there which was great. There is also good body boarding/surfing in the area with plenty of rental places in Tofino for boards and wetsuits. Pacific Rim Highway has some nice walking trails, mostly quite short leading down to the beach with informative signage along the trails about the plants, animals and general environment.

matty17r

When hubbie and I went to victoria for whale watching we looked around at all offices around the harbour. We chose a company called springtide and this was an excellent choice. They were not only the cheapest but our captain, chris, was great. Our trip lasted an hour and half longer than it should have because he appeared to love his job. After much deliberation we chose the speedboat type boat which was absolutely awesome and one of the best trips of our lives. Do not stay at the Howard Johnson Hotel on the outskirts of the town as this place desperately needs renovation. Great place for fish and chips in Victoria harbour was Barbies - great value and tasty.

ailuro2

We were really impressed with Seattle, lots to do you could easily justify a few days there...also why are you not going to Whistler? It's a wonderful place, tons of things to do and very picturesque too....

that's the trouble with that part of the world, so much to do and so little holiday time...:)

DavidHayton

jackieblack wrote: »

Trying to plan an itinerary for next summer, ....

I would be grateful for any comments/suggestions/thoughts
Thank you

Lucky you! Vancouver Island is delightful. The place is huge so you will have to be selective but whatever you do you will have a great time, and because you won't see everything you will have the perfect excuse to return

Some ideas ...
Instead of taking the ferry from Tsawwassen to Victoria, you could head up the Sunshine coast to Langdale to Powell River and take the ferry across to Courtenay/Comox. Then visit Victoria at the end of your visit to Vancouver Island. This will save a bit of backtracking on the island expressway.

Port Hardy is about 300 km north of Courtenay. I looked at going there last time we went to BC but decided that it was too far. We spent the time on the west coast of the island (and sushine coast on the mainland) and did not regret it.

The west coast is lovely. It is certainly remote! I could spend a week out there camping in the National Park.

Victoria is nice. There is lots to do as a tourist. It reminds me a bit of York or Oxford. But if you want to see non-tourist side of the city, you could take in a baseball game at the Royal Athletic Park. The team (Victoria seals) are not major league, but you would be in the heart of the "local" city. And it isn't expensive (certainly less than $20 for an evening game)

On your way back from the US, make sure that you stop off at the Peace Arch Park. I found the whole place rather surreal. The full might of US Immigration carries on in the middle of a state/provincial park. We have picniced there. The place is immaculate with what seemed like thousands of gardeners. Only later did I wonder whether they were in fact security officers keeping an eye on us to check that we went back to the country (Canada) from where we had come.

This will be a bit out of your way, but my children would never let us visit BC without going to Cultus Lake Waterpark (south of Chilliwack/Sardis on the transCanada highway)

Finally, since you are also going to the US, have you considered making Seattle your start/finish point. The flights to Seattle are usually cheaper than to Vancouver.

David

Bananabelly

I live in Vancouver at the moment. I will echo other comments and say that is a lot of time on the Island. Seattle is lovely and definitely worth more than one night. Also as someone else mentioned consider Whistler, especially for animals/outdoorsy stuff (you are fairly likely to see bears there). Also while Portland is really nice, it will pretty much take 2 days out of your itinerary just in travelling, so unless you really like Microbrews I would consider dropping Portland and giving yourself a bit more time in one of the other places.

jackieblack

laughingsheep wrote: »

Hmm, it's difficult, it's all so nice over there!

With respect to Victoria, I would suggest dropping the boat trip round the gulf islands, you'll get some great views coming over on the ferry from Vancouver, there are outside viewing decks on the boat, plus you'll also be out on a boat for the whale watching.

Tofino is very good for outdoors activities - we did an escorted kayaking trip out round the islands while we were there which was great. There is also good body boarding/surfing in the area with plenty of rental places in Tofino for boards and wetsuits. Pacific Rim Highway has some nice walking trails, mostly quite short leading down to the beach with informative signage along the trails about the plants, animals and general environment.

Thanks, laughingsheep, this is exactly the kind of help we need!
DD & DH love surfing and kayaking, so the extra day in Tofino sounds like winner.