For day 8 on our northwest trip, we planned a trip across the Juan de Fuca Strait to Victoria, British Columbia and then on up to the Butchart Gardens. These gardens are world famous and Sue has wanted to see them for a long time, so this was a golden opportunity to us to do just that. I spent some time researching the easiest way for us to do that from Port Angeles, and it turned out to be pretty easy, although it did take a full day and required a ferry ride across the straits to Victoria, B.C, and then a bus ride to the gardens. Here’s what we did.
My research showed that the Black Ball Coho Ferry went directly from Port Angeles to Victoria, B.C. That solved how to get to Victoria. Since this is a car and foot ferry, I wondered if I should take our car across so we could drive the gardens. I wasn’t sure how we would get there otherwise. Taking the car across is pretty expensive. The cost would have been $67 plus $18 for Sue, for a total of about $83. And that was one way, so it would be about $163 total. Then we had the hassle of driving up to the gardens. It’s not that big of a deal these days with smart phones that have GPS and map apps that will navigate you right there. But I thought there might be an easier way.
I looked at taking a city bus to the gardens. That is also possible, but would take longer. I then found that there are several tour buses that take you directly to the Butchart Gardens, and return you back to Victoria at the end of your garden visit. Most of of them leave from the Empress Hotel which is an easy 5 minute walk from the ferry port. The tour buses sell you the tranportation plus the garden admissions, so that works out quite nicely. You can buy them ahead of time (see xyz or xyz) or you can buy a ticket right in front of the Black Ball Ferry port in Victoria or in front of the Empress hotel.
In our case, I found that Black Ball Ferry had a package that included everything: the fare for the ferry, the fare for the tour bus up to the gardens from Victoria, and admissions into the gardens. That worked well for us, but you wouldn’t need to do that. You can purchase each separately (Ferry Fare, Tour Bus Fare with Butchart Garden Admissions).
We got an early start to catch the 8:15 am ferry from Port Angeles, Washington to Victoria, B.C. The crossing took over an hour and a half plus Customs so it was a bit of a journey, but pretty easy to do. There were plenty of places to sit and read (like Sue did) or explore the ship (like I did). We got a kick out of the Bing Crosby jingle they played on the MV Coho (which is the ship we took across) advertising the Black Ball Ferry.
We got to Victoria, went through customs, walked a block to the beautiful Empress Hotel and caught our express tour bus up to Butchart Gardens. We had lunch first at the Blue Poppy Restaurant and then started exploring the gardens. They are simply beautiful and the history is fascinating. Jennie Buchart’s husband owned a cement factory and had a large limestone quarry on their residential property. Jennie wanted to do something about the ugly hole so she hired a landscape designer to help her plan a garden in the hole where the quarry was. That garden has been around sine 1904 and it’s amazing to see what the Sunken Garden has grown into since then. There are plantings everywhere with huge trees. You walk down some stairs into a huge bowl whose walls are covered with plantings and trees. There is a large mound in the center you can climb and the plantings are lush and full. The Ross Fountain is at the far end and down in a lower quarry area. It is seen from far away and has dancing waters. The bus driver said you could sit there for four hours before you saw a repeated pattern.
The first garden to go in on the property is close to the rear of the home and is the Japanese garden. We loved this because it has a full canopy and is totally shaded, with lots of water features and meditative corners. The whole garden was quite peaceful as it was intended to be. The Rose Garden was lovely, although we were too early for a really good show (early June). Many shrubs and climbers were blooming but only a few hybrid teas. They all had buds but weren’t open yet. The ones that were open were gorgeous. There is also a Bog Garden that was cool and an Italian garden very nice also.
We saw everything, rode the bus back tired from walking and hung out on the waterfront for a couple hours. There are a number of return bus times, so you can pick which one works best for you. We had a choice of waiting for awhile at the gardens or in Victoria. We decided to head back to Victoria and sat at the waterfront watching the harbor while waiting for our ferry ride back.
A couple of notes about the time table for the day. We caught 7:30 ferry from Port Angeles, got into Victoria, and through customs by about 9:45. We caught a 10am tour bus from the Empress Hotel to the gardens, and arrived there and into the gardens by about 11:00. I had been told by the Black Ball Ferry marketing folks that we should plan on catching the 7:30 pm ferry back to Port Angeles, leaving plenty of time to see the Gardens. That’s definitely true, but that also left us with too much time. While the gardens are beautiful, you can see them all in 3-4 hours pretty easily. We had lunch as soon as we got there, just after 11, and still got done easily in a total of 4 1/2 hours with lunch. We spent some time at the end in the gift shop and getting some ice cream. If you are pressed for time, it’s possible to catch the bus at about 2:00 and get back to the ferry terminal just in time to catch the 3:00 ferry back to Port Angeles. Otherwise, plan on some leisure time either at the gardens or in the area around the ferry terminal to kill time while you are waiting for the ferry to come back for the 7:30 return trip.
The Butchart Gardens gift shop has seeds for purchase that can be brought back into the United States. Let the cashier know you are taking them back to the states, and they’ll package them appropriately for declaring them at the US Customs. It wasn’t a problem at all. Just make sure not to break the seal that they put on the package and show the Customs official the package when you present your passport for admittance to the United States.
If you enjoy gardens, flowers, and trees, make sure that you put Butchart Gardens on your list. If you have any questions about how to visit, please let us know in the comments below.
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