Californian visiting Vancouver
 

Sorry, this is sort of unrelated to Lexus. I have a question regarding cross the border. Is there a "good" time to cross the border, meaning that less people and less wait time? The reason i've asked is i haven't crossed the border after 911 and not sure what the situation is.

Secondly, I will be staying in Richmond and planning to visit Victoria. Any suggestions on the BC Ferry? Should i take my car across and is ticket usually available w/o prior reservation?

Thanks for the advise and look forward to driving up to BC for the first time....

time of day to cross the border ... late at night ... like 9pm ... most people dont want to sit in a line after dark because once u cross the border its still like another hour to richmond ... so, you may or may not want to do that yourself in the dark ... NAV or turn by turn directions should be a must

as for the ferry and visiting victoria, bc ferries have a web site ... i can count the number of times ive visited victoria on one hand, but i think theres a drive to the city on the other end ... and the last thing i would want to do somewhere 'away' is try and figure out the transit system ... from what i understand you can take the ferry w.o a reservation but you may not get on that particular boat

Bordering, if you've reserved hotel, see when's the latest check-in, then choose if you want to go early in the morning or at night. Also, if you're spending the night in seattle and you can go online, go http://www.borderlineups.com/webcams.php?CamID=5

If not, see if there's radios like our (vancouver's) news 1130, which talks about traffic and border every 10 mins.

For the ferry, best to reserve for the return trip, the go trip if it's not holiday and you're early, like 7am, you'll easily get in, the return though, you'll have to worry about that since if you return like at 7, you missed it since there's too much cars, your next boat's 9, and then next will be at the morning, you don't want that:rolleyes:

FYI
#1 drive or you'll just be visiting BCferries, but victoria, unless you bus or something, which I'd say.... Drive.
#2 you can buy maps on the ferry
#3 don't go to Buchert Gardens, waste of time and money unless you're into flowers and gardening, you'll also walking the hel out of yourself.
#4 don't eat at the resturants in China town, if you want good food, come back into Richmond, or Vancouver.
#5 once you're off the ferry, drive basically to the end, that's Victoria.

borders: i would say any day that's not a weekend is fine, southbound tends to be busy fri nite, weekend mornings and northbound kinda opposite (ie sunday afternoon-night) mid-day i doubt would be much of a problem especially on a weekday... if u come up on a long weekend though come up on the friday afternoon...

ferry: www.bcferries.com - as noted above, you can make reservations ($15?) but the catch is you have to be there at least 15 mins or is it 30 mins before the sailing, if you're not, then you lose the reservation and guaranteed spot on the ferry... if it's not a long weekend then you should be ok without a reservation just try and arrive a bit earlier and definitely DRIVE to victoria, it's not cheap but if you don't drive then make sure u know what busses you're catching and what times they come/go or maybe try and join a victoria tour...

Thanks for all the suggestions and they are definitely very helpful..hopefully, i will see some of you guys around the area...if you see a white GS430 with clublexus sticker and california plate during the first week of july, thats probably me...:D

During the week you won't need to make reservastions for the ferry however, here's a neet trick for travel pretty much any time: Call BC Ferries and tell them that your car is low and you MUST go on the lower level (I seriously had to do this with my canned prelude). Its like making a reservation but without the $15, you get a wider truck lane on the ferry (no door dings) and you are pretty much guaranteed to get on. Weekends can be a little iffy though no matter what.

Ferry charge last time I went was about $50 CDN including one person and about $10-12 for every other person in the car after that.

When you get to Swartz bay terminal in Sydney (just outside of Victoria) be prepared for a 20 - 25 minute drive to downtown Victoria. Do the speed limit the entire way or you will get a nice departing gift in the form of a ticket.

Points of interest in Victoria:
1) The Provincial Museum. This is a must see!
2) The wax museum
3) Miniature world
4) Craigderroch Castle
5) Fort Rod Hill military base in Esquimalt
6) Royal Rhodes University and Museum (where X-Men was filmed)
7) Butchart Gardens (if you like flowers and crap)
8) Downtown (bring a roll of pennies to throw at the hookers! Hehe...j/k...sorta.)
9) Empress Hotel (Have brunch there...its pretty cool)
10) Night Clubs? Not too sure of the names but whatever is downtown

Have fiun! Let me know if you need any help. :thumbup:

be sure to visit some dim sum places in vancouver. still some really nice restaurants up there after people calmed down from the whole 97/hk thing. large portions and relatively inexpensive dining.

ooo u gotta go to Kirin for Chinese food ... love that place

and oh i've got a bunch of places you should go for different stuff ... what are you into? i can make some :thumbup: suggestions for ya

+1 for Kirin

http://www.kirinrestaurant.com/english/home.htm

a bit pricey though

Wow, I just found this thread. Thanks for the great suggestions. I'm also visiting BC from San Francisco,CA this coming weekend (08/11/07-08/15/07) but flying into YVR so I won't have my IS3 to drive around. :cry:
I'm also staying in Richmond. I'm very jazzed about this trip. Plus, San Francisco is having the Taste of Lexus right before we leave for BC so it's going to be a great weekend for me. Thanks again!