An overview of our bear watching trip in Vancouver, BC, Canada

 

The purpose of our trip was to see the wild bears fishing for salmon.  We went in September.  We decided to take a full week to explore the Vancouver area.  We decided not to rent a car in the city, because we heard that the public transportation was good and that parking was a challenge.  We took a Lyft from the airport to our hotel, Westin Bayshore, on the harbor.  The location was great.  We walked around Stanley park as soon as we got there.

The next day, we walked about 20 minutes to Canada Place to take the free shuttle to Capilano Bridge.  Across the street, we caught a city bus to Grouse Mountain.  (I wrote about both places on this blog.). We took a Lyft to Vij's for dinner.  

The next day, we went to the Museum of Anthropology.  We planned to take more buses, but travel by bus is slow.  We really enjoyed the Museum and walked around the very beautiful campus of the University of British Columbia.  We walked the many, many steps down to Wrecks Beach, but it is tiny.  We took a Lyft over to Granville Island for a fun afternoon and then we walked to Salmon n' Bannock for a memorable dinner.

On Tuesday, we took the Hullo Ferry to Nanaimo.  This ferry is passenger only and leaves from Canada Place.  We walked over with our bags.  We bought tickets online, so there was no need to go to the office.  The ferry departs from next to the seaplane terminal.  If you are on the upper level, there is an elevator down to the water level.

The ride was about 1-1/4 hours and was very smooth and pleasant.  We had reserved a car through Enterprise and called ahead for the shuttle.  The shuttle was waiting when we got off the ferry.  We drove about 1-1/2 hours to the town of Campbell River.  We stopped at the beach along the way and  then checked into the Comfort Inn.  We walked to the mall next door and did laundry.  We also found the office of the Campbell River Whale Watching and Adventure Tours, which was floating in the marina.

The Comfort Inn staff was very helpful.  We needed to check in for bear watching at 6:30 AM.  The staff had a bag breakfast ready at 6 AM.  We ate and then walked across the street to the marina.  I wrote a blog post about our wonderful time watching bears.  We were back around 4 PM and walked up to the Sessions Tap Room for a very good dinner.

In the morning, we had about a 3-hour drive to Victoria.  We stopped in Courtenay for lunch and to visit the museum.  When we arrived in Victoria, we check into the Fairmont Empress and then visited the Provincial Legislature, ate fish tacos at Red Fish Blue Fish, took a harbor tour and had dinner at the Empress.

The next day, we went to Butchart Gardens and then drove back to Nanaimo to return the car.  Enterprise gave us a $25 credit to take a taxi back to the Hullo Ferry to return to Vancouver.  We had dinner at Yasma.

It was a very easy trip.  Everything is well organized and the Canadians are extremely nice.  We had only good meals and we enjoyed every aspect of the trip.  I definitely want to go back.  I would go back to Campbell River for an excursion that focuses on the indigenous peoples of the Islands.  The Homalco offer this half-day trip, but only seasonally.  What a beautiful place!