Victoria And Butchart Gardens
Victoria and Butchart Gardens
This full day Butchart Gardens tour from Victoria is one of the most popular excursions, as it visits the provincial capital and the world-renowned gardens in just one day. With plenty of free time in downtown Victoria and at Butchart Gardens, this will be a day you will never forget.
Setting out from the city, your award winning guide will give you a rundown on what your day holds in store. Your mini coach will be driven to the ferry landing (approximately 50 minutes from downtown Vancouver), where it will drive right onto the ferry for the 90 minute cruise over to Vancouver Island. During your time onboard, enjoy amenities such as full restaurant service, gift shops, or video games for the kids. Mostly, you'll be walking around the deck, eyes on the water searching for orcas, eagles, or seals, and glancing up at the beautiful scenery as the ship winds its way through the Southern Gulf Islands to dock at Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island.
Victoria, once a small fort, grew from the Gold Rush and then as the seat of provincial governmental power. The Inner Harbour is a legacy to one of Canada's most notable architects, Francis Rattenbury, as the skyline is dominated by two of his most famous works: the Parliament Buildings and The Empress Hotel. After your guide gives you an orientation tour of the downtown, enjoy 3 hours of free time to explore this quaint city by the sea, have some lunch on your own, and take in one of the varied local attractions.
After meeting back at a designated time and place in downtown Victoria, you will enjoy a 30-minute pastoral drive through the countryside. Arrive at a garden that leaves even the most avid horticulturalists in awe. Spread across 55 acres, the Butchart Gardens are truly a sight to be seen. You will find spectacular views as you stroll along meandering paths and expansive lawns. From the exquisite Sunken Garden to the charming Rose Garden, this show garden still maintains the gracious traditions of earlier times and boasts all the modern amenities to make your time there comfortable and enjoyable. Don't forget your camera. Time at the gardens is approximately 2 hours.
From the gardens, it is a short, twenty-minute, ride back to the BC Ferries terminal and a 1 hour 30 minute ferry ride back to the mainland. On the return crossing you can enjoy the restaurant facilities onboard the ferry or grab a nap in the lounge before being driven from the ferry terminal back to Vancouver and your hotel.
Please Note: Luggage can be accommodated on this tour if prior notice is provided. Please indicate if you will have luggage with you by checking the appropriate box above.
- Gardens, Foliage, and Nature
Shore Excursions Group was created with one goal in mind: to provide exceptional travel experiences to cruise passengers in the ports they visit around the world. To accomplish this, we have compiled an exceptional array of tours delivered by local experts with decades of experience serving travelers and delivering excellent tours. Our owners and management team are comprised of seasoned travel industry executives who leverage their considerable experience to deliver memories of a lifetime.
We are experts in providing exceptional shore excursions. We understand that in today's fast paced world, vacations have become an increasingly important way to relax, reconnect with family and friends, and experience new and interesting places. With this in mind, we provide the highest quality tours by performing extensive research, and detailed reviews. While other companies also offer excursions, we strongly believe our expertise and approach set us apart. The large cruise lines sell shore excursions - typically in very large groups visiting high traffic sites. We focus on smaller groups visiting more interesting and authentic locations using more personalized local operators. While the cruise lines are experts in delivering cruises, we are experts in delivering shore excursions.
Our Approach
We believe quality service is not only highly valued by customers, but ultimately leads to better experiences and higher satisfaction. Unlike the cruise lines and other tour companies that rely almost entirely on websites, we encourage customers to call us. We want to invest our time answering your questions, providing input, and selecting the excursions that best meet your needs.
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Our goal is to provide customers a wide array of exciting, appealing, and enriching tours. For those customers who prefer to travel in smaller groups with more personalized service, we offer a wide variety of small group tours around the world. These tours generally range in size from 2-12 people compared to larger tours which can number up to 50 people. While exploring the destinations and ports on this website, feel free to search for these "Small Group Tours". For those customers interested in private tours, we offer many outstanding excursions that allow you to travel with your party alone and, in many cases, to fully customize your tour. Search for "Private Tours" if you are interested in this experience. Our "Scenic" tours provide up close and personal access to some of the most spectacular natural environments on Earth from majestic glaciers in Alaska to spectacular reefs in the Caribbean. Our "Cultural" tours allow customers to experience local customs, entertainment and culinary delights ranging from tribal dances in Alaska to an outstanding local meal in Santorini, Greece. Our "Active" tours offer a multitude of exciting and adventurous ways to experience our destinations. Our customers can kayak the turquoise waters of the Caribbean, hike to a spectacular waterfall in Hawaii, or bicycle through quaint villages in France. Our "City" tours allow travelers to see the highlights of great cities around the world with unique insights provided by our expert tour guides.
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In our experience, exceptional travel experiences are almost always delivered by exceptional people. With that in mind, we utilize a comprehensive approach to select and employ the leading tour guides and tour providers around the globe. We hold our people to very high standards which we measure by our comprehensive Quality Control process and, most importantly, by our customer feedback, which we will actively seek from each of our customers.
Our Owners
Shore Excursions Group is owned by seasoned travel executives possessing extensive experience across many sectors within the travel industry.
Bradford J. Miller
Mr. Miller is the former Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer for Abercrombie & Kent, the World's leading luxury travel company. In that role, Mr. Miller was responsible for contributing to Abercrombie & Kent's international growth through the development and acquisition of tour products and travel experiences around the world with a specific focus on cruising and land based experiences. Prior to joining Abercrombie & Kent, Mr. Miller held a variety of executive positions with Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises for more than a decade. These positions included Vice President of Guest Sales & Service, Vice President of Brand Development, and Vice President of Onboard Revenue (which included shore excursions). Mr. Miller also led Celebrity Expeditions, a collection of outstanding and unique tours around the World.
Michael Bonner
Mr. Bonner has over a decade of experience working in the cruise industry in a variety of roles for both Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and Viking River Cruises. Most recently, Mr. Bonner was the Chief Operating Officer for The Scholar Ship, a Royal Caribbean program aimed at providing college students onboard educational programs in conjunction with enriching shore excursions around the world. Mr. Bonner also helped co-manage Viking River Cruises U.S. Operations, and he ran the corporate, strategic, and deployment planning functions at Royal Caribbean. While at Royal Caribbean, Mr. Bonner was responsible for forming Royal Celebrity Tours, Royal Caribbean's land-based tour operation in Alaska, which takes cruise passengers on multiple day tours through the interior of Alaska either before or after their cruises. Prior to working at Royal Caribbean, Mr. Bonner was a consultant for Booz Allen & Hamilton.
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