Day 1 - Arrive in Vancouver
Upon arrival in Vancouver pick-up your rental car at the airport and drive to your downtown hotel. The remainder of the day is at leisure to enjoy this beautiful city.
Moderate: Overnight Residence Inn by Marriott Downtown Vancouver (includes Buffet Breakfast)
Superior: Overnight Fairmont Waterfront Centre Hotel - Fairmont room
Deluxe: Overnight Fairmont Waterfront Centre Hotel - Fairmont Gold Harbourview (includes deluxe continental breakfast and afternoon hors d'oeuvres)
Day 2 - Vancouver to Victoria
This morning you will travel to Vancouver Island aboard a large & comfortable BC Ferry, a passenger/vehicle ferry, for a spectacular 90 minute cruise through the Gulf Islands 'marine wonderland'. Upon arrival at Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island, you will travel to Victoria. Enroute, we suggest a stop at the world famous Butchart Gardens (not included). At the gardens, you will see the Sunken Garden, the Japanese and Italian Gardens, the English Rose Garden and the magnificent Ross Fountain, all linked by spacious lawns, streams and lily ponds ' 50 acres of fragrance and beauty. Afterwards, continue your journey to Victoria, BC's Capital City. The remainder of the day you will have time to explore the Victoria area. Admission to the Royal B.C. Museum is included.
Moderate: Overnight Chateau Victoria
Superior: Overnight Fairmont Empress Hotel - Fairmont room
Deluxe: Overnight Fairmont Empress Hotel - Fairmont Gold Harbourview (includes deluxe continental breakfast and afternoon hors d'oeuvres)
Day 3 - Victoria to Tofino
Today, you will travel north along the scenic Island Highway to Parksville. Enroute you can visit the Cowichan Native Cultural Centre in Duncan or stroll by the world-famous outdoor gallery of murals and sculptures revealing the history of the culturally-rich artist's community of Chemainus. Continue your journey and drive through Nanaimo and continue to Coombs Country Market, famous for the goats grazing on its roof. Travel west through Cathedral Grove, home of 800 year old Douglas Fir trees. You may also wish to visit Port Alberni and take the Alberni Railway which takes visitors along the Log Train Trail to the McLean Mill National Historic Site. Today's 5-6 hour journey will end in the small resort community of Tofino, nestled on the most western part of Vancouver Island. Tofino is a relaxed, casual place, totally given to unwinding and getting back to nature. Walk for hours along the world-famous sands of Long Beach and the Pacific Rim National Park, past secret coves and through old-growth forests.
Moderate: Overnight Best Western Tin Wis Resort
Superior: Overnight Long Beach Lodge - Oceanview room (includes Continental Buffet Breakfast)
Deluxe: Overnight Long Beach Lodge - Deluxe Beachfront (includes Continental Buffet Breakfast)
Day 4 - Whale Watching Tour
Today you have the possibility of viewing the majestic beauty of the gray whale on a 3 hour whale watching excursion by Zodiac or Hard Hull boat, our choice. The remainder of the day is at leisure to explore the region. You may wish to walk along famed Long Beach, with its miles of pristine sandy beach and pounding surf, or explore the rain forest on a selection of well-groomed trails. Or you may want to explore the quaint fishing villages of Tofino and nearby Ucluelet.
Moderate: Overnight Best Western Tin Wis Resort
Superior: Overnight Long Beach Lodge - Oceanview room (includes Continental Buffet Breakfast)
Deluxe: Overnight Long Beach Lodge - Deluxe Beachfront (includes Continental Buffet Breakfast)
Day 5 - Tofino to Campbell River
Traveling east towards Parksville, you may wish to visit Cathedral River Grove, where you can take a self-guided interpretive walk through an old-growth forest. Upon reaching the Island Highway you will drive north to Campbell River, the 'Salmon Fishing Capital of the World'.
Moderate: Overnight Heron's Landing Hotel (Includes Breakfast)
Superior: Overnight Heron's Landing Hotel* (Includes Breakfast)
Deluxe: Overnight Heron's Landing Hotel* (Includes Breakfast)
*Heron's Landing Hotel is a moderate hotel
Day 6 - Vancouver Island Whale Watching Adventure
This morning you will depart on a Vancouver Island Whale Watching adventure from your hotel. Vancouver Island whale watching is a West Coast adventure that you will never forget. Travel to Johnstone Strait for over five hours of BC whale watching, including a stop at Port Neville for a break and a hearty meal. Your Vancouver Island whale watching tour gets you up close and personal with these majestic orcas. You'll get so close, you can actually hear the whales exhale and feel their salty spray on your skin. BC whale watching is one of the world's most thrilling travel experiences ' a rare chance to observe Killer Whales in a stunningly beautiful setting.
Note: The Whale Watching Adventure operates from Early July to Mid September. If you are travelling outside these dates, you tour will be substituted with a 3 hour Wildlife Adventure Tour. The Wildlife Adventure Tour operates from April 11 to October 7, 2008. If neither tour is operating, it will be removed from your package.
Moderate: Overnight Heron's Landing Hotel (Includes Breakfast)
Superior: Overnight Heron's Landing Hotel* (Includes Breakfast)
Deluxe: Overnight Heron's Landing Hotel* (Includes Breakfast)
*Heron's Landing Hotel is a moderate hotel
Day 7 - Campbell River to Knight Inlet / Grizzly Bear Viewing
This morning you will have a short drive to the floatplane base. Located 80 kilometres, or 50 air miles, north of Campbell River, British Columbia, is a wild and remote area of the Pacific Northwest known as Knight Inlet. You will be flown on a scheduled flight from Campbell River to the Knight Inlet Lodge, a floating lodge moored in a sheltered bay in Knight Inlet on B.C.'s mainland. As the longest fjord on the B.C. coast, Knight Inlet offers visitors spectacular scenery set against a backdrop of dramatic mountain peaks plunging into the Pacific Ocean. Variegated hues of blues and greens seamlessly blend forest, ocean and sky. It can be a place of immense silence in the calm of the temperate rainforest and of immense power in the face of the many thundering glacier-fed waterfalls.
Glendale Cove is home to one of the largest concentrations of grizzly (brown) bears in British Columbia. It is not uncommon for there to be up to 50 bears within 10 kilometres of the lodge in the peak fall season, when the salmon are returning to the river. Although they are abundant in the fall, it is not the only season that grizzly bears can be found in Glendale Cove. Starting in late April the bears return to the estuary from winter dens and start the year feeding on the sedges, succulents, grasses and barnacles that abound in our estuary. This luxuriant spring growth provides the basic nutritional needs for the bears which draws them from the mountains down to the estuary. This is the time to see, at close proximity, the tiny cubs emerge with their ever-cautious mothers. In the summer, the berry crop is very heavy and this helps keeps the bears in the general area. Knight Inlet does not get the high numbers of the spring and late summer/fall season viewing, but usually see some bears every day.
This afternoon you will be taken on an excursion to view the grizzly bears. You will view the bears differently in the different seasons. In the spring, set out in boats so that you can get close to the shore (50 metres) and get a good view of the bears feeding - still remaining far enough away as to not disturb them. Early summer program continues on the water as well, but if the opportunity arises there may be a chance to use the tree stands. By mid-August move to the platforms at the spawning channel although continuing to use the tree and river stands. In all of the viewing programs guest safety is of utmost importance. Knight Inlet strives to see the bears in their natural environment without having a negative impact on them. As well as bear viewing, we also offer a number of other tours. Our marine wildlife tour is offered in all of the seasons that we operate but it changes greatly as the seasons change. You will enjoy lunch & dinner today at Knight Inlet Lodge.
Moderate: Overnight Knight Inlet Lodge
Superior: Overnight Knight Inlet Lodge*
Deluxe: Overnight Knight Inlet Lodge*
*Knight Inlet Lodge is a moderate lodge
Day 8 - Knight Inlet to Vancouver
Breakfast in included today. Mid-morning you will depart the lodge by Vancouver floatplane and return to Campbell River. You will then continue the driving portion of your tour, passing through Parksville, a popular seaside town. Here you can enjoy the wide, sandy beach and browse through the shops. A 30 minute drive south will bring you to Nanaimo. Here you will sail on B.C. Ferries on a 90 minute cruise to Horseshoe Bay. You will then have a 30 minute drive to downtown Vancouver.
Moderate: Overnight Residence Inn by Marriott Downtown Vancouver (includes Buffet Breakfast)
Superior: Overnight Fairmont Waterfront Centre Hotel - Fairmont room
Deluxe: Overnight Fairmont Waterfront Centre Hotel - Fairmont Gold Harbourview (includes deluxe continental breakfast and afternoon hors d'oeuvres)
Day 9 -Tour ends
Transfer to the Vancouver International Airport where you will drop off your car rental in time to board your return flight home.
PACKAGE INCLUDES:
- 8 nights accommodation, any mandatory service charges and room tax
- 9 day full size car rental including unlimited mileage, LDW, GST, personal accident insurance, personal effects coverage, provincial tax, PVRT, additional authorized operator fee
- 3 hour gray whale watching by Zodiac or Hard Hull boat in Tofino
- 5.5 hour Vancouver Island Whale Watching Tour in Campbell River including lunch (SUBSTITUTIONS: Tour operates from Jul 1 – Mid Sep, if tour is not operating it will be substituted with a 3 hour Wildlife Adventure Cruise - no lunch from Apr 11 to Oct 7, 2008. If neither tour is operating, it will be removed from your package)
- Grizzly bear viewing at Knight Inlet includes: Roundtrip floatplane between Campbell River & Knight Inlet Lodge, transfers to/from hotel and floatplane dock, welcome wildlife orientation, all meals & snacks including wine with dinner, evening interpretive programs, bear viewing tour, scenic boat ride of Glendale Cove, Knight Inlet sightseeing cruise (weather permitting, no substitutes), use of kayaks on organized estuary tours, rain gear if required, BC back Country permit fee, First Nations user fee
- Royal B.C. Museum (Permanent Collection) in Victoria
- Personalized documentation package
PACKAGE DOES NOT INCLUDE:
- Car Rental: refueling service charge, baby seats, toll highway charges, additional driver taxes, and credit card security deposit
- Meals not listed as included
- BC Ferry tolls
- Gratuities
- Goods and Services tax (GST)
- Trip Cancellation Insurance (Insurance can be purchased from your Vacation Specialist, ask for more details)