Victoria YYJ (YYJ) limo and car service

The island's airport, on the peninsula

Victoria International at Sidney is twenty-five kilometres north of the Inner Harbour on the Saanich Peninsula, thirty minutes on the Patricia Bay Highway, and it shares the peninsula's tip with the Swartz Bay ferry terminal five minutes beyond it, which makes the two arrival points one chauffeur's territory. Its ground transportation is organised around a single terminal: a taxi rank, ride-app zones, an airport bus, no rail link, and the pre-arranged commercial curb where a chauffeur booked in advance waits with your name on a phone and a fixed fare on the confirmation. This page is about that last option - where it is, how it works, what it costs to the addresses people book most, and how the ferry, the floatplane and the Clipper fit. The airport transfers page covers the service in general; the Victoria page covers the city.

The terminal, and how the pickup works

YYJ is a single terminal with the domestic and international gates on one concourse: the CBSA hall for the international arrivals - the seasonal sun and US flights - with kiosks and officers, then the international carousels; the domestic carousels for the Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Kelowna flights and the pre-cleared US arrivals; and one arrivals level with a short walk from any carousel to the doors. The pre-arranged limousine and car-service curb is on the arrivals level outside, signed separately from the taxi rank and the ride-app zone; the chauffeur's text names the door and the curb. With meet and greet added, the chauffeur is inside the hall with a name board. Sixty minutes of waiting are included from landing on an international arrival, thirty on a domestic or US one. The Victoria Airport Authority publishes the layout at victoriaairport.com.

Swartz Bay, the floatplanes and the Clipper

Swartz Bay is the BC Ferries terminal from Tsawwassen, five minutes beyond the airport, and a chauffeur booked with the sailing time meets foot passengers at the terminal's pickup after tracking the ferry's arrival on the live board; the crossing is ninety-five minutes and downtown is thirty-five minutes from the dock. The Inner Harbour takes the Harbour Air floatplanes from Vancouver and the Clipper ferry from Seattle, and the chauffeur meets both at the harbour's curb a minute from the Empress - the floatplane is the way many Vancouver travellers arrive and the chauffeur's booking form takes the flight. The three arrival points are one booking form and one standard.

Departures

The chauffeur is at your door at the time the engine suggests: three hours for international, two for domestic and US, plus the thirty-minute drive at that hour through Saanich's lights, plus a margin for a Friday afternoon or a rare snowfall. The drop is at the departures curb by the airline's check-in. For the ferry, the chauffeur drops foot passengers at Swartz Bay thirty minutes before the sailing.

Fixed fares from YYJ: the destinations people book most

Figures are approximate; the engine prices the exact address. There are no road tolls on the island; the Malahat's closures are read on DriveBC before every Cowichan or Nanaimo departure.

The vehicle for YYJ

The luggage decides it: an Executive Sedan takes three passengers with two large cases and two carry-ons; a family for a Sooke or a Tofino week with four cases needs the Luxury SUV; a conference group for the Victoria Conference Centre or a wedding party for a Cowichan vineyard is cheaper per seat in an Executive Sprinter. Winter tyres are on every vehicle from October for the Malahat. The fleet page has the capacities.

YYJ's other options, honestly

The airport bus runs to downtown hotels on a schedule and is the cheap option for a single traveller with a carry-on and time. The taxi rank is a licensed, metered service and the twenty-five kilometres make it a real fare, with a queue on a Friday evening and no flight tracking. The ride-app zone is on the airport with the fare estimated and subject to surge, and on the peninsula at midnight the apps can be thin. There is no rail link. The pre-arranged chauffeur is the option for the group, the luggage, Oak Bay, Sooke, the Cowichan Valley, the fixed time, the ferry connection and the company account; the comparison page sets them side by side.

Meet and greet at YYJ

Curbside pickup at the pre-arranged area is included. Meet and greet - the chauffeur inside the hall with a name board - is the add-on, and at YYJ it is the right choice for a first visit to the island, an elderly parent moving to the city's gentle climate, an unaccompanied minor, or a client the legislature's lobbyists are hosting.

Butchart Gardens and the peninsula from the airport

Butchart Gardens is twelve kilometres and eighteen minutes from the terminal, and the traveller landing at 10 am for a day in the city often goes straight to the gardens with the luggage in the SUV and the hotel afterwards - an hourly chauffeur booking from the curb. Sidney's waterfront five minutes away, the Saanich wineries and Brentwood Bay's marina are the same afternoon; the Destination Greater Victoria guide has the list.

The Cowichan Valley, Sooke and the island beyond

The Cowichan Valley's wineries and Duncan are an hour over the Malahat, Sooke's coast an hour west, Nanaimo an hour and forty minutes, Tofino four and a half hours over the Port Alberni summit: all city-to-city fixed fares with the return built in or the chauffeur's overnight quoted, and the British Columbia page carries the island's seasonal notes.

The legislature, the navy and the busy weeks

When the House sits, Monday's 8 am flights from Vancouver and Thursday's evening returns fill the curb with the province's government and the people who follow it, and the corporate account's YYJ transfer with the Empress or the Grand Pacific as the default drop is the capital's most-booked booking; CFB Esquimalt's visiting officers and the university's calendar fill the rest. The cruise ships' evening calls at Ogden Point from April to October and the Symphony Splash weekend in August are the summer's peaks.

Delays, diversions and the weather

The flight number is watched from departure. Victoria's weather is the island's - the country's mildest winters, rain from November to March, a snowfall or two that stops the city and the peninsula because it has no plows to speak of, and fog that sends the occasional aircraft to Vancouver, which brings a call from dispatch and, with the ferry as the alternative, a chauffeur at Swartz Bay when the traveller crosses by sea. The engine's suggested pickup for a winter departure adds the margin.

Airport hotels and the early flight

The Sidney Pier, the Best Western and the hotels at the airport's exit five minutes away are the answer to the 6 am Vancouver flight and the midnight arrival; the travel desk books the room.

Two things YYJ passengers ask the desk most

Airport or ferry or floatplane from Vancouver? The floatplane lands at the Inner Harbour a minute from the Empress; the ferry lands at Swartz Bay thirty-five minutes out with the car aboard if you brought one; the airport is thirty minutes out. The chauffeur meets all three; the booking tells us which. Is the Malahat open? DriveBC's daily answer, read before every Cowichan or Nanaimo departure, with the Mill Bay ferry from Brentwood Bay as the alternative. A third, asked every summer: the cruise ships' evening calls at Ogden Point book the city's hourly cars a month ahead.

A floatplane-and-ferry weekend, worked through

A Friday 3 pm Harbour Air floatplane from Vancouver lands at the Inner Harbour with a couple for a Cowichan Valley wedding weekend, two garment bags and a suitcase. The Executive Sedan was booked with the flight number - the floatplanes have them - and the chauffeur is at the harbour's curb a minute from the dock when the aircraft ties up; the Empress is a two-minute drive, but this couple is bound for a Cowichan inn and the Malahat is clear on DriveBC, so the sedan is over the mountain and at the inn by 4:30. On Sunday the couple leaves on the 5 pm ferry from Swartz Bay with the groom's family's car, and the chauffeur collects from the inn at 3:15 for the drop at the terminal thirty minutes before the sailing. One reservation, two legs, the fares fixed when the floatplane was booked.

The peninsula's own airport traffic

YYJ is a small airport with a big season: the summer's Vancouver and Calgary flights bring the island's visitors, the September move-in brings the University of Victoria's students through the curb with boxes, the legislature's session brings Monday's and Thursday's waves, and the cruise ships' evening calls at Ogden Point from April to October bring the hourly chauffeur's busiest evenings. The Patricia Bay Highway through Saanich's lights is the only road and it is slow at 4 pm; the corporate account profiles for the government-relations firms have the Empress or the Grand Pacific as the default drop and the Belleville Street curb as the day's first stop.

Sidney, Brentwood Bay and the airport's neighbours

Sidney's waterfront and its bookshops are five minutes from the terminal and the answer to an hour's wait for a ferry or a flight; Brentwood Bay's marina and the Butchart Gardens' summer fireworks on Saturday nights are twelve; the Saanich wineries and the Sea Cider farm are between them. A traveller with an afternoon before a flight books the hourly chauffeur from the hotel to the peninsula and to the terminal, and the British Columbia page covers the island beyond the peninsula.

Book a YYJ transfer