Limo service in Victoria

The island capital

Victoria is the province's capital and Vancouver Island's city, and its chauffeur bookings are shaped by the water around it: the airport is twenty-five kilometres north on the Saanich Peninsula, the ferry from the mainland lands at Swartz Bay a few kilometres beyond it, the Inner Harbour's floatplanes and the Clipper from Seattle land downtown, and the cruise ships dock at Ogden Point. Every arrival is a transfer and most of them are the airport's or the ferry's. Add the legislature's calendar, the naval base at Esquimalt, the university, the retirees who make the city the country's gentlest, and the tourists who fill the Empress and Butchart Gardens from May to September, and you have the market. We run the full service across Victoria, Saanich, Sidney, Sooke and the Cowichan Valley: the YYJ transfers, the ferry pickups, the corporate account, the hourly chauffeur for the gardens and the wineries, and the weddings.

YYJ, Swartz Bay and the Inner Harbour

Victoria International (YYJ) at Sidney is twenty-five kilometres north of downtown on the Patricia Bay Highway, thirty minutes off-peak and forty in the afternoon rush through Saanich. It is a single terminal with the Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and seasonal sun flights, a short walk from any carousel to the curb; the pre-arranged limousine pickup is at the arrivals level, the chauffeur texts the curb and the plate before landing, meet and greet inside the hall is the add-on, and thirty minutes of waiting are included on a domestic arrival and sixty on an international one. The airport's site at victoriaairport.com publishes the layout; the Victoria airport page has the full guide.

Swartz Bay is the BC Ferries terminal from Tsawwassen, five minutes beyond the airport and thirty-five from downtown, and a chauffeur booked with the sailing time meets foot passengers at the terminal's pickup; the crossing is ninety-five minutes and the BC Ferries schedule is what the desk works from. The Inner Harbour takes the Harbour Air floatplanes from Vancouver and the Clipper from Seattle, and the chauffeur meets both at the harbour's curb, a minute from the Empress.

Downtown, the harbour and the neighbourhoods

The Inner Harbour holds the Empress, the legislature and the museum; downtown's Government Street and the old town's Chinatown - the country's oldest - the restaurants and the shops; James Bay to the south and Fairfield's Dallas Road waterfront; Oak Bay's village and the Victoria Golf Club; Saanich's neighbourhoods and the university at Gordon Head; Esquimalt's naval base across the harbour; Sidney by the airport; Sooke to the west for the coast and the Sooke Harbour House; the Cowichan Valley's wineries an hour north over the Malahat. Every address prices on the engine, and the British Columbia page covers the province beyond.

Butchart Gardens, the wineries and the visitor's day

Butchart Gardens on the Saanich Peninsula is twenty minutes from downtown and the reason half the city's visitors come; the Cowichan Valley's wineries and the Merridale cidery are an hour north over the Malahat; Sooke's coast and the Juan de Fuca trailheads an hour west; the Craigdarroch Castle and the Abkhazi Garden in town. An hourly chauffeur for the day - the gardens in the morning, the Sidney waterfront for lunch, a winery in the afternoon, the harbour for dinner - is the visitor's booking, and the SUV takes the day's purchases. The Destination Greater Victoria guide has the list; the chauffeur has the order.

The legislature, the navy and the corporate account

The provincial government's session calendar fills the airport and the harbour's floatplanes on Monday mornings and Thursday evenings with members, staff and the people who follow them, and the corporate account books the YYJ transfer and the hourly chauffeur for the day between the legislature and the ministries. CFB Esquimalt - the Pacific fleet's base - books the visiting officers and the contractors; the University of Victoria and Royal Roads book the September move-in and the convocations; the Royal Jubilee and Victoria General hospitals book the medical day; the tech companies downtown book the Vancouver visitor's day. One monthly invoice.

The cruise ships at Ogden Point

From April to October the Alaska ships call at Ogden Point on their way north, usually for an evening, and the transfer from the pier to the Empress for tea, to Butchart Gardens for the sunset, or around the city for the evening is the season's most-booked hourly chauffeur booking; the pier's pre-arranged pickup is at the terminal's commercial curb and the ship's schedule is on the booking. Passengers who join or leave a ship in Victoria book the YYJ or the Swartz Bay transfer.

Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre, the Royal and the venues

The Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre for the Royals and the concerts; the Royal Theatre and the McPherson Playhouse for the symphony and the plays; the Victoria Conference Centre beside the Empress for the conferences; Royal Athletic Park for the summer's baseball and the Rifflandia festival in September; the Inner Harbour for the Canada Day fireworks and the Symphony Splash in August, when the harbour's streets close. The nights out page covers the pickup arrangements, and the trade shows page the conference programme.

Traffic, weather and the honest drive times

The Patricia Bay Highway from the airport and the ferry is the road, and it is slow through Saanich's lights at 4 pm; the Malahat over the mountain to the Cowichan Valley closes in snow and for accidents and is the island's one real bottleneck; the downtown grid is small and its parking is scarce. The weather is the island's: the country's mildest winters, rain from November to March, a snowfall or two that stops the city because it has no plows to speak of, and summers that are dry and full. DriveBC is what dispatch reads. The honest figures: YYJ to the Inner Harbour in thirty minutes at 6 am and forty at 4 pm; Swartz Bay to downtown in thirty-five; downtown to Butchart in twenty.

Hotels and the drop-off

The Fairmont Empress on the harbour, the Hotel Grand Pacific and the Delta Ocean Pointe across it, the Magnolia and the Oswego downtown, the Oak Bay Beach Hotel, the Brentwood Bay Resort by Butchart, the Sooke Harbour House, and the Sidney Pier and the Best Western by the airport for the 6 am flight: the chauffeurs know each forecourt, and the travel desk books the room.

What a limo costs in Victoria

Fixed by the addresses and the vehicle class, shown before you book. YYJ to the Inner Harbour in an Executive Sedan is the most-booked transfer and the Swartz Bay pickup is the same run; the Cowichan Valley is a fixed fare over the Malahat; the gardens-and-wineries day is priced by the hour with a minimum. No surge on a cruise evening, no meter, no gratuity added. The fleet page has the capacities.

Weddings at the Empress and on the coast

The Empress, the legislature's lawns for the photographs, Hatley Castle at Royal Roads, the Butchart Gardens' Sunken Garden, the Oak Bay Beach Hotel, the Sooke Harbour House and the Cowichan Valley's vineyards: Victoria's weddings run from April to October and the summer Saturdays book a year ahead. The plan is the wedding page's, with the guests' arrivals through YYJ, Swartz Bay and the harbour as the piece the desk manages most.

Two questions Victoria visitors ask the desk

Airport or floatplane from Vancouver? The floatplane lands at the Inner Harbour a minute from the Empress and the chauffeur meets it there; the airport is thirty minutes out. The chauffeur is at either; the flight number tells us which. Can we get to Tofino? Yes, as a long city-to-city fixed fare - four and a half hours over the Malahat and the Port Alberni summit - with the return built in or the chauffeur's overnight quoted. A third, asked every summer: the Symphony Splash evening in August closes the harbour's streets and the pickup point outside the closures is on the confirmation.

A ferry-and-flight weekend, worked through

A Friday 4 pm sailing from Tsawwassen for a couple walking on with two roller bags, bound for the Empress; the chauffeur, booked with the sailing time, watches the ferry's arrival on BC Ferries' live board and is at Swartz Bay's foot-passenger pickup at 5:35 when the boat docks. The Patricia Bay Highway at 5:45 on a Friday is slow through Saanich; the Empress is reached at 6:25 and the fare was fixed when the sailing was booked. On Sunday the couple fly home from YYJ at 7 pm and the same reservation's second leg collects them from the Empress at 5:15, thirty minutes to the terminal and the two hours the airline asks. Had they taken the floatplane in, the chauffeur would have met them at the Inner Harbour's curb a minute from the hotel, and the fare would have been smaller.

The peninsula's day

Sidney's waterfront and its bookshops, the Butchart Gardens at their quietest before 10 am, the Saanich wineries and the Sea Cider farm, Brentwood Bay's marina and the Butchart's summer fireworks on Saturday nights in July and August: the Saanich Peninsula between the airport and the city is a day in itself and an hourly chauffeur does it with the car waiting at each stop. The British Columbia page covers the island beyond, and DriveBC the Malahat's closures for the Cowichan Valley's day.

The legislature's week

When the House sits, Monday's floatplanes and the 8 am flights from Vancouver land the province's government and the people who follow it, and Thursday evening takes them home; the corporate account profiles for the government-relations firms and the associations have the Empress or the Grand Pacific as the default drop and the legislature's Belleville Street curb as the day's first stop. A Victoria hourly chauffeur day is a small city's day - the legislature, a ministry in the James Bay blocks, lunch at the harbour, a 3 pm at the university - and the Premium Sedan is a quiet office between them.

Two more things the desk is asked

Whether the Malahat is open is the island's daily question in winter, and the answer is DriveBC's; a Cowichan Valley wedding in January is booked with the alternative - the Mill Bay ferry from Brentwood Bay - on the plan. And whether a chauffeur can meet a private yacht at the Inner Harbour's marinas: yes, at the harbour's curb, with the marina named on the booking.

Book a Victoria chauffeur