Limo and chauffeur service across British Columbia

Mountains, water and the roads between them

British Columbia books chauffeurs for its geography: the airport on an island, the city on a peninsula, the capital across a strait, the wine valley over a mountain pass and the ski resort up a coast highway. Vancouver, Victoria and Kelowna have their own pages; Whistler, the Fraser Valley, Nanaimo, Kamloops, Prince George and every other address in the province price on the same engine to the same standard. This page is the rest of the map: the airports, the highways and their weather, the ferries, the corridors, the sectors, the occasions and the provincial rules - including the one about winter tyres on the mountain highways that visitors most often do not know.

The airports

Vancouver International with its domestic and international halls and its South Terminal is the province's gateway and has its own guide; Victoria at Sidney has its own; Kelowna handles the Okanagan's growing traffic; Abbotsford the Fraser Valley's low-cost flights; Nanaimo, Comox, Kamloops, Prince George, Cranbrook, Castlegar, Penticton and Terrace the regions; and the Harbour Air floatplanes connect Vancouver's harbour with Victoria's, Nanaimo's and the islands'. Every one is on the airports page and on the engine.

The highways, and the winter-tyre rule

The Sea-to-Sky Highway 99 from Horseshoe Bay to Whistler and Pemberton; the Trans-Canada Highway 1 through the Fraser Valley, Hope and the Fraser Canyon; the Coquihalla Highway 5 from Hope to Kamloops, the fastest road to the Interior and the most weather-affected; Highway 3 through the Crowsnest to the Okanagan and the Kootenays; Highway 97 the length of the Okanagan; the Malahat on Highway 1 north of Victoria. British Columbia requires winter tyres or chains on signed sections of most of these highways from October 1 to April 30 - a legal requirement the Ministry of Transportation enforces - and every vehicle in the fleet runs them. DriveBC publishes the closures, the avalanche-control schedules and the webcams, and dispatch reads it before every mountain departure; a closed pass is a phone call before the pickup, not after.

The corridors

Figures are approximate; the engine prices the exact address. There are no road tolls in British Columbia; the BC Ferries fare is added at cost when the vehicle sails.

The ferries

BC Ferries is part of the province's road network and part of the chauffeur's: Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay for Victoria and the Gulf Islands, Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo and the Sunshine Coast, and the Inside Passage for the far north. A chauffeured transfer to the Island is booked either with a chauffeur at each end - the mainland car to the terminal, the Island car from it, priced as two fixed fares - or with the vehicle aboard for a group or a family with luggage, the ferry fare added at cost; the desk recommends which by the party and the sailing, and the Victoria page covers the Island end.

Whistler and the Okanagan

Whistler's airport-to-resort transfer up the Sea-to-Sky is the booking the province is known for and the Vancouver airport page covers it; the Okanagan's wine tours by the hour, its lakeside vineyard weddings and its ski transfers to Big White and Silver Star are the Kelowna page's; Sun Peaks from Kamloops, Revelstoke and Kicking Horse from the Trans-Canada, and Fernie and Kimberley in the Kootenays are city-to-city fixed fares with the return built in and the winter tyres the law requires.

The sectors that book the corporate account

The port and the shipping companies, the film and television industry in Vancouver's studios, the tech companies downtown and in Kelowna, the mining and forestry head offices, the provincial government in Victoria, the universities from UBC to UVic, the health authorities, and the Asia-Pacific board meetings that make Vancouver a gateway city: the corporate account's one monthly invoice covers YVR on Monday, the legislature on Tuesday and the Okanagan client's wine afternoon on Friday.

The occasions

Stanley Park and the waterfront weddings, the Fraser Valley barns, the Okanagan vineyards, the Whistler weekends and the Empress in Victoria; the June proms across the province's districts; the Canucks, the Lions, the Whitecaps and the Rockets; the Celebration of Light, the PNE, the film festival, the Symphony Splash and the cruise season's evenings: the wedding, prom, sporting events and nights out pages cover each.

The rules a passenger might want to know

Chauffeurs hold the province's Class 4 licence for taxis, limousines and small buses and the vehicles carry commercial passenger insurance through ICBC; the Passenger Transportation Board licenses the operators and ride-app pickups at YVR are limited to licensed providers. Winter tyres or chains are required on signed mountain highways from October 1 to April 30. Child restraints are required by the Motor Vehicle Act until the child is nine or 145 centimetres, and the chauffeur fits the seat at no charge when it is noted at booking. The drinking age is nineteen and alcohol in a vehicle is permitted only in a licensed limousine with a partition, for passengers of age.

What a limo costs in British Columbia

Fixed by the addresses and the vehicle class, shown before you book. YVR to downtown Vancouver in an Executive Sedan is the province's most-booked transfer; Whistler and the corridors are fixed fares with the return built in; the wine day and the wedding are priced by the hour with a minimum. The ferry fare is added at cost when the vehicle sails. No surge on a cruise morning, no meter, no gratuity added. The fleet page has the capacities.

Cross-border from British Columbia

The Peace Arch and the Pacific Highway crossings at Blaine to Bellingham and Seattle, the Aldergrove and Abbotsford-Sumas crossings for the Fraser Valley, and the Osoyoos crossing to Washington's wine country: the cross-border service runs to Seattle, Sea-Tac, the Pier 91 cruise terminal and Portland on our own cars with chauffeurs who read the CBP wait times before choosing the lane.

Two questions BC travellers ask the desk

Is the Coquihalla open? DriveBC's daily answer from October to April, read before every Interior departure; the Trans-Canada through the canyon is the slower alternative. Chauffeur at each end of the ferry, or the car aboard? For two travellers with roller bags, two chauffeurs; for a family with a week's luggage or a group, the car aboard with the fare at cost; the desk recommends by the party. A third, asked every May: the cruise season's YVR-to-pier mornings are booked a month ahead.

The British Columbia year, month by month

Booking notes by vehicle class in British Columbia

The Executive Sedan is the YVR-to-downtown car and the Victoria and Kelowna airport car; the Premium Sedan is the Burrard Street and legislature choice; the Luxury SUV is the Whistler, Big White and Okanagan vehicle with the skis or the wine and the one to book for any mountain highway between October and April; the Executive Sprinter carries the wedding party, the ski house, the cruise group and the wine tour; the Stretch Limousine is the prom and wedding car in the Lower Mainland and the only vehicle in which the province's alcohol rule permits a glass; the Minicoach is the corporate shuttle and the Okanagan tour vehicle for a group of twenty. The fleet page has the capacities and the booking page prices each class against the address.

Three British Columbia itineraries the desk builds most often

The YVR-to-Whistler ski transfer. Pickup at the international arrivals with the flight tracked, the Sea-to-Sky in two hours in an SUV with the skis and the winter tyres the law requires, and the return at the week's end - one fixed fare each way with the return built in, and the Vancouver airport page covers the airport end.

The cruise-morning transfer with the pre-cruise night. YVR pickup the day before, the downtown hotel, the chauffeur by the hour for Stanley Park and Granville Island, and the transfer to Canada Place or Ballantyne in the morning with the luggage - one plan, one invoice, and the Vancouver page has the piers.

The Kelowna wine day. Kelowna airport or a lakeside hotel pickup, the Naramata Bench or the Westside in an hour, five wineries by the hour with the chauffeur waiting and the cases in the back, dinner in Penticton or Kelowna, and the return - the hourly rate for the day, and the Kelowna page has the benches.

The British Columbia numbers a traveller might want

British Columbia is home to roughly five and a half million people and its coastline runs twenty-five thousand kilometres; Vancouver International handled more than twenty-five million passengers in its last full year and Victoria's close to two million; BC Ferries carries more than twenty million passengers a year on the routes the chauffeurs meet; and the province's winter-tyre rule on signed highways has applied from October 1 to April 30 since 2014. DriveBC, the Vancouver Airport Authority and Destination BC publish the figures.

Book a chauffeur in British Columbia