We're from the Victoria area on Vancouver Island. You will be okay driving around the island however kind of big for sightseeing and parking. Maybe consider renting a car. In Victoria there is a campground and marina on the inner harbour called West Bay Marine RV Park. From there you can take one of the tiny tourist boats that will take you to several stops in the harbour. Once you are at the causeway in front of the Empress Hotel you can pretty much walk to everything in the downtown area. Lots of great waterfront dining. Catch a horse drawn carriage tour and or double decker bus to the Butchart Gardens. Another great RV Park is on the Saanich Peninsula closer to Butchart Gardens called Oceanside RV Park. We lived there for 4 months before hitting the road. As Trailerking said the BC Ferries are expensive. Just cost me $126 yesterday for my 26' truck one way! If your coming from the U.S. it's much cheaper to take the Anacortes Ferry in Washington State. Docks in beautiful Sidney which is a must see too. Another option is the Black Ball Ferry from Port Angeles to downtown Victoria. If you have more questions feel free to ask.

-- Edited by dianneandsteve on Sunday 31st of May 2015 12:32:01 PM

I'm a Vancouver Island girl.

My old stomping grounds is 7 miles outside of the village of Qualicum Beach. (About 50 miles north of Nanaimo.)
Yeah, the boat is expensive from Horseshoe Bay (just north of Vancouver.) to Departure Bay, Nanaimo.
You can look in the B.C. ferry's website for prices.

You won't have any problem driving your monster (to me) motorhome on the Island.

I just wouldn't advise driving the old dirt back mountain logging roads with a 40 footer.

I'll tell you one really enchanting place to go.
'Mountainaire Campground'.
http://www.mountainairervpark.com/
It's just south of Nanaimo.
I lived in the campground there for 3 years.
There's a winding forest path to a secluded swimming hole on the Nanaimo River from there.

If you like nature, that's the place to be.

There's also an old abandoned coal mine that nobody knows about. - A lot of old remnants from a bygone era.

Millie

Agree with Steve that Ferry fees are expensive. When we've looked into fees in the past the Black Ball ferry out of Port Angeles WA into Victoria was slightly cheaper, but had a more limited schedule. We've parked our rig on the Washington side and opted to take the ferry as walk on passengers as well. Victoria is a very easy city to walk around in and lots of hotels in the downtown area if you want to stay overnight for a few nights. We had considered it for this summer, the cost of the ferry fees going to and from the island would easily pay for a few nights lodging.

We vacationed several summers ago, taking the ferry from Anacortes to the Island, camped in a provincial park close to Victoria, and then went to Pacific Rim National Park on the far West side of Vancouver. At the time we had a mini van and a small, very light 18 ft TT and we were commenting that we wouldn't really want to drive anything large than that as we crossed the interior portion of the island. Pacific Rim was beautiful, but the road getting there was very windy.

There is tons to see and do on the Island Willow not just near Victoria and ferry landing areas either from the USA or Vancouver side. Some like to go to Port Alberni/Tofino and other areas out there (we've done that twice in our 37+ft RV) = windy road in many parts but for us was worth it and manageable if you are planning on taking out the boston whaler boats for whale and other sightings we have found, and interesting little stops enroute. Yes there is whale watching in other areas like out of Victoria, CR & more, but you'll find different parts have different common sightings of types of marine life etc.

Then there is up to Campbell River, also the Comox Valley and much more. The ferry for sure is very expensive we found especially from Vancouver side over to Nanaimo (cheaper from USA we've been told by others in the know), whilst we did a few days once and a couple weeks another time, we agree with Bill Joyce and we wouldn't go over again unless we can spend at minimum a month preferably much longer in the good weather to slowly explore the island, but when working and having family from Europe visit we did what we had to with shorter stays.

Steve and Dianne (above replied to you) and Ray of LoveYourRV.com are FT's originating from the island, so they are excellent sources of wonderful advice on how to get the best bang for your buck as well as being most helpful. In fact Dianne's comments about the Sidney market on her website I've just logged in our notes section to be sure to visit on that day (thanks Dianne for the tip!).

Enjoy and take your time if you can. You are visiting a truly wonderful part of Canada, and we can't wait for when we are able to spend much longer on our next trip over there.

SD

Thanks Millie!

I did a quick calculation on the Washington state ferry website, for our size Motorhome & car with 2 seniors - estimate roundtrip Anacortes to Sydney was $370.

Barb

Here's the link for the B.C. ferry rates, Willow...
(Use the zoom-in function to see the prices clearly.)
http://www.bcferries.com/files/fares/pdf_format/BCF_Fares.pdf
Service Between HORSESHOE BAY, (just north of Vancouver) to DEPARTURE BAY (Nanaimo, Vancouver Island.)
One Way: $16.90 per person.
Vehicle: (Up to 20 feet) $55.40
Extra length rate over 20 feet: $6.35 per foot.
For your 40 footer, with 2 persons, would cost a total of $216.20 (one way)

$199.30 (one person.)
http://www.bcferries.com/fares
This is Horseshoe Bay (just north of Vancouver)

 Crossing Time: 1 hour 40 minutes

Millie

-- Edited by Millie on Tuesday 2nd of June 2015 05:38:06 AM