Vancouver Island is about a 3-4hr journey from downtown Vancouver, via ferry and coach.

The ferry to the island is around 90mins long and we were very lucky with the weather, clear blue skies and a warm sun.

The ferry makes its path through the gulf islands on to Vancouver Island, it’s a really great trip in itself.

We even saw some dolphins in the water but I wasn’t quick enough to capture them!

The journey from the ferry to Victoria is only 40mins and it’s a very pretty town although bigger than we had anticipated, but with a very relaxed vibe.

Just around the coastline from downtown Victoria is Fisherman’s wharf, a tourist location in the harbour.

There are lots of houseboats and restaurants on the water here and it’s a nice place to visit.

You can get the water taxi’s from downtown to take you should you want to avoid the walk…

We hired a car and drove out into the island to see more of what was on offer. The island is fairly big, about 280miles long and 60miles wide.

So if you want to see more of the island you need more time and probably need to stay over enroute and take a ferry from the other end of the island back.

But there is lots to see, our first stop was Botanical Beach, about 2-3hrs from Victoria.

There are lots of fairly wild and native beaches along the coast which are well worth a look.

My wife directed us to Fairy Lake nearby, where a lone bonsai tree has sprouted on this tree trunk,

The views across some of the lakes are stunning.

We checked out the potholes in Sooke but left it too late to get into the pools.

The next day we headed to the Malahat Skywalk which was excellent.

They have built this innovative structure from where you have the most amazing views.

Our final stop was Butchart Gardens which is not too far from Victoria airport.

I can’t say this was my first choice visit but I really did enjoy it. The gardens are so well laid out and maintained it’s hard not to be impressed.

Vancouver Island was great, we could easily have spent more days here, but with limited time you have to make choices!

Next we head back to Vancouver city for a few days.