This trip is really an American road trip but we didn’t want to completely ignore our friendly neighbors to the north. Plus, the adorable city of Victoria, British Columbia is just a 90 minute ferry ride from Washington!
This little side trip is a bit different from our normal adventures because we didn’t take the RV with us. For large vehicles the ferry charges by the foot so it would have cost us a couple hundred dollars to take the RV to Canada via ferry. We were only staying for five days so it just didn’t seem worth the trouble. Instead, we rented a studio apartment on airbnb.com. Our apartment was very close to downtown and the harbor, which was perfect.
We left the RV at the Rainbows End RV Park in Sequim, Washington and for anyone traveling that direction we highly recommend it. It was one of the best maintained parks we’ve seen in a while. The landscaping was gorgeous and the park is exceptionally dog friendly. The owner even offers a dog sitting service for visitors planning to take the ferry to Victoria.
The process of booking a ferry crossing was a first for both of us. In retrospect, we should have bought our tickets sooner but it all worked out in the end. Our plan was to take the Black Ball Ferry from Port Angeles, Washington over to Victoria. The ferry runs multiple times a day but the most convenient times (not too early and not too late) book quickly. We were only able to reserve a spot on the 9pm ferry. However, they said we could try to get on the noon ferry without a reservation but we would need to arrive extra early to get one of the non-reservable spots. The lady at the ferry terminal suggested 9am. We didn’t want to miss the view from the ferry by crossing at night so we showed up early to try and catch a ride at noon.