British Columbia-Useful Information
We took our trip to British Columbia in late May & early June of 2025. Our kids were 13, 11 & 6 at the time.
The best parts:
I saw a whale come up for air while driving along the Howe Sound!
The aqua color of the water on some hikes.
The waterfalls!
I wish I had known:
It took us a minute to figure out how to change our rental car from miles per hour to kilometers per hour. We should have looked that up before we crossed the border from the USA to Canada.
Transportation:
We had to make sure that our car insurance covered driving in Canada (we’re from the US). We also let the rental car company know that we would be going into Canada since we rented in Seattle.
For us; flying into Seattle was much cheaper than flying to Vancouver. So we rented a car there and drove up from Seattle. Our border crossing was at Lynden, WA and was quick and simple. We were there pretty early in the morning. Driving in Canada, for us, was not much different than driving in the US.
We used the public transportation in Vancouver the day we went into Vancouver. They had lots set up to park and pay a small fee to leave the car there the whole day. The train came right to our lot and we were able to easily buy tickets and use the train and the bus that day. The lot we chose was on the outskirts of Vancouver and was pretty far from where we were going. So we did wind up spending almost an hour on public transportation to get to where we wanted and to get back. Their buses and trains were easy to use and Google maps worked great for telling us which ones to get on.
We took a ferry from Vancouver to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island and from Victoria to Port Angeles, WA. We didn’t know we weren’t allowed to stay in the car. That wasn’t a big deal; but I would have had a bag ready with things to do for the kids on the first crossing if I had known. We had to arrive for the ferry to Nanaimo an hour early. To go from Victoria to Port Angeles we had to be there 90 minutes early to go through border crossing things. That was also not bad. The ferries had all the cars line up in lanes. They didn’t board until very close to time to leave. I think it was only about 15 minutes before. It was very efficient. There were bathrooms on the ferries. Both that we went on had indoor seating; but you could also walk out onto the deck. I didn’t look on our ferry to Nanaimo, but on our ferry to Port Angeles there was an area to order snacks and drinks.
When we were in British Columbia, idling cars was not allowed anywhere we went. It wasn’t an issue for us at all. Just something to know.
We also used an Aquabus and a Harbour Ferry on our journey. They’re kind of like a bus on the water to go from one location to another.
Tips:
We made sure to sign up for travel insurance if anything medical needed to be taken care of.
When we travel with kids too young to know our phone numbers; we like to get ID bracelets for them with their full name, our city, state and country, our names and phone numbers and any medical information on them. I usually order from ROAD iD, but I think there are other companies too.
Laundry:
Laundry soap sheets are something I always take on a trip. They dissolve easily in a sink or tub of water if you need to hand wash a few things, like swim suits or hiking clothes that got really dirty because your youngest loves muddy puddles…lol.
Shopping:
One of my favorite things to do is to go to local grocery stores to get our snacks. It is so fun to try foods that are popular where we are. It is always a good idea to take reusable bags when traveling. Some places will have you buy a reusable bag if you do not have one.
Random Things:
I loved that anywhere we went out to eat, the waiter would bring the credit card machine to the table. In the US they typically take your card and walk away with it. Just have in mind how much you think the tip should be because they’ll be standing there waiting to take the machine back and we typically entered the tip on the machine.
Everywhere we went was super eco friendly! If we got take out there would be wooden silverware. When we’d see public trash cans, there would usually be a recycling can and a compost can next to it. One of the places we went even had rainwater toilets.
There were slugs on quite a few hikes. My boys thought they were cool. My daughter did not.
There were so many pretty flowering trees when we were there at the end of May/early June. There were also palm trees and pretty roses.
Most things were in English & French.
Bathrooms are called washrooms.
It is amazing how well they maintain trails where we went in BC. They were almost all gravel trails that we did. They weren’t always well marked at intersections, but we knew we were on a trail most of the time.
Our ‘Want to try these’ list:
This is a list of things we had written down to try while in British Columbia from research I had done. We didn’t get to try all of them; but maybe we can finish the list if we go back in the future.
Tim Horton’s-Yes
Poutine-Yes
Nanaimo Bars-Yes
Butter Tarts
Beaver Tails-Yes
Tourtière
Bannock
Salmon-Yes
Lobster Rolls
Saskatoon Berry Pie
Maple Taffy
Bring home Maple Syrup-Yes