Travel
Wherever you call home, and whatever your taste in travel, there’s a good way to get to Victoria.
JASNA has a discount code with Air Canada, providing a 5% discount on North American fares and 10% on international fares. To obtain the code, email jasnavictoria2022agm@gmail.com.
Victoria International Airport (airport code YYJ) is located 15 miles from downtown. Nonstop flights to Victoria are available from many Canadian cities and from Seattle. Travelers from the U.S. can connect easily through Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, or Vancouver. No ferry travel is required.
From YYJ, the easiest way to get downtown Victoria is to take a taxi. Yellow Cab is the official taxi company that services YYJ airport. It takes about 30-40 minutes to reach our conference hotels depending on traffic, and a one-way trip is roughly $60-70 CAD plus tip. Sharing and splitting the cost is economical if you’re traveling with a friend—or you can use Hootboard to make cab sharing arrangements. (See the last paragraph on this page for details.)
Alternatively, you can take a shuttle operated by Lucky To Go, which offers six departures per day to and from YYJ. At the time of writing, a one-way trip from YYJ to the Fairmont Empress was $31 CAD. Check this page to see if discount codes are available for your trip.
Vancouver International Airport (airport code YVR) has nonstop connections with more than a dozen U.S. cities. (Quick geography lesson: Vancouver is a city on the western coast of mainland Canada; Victoria is on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, which is 60 flight miles from the mainland.). Transfer from Vancouver International Airport to Victoria can be made by airplane to Victoria airport, by ferry, by bus (which rides on the ferry), by helicopter, or by seaplane landing in the harbour near the Empress Hotel. The harbour is an official airport (airport code YWH), with flights landing and departing throughout the day. It’s also possible to rent a car in Vancouver and drive on the ferry to Victoria if you want to explore more of Vancouver Island.
Connecting flights to Victoria Airport (YYJ) are available at YVR. However, if you’d prefer to take a ferry to the Island, the most convenient way is to take the BC Ferries Connector. You board a bus at Vancouver International Airport, which will take you to and onto the ferry. You’ll then enjoy a 1 hour-and-35-minute ferry ride to Swartz Bay, get back on the bus, and be taken right to Downtown Victoria. The final stop is directly across the street from the back of the Fairmont Empress hotel, and a half a block away from the DoubleTree Hilton and Marriott Inner Harbour. You can book one-way or return.
Tips for Booking Online with BC Ferries Connector:
On the BC Ferries Connector website, click on the “Schedules” button and scroll down to pick the 2022 YVR (Vancouver International Airport) route. As of this writing, the schedule for May 20, 2022 through October 3, 2022 includes four departures from YVR each day, as well as four departures from Victoria to YVR each day. Please note that the schedule changes to two departures per day, both ways, on October 4, 2022.
Click on “Buy Tickets” to make an online reservation, and make sure that you choose these in the fields when you book:
From: Vancouver
To: Victoria
Pick-up location: Richmond, Vancouver International Airport (YVR)
Drop-off location: Victoria - Bus Depot *This is the final and last stop.
You can also get either a helicopter or seaplane to Victoria Harbour from YVR.
Travel from Washington State
From Washington State, options for reaching Victoria include airplanes flying into Victoria International Airport (YYJ), seaplane service from Seattle to the harbour airport (YWH),
and ferry service from both Seattle (passengers only) and Port Angeles (cars and passengers).
Rideshare and More with Hootboard
Hootboard is a private online bulletin board where AGM registrants can post notices and peruse those by others to arrange ridesharing, hotel roommates, etc. You will need to create an account to view the Board. To do so, go to www.hootboard.com/jasnavictoria2022agm and request access. For more information, email Alison Brown, AGM Coordinator, at jasnavictoria2022agm@gmail.com.