Canada has been on the "to visit" list for a long time but being such a large country we were finding it difficult to decide what to concentrate on for a two week holiday. For many years Ian had fancied a trip on the Rocky Mountaineer Train, although I must admit to being less keen based on our experiences with Australia's Indian Pacific and the train journeys we did in Switzerland. So we considered combining a trip on the train with an Alaskan Cruise, to satisfy my wildlife viewing obsession, but then suddenly Ian went off the idea of the train completely and so we looked at Naturetrek who did a trip primarily to Vancouver Island for bear and whale watching. Mostly we'll be on Vancouver Island but we do go back to the mainland for the Great Bear Lodge.
Naturetrek were using Air Canada who don't get particularly good reviews and also if we booked our own flights with BA we'd have lounge access to make the Premium Economy trip more pleasant. Then we decided to add on a couple of days in Vancouver at the end of the tour so we could see the city, as apparently it's another of those lovely water cities like Cape Town and Sydney.
We’re flying out of Gatwick but back into Heathrow so we can’t leave the car but Cress and Bec have both kindly agreed to do the airport runs for us. The recently refurbished lounge at Gatwick was lovely and the 10 hour flight passed relatively quickly.
Flying over the Coastal Mountain Range which although looks quite high is considerably lower than the Rockies which are in eastern British Colombia.
Mount Baker which is actually in the US.
Our flight was scheduled to arrive about 2 hours before the Air Canada one and we debated for a while whether to make our own way to the hotel using the metro system but in the end we decided to hang around at the airport and wait. Granted we were waiting landside but, from what we saw, Vancouver Airport is probably one of the least inspiring airports for shopping and eating we have been to, but we managed to while away the time and then sat in the arrivals area which was actually quite entertaining. Firstly watching people waiting for their "loved ones" to arrive where we saw some rather odd characters, some clutching huge bouquets of flowers and others with a single bloom - one poor chap wearing denim dungarees and sporting a rather unkempt beard (think Grandpa Walton) waited for well over half an hour looking increasingly anxious and we never did see who he was meeting. There was a large TV screen filming people going through an automatic door except it wasn't the door which we could see opening into the arrivals area but one much earlier in the process and consequently it was a long wait from seeing people on the screen to seeing them in the flesh, but again relatively entertaining.
We spotted our local guide hovering around but decided against making ourselves known to him and having to make small talk until the others arrived. Good move as he wasn't the chattiest of people but eventually 6 of the group arrived with the UK leader and the final two are on the later BA flight and will meet us at the first hotel. We then had rather a lot of hanging around whilst one went off to collect the minibus and the other a hire car (quite why we have two vehicles I'm not sure) before a half hour or so drive to Tsawwassen and our overnight hotel. In the evening some of us went to the restaurant next door for a meal and got acquainted with both the huge portion sizes and the huge tips expected.