Ferry advice for July 15-19

[shawnm]

Greetings from Florida! My husband and I plan to be in BC during July. I am finding the BC ferries website a little difficult to understand and also have some general ?'s about reservations.

Here are the routes we plan to take, approx. times and dates, 2 adults with a rental car:

Horseshoe Bay -> Langdale afternoon of Sunday, July 15
Earls Cove -> Saltery Bay mid-day on Monday, July 16

Saltery Bay -> Earls Cove morning of Thursday, July 19
Langdale -> Horseshoe Bay afternoon of Thursday, July 19

Do you pay once, and that gets you both directions, or is the fare each way? Website is unclear.

How crowded will these routes be on the indicated days? In other words, do we need to make reservations?

I find the reservation thing a bit puzzling - usually if you purchase something in advance you sometimes get a break on price, or at best just pre-pay the regular fare, but from what I can tell, it costs an extra $15 per leg to reserve in advance, is that right?

Thanks in advance!

Shawn

[Neil]

You can only reserve on the Horseshoe Bay - Langdale route.

As for fares, when you pay at Horseshoe Bay, that gets you through both routes to Saltery Bay. Likewise, returning south, you pay for both crossings at Saltery Bay. There is no break for pre-paying.

July is pretty busy; you could run into overloads at any time. At least all four terminals are pretty pleasant places to wait a while at.

[Dane]

The ferries will be packed. Bring some cold drinks in a cooler, and some entertaining magazines... don't forget a positive attidue

It is an awesome trip, but in the summer Horseshoe Bay - Langdale is absolutely insane with traffic.

[Mike C]

Yes shawn, it costs an extra $15 to reserve. But trust me, it's well worth it.

And yes, we've all screamed at least once at the not-user-friendly BC Ferries website, specifically at the RBI leg of the site. At least I have.

Your ferries will be the newly-upgraded Queen of Surrey both ways on the Langdale run, and the historical Queen of Tsawwassen both ways on the Saltery Bay run.

Happy travelling!

[shawnm]

Thank you all for your help. I have booked a reservation for the Sunday crossing, which I think will probably be the most crowded.

Looking forward to seeing your part of the country......quite a change from our flat topography and hot humid summertime in Florida!