Gray Line Sightseeing Victoria

Positive experience: We purchased tickets to Butchart Gardens through Black Ball as part of our ferry fare. Grey Lines was very disorganized and didn’t know what tickets everyone needed and we were told different things by different people. The bus was to leave at 11:30 to get us to the gardens around noon with the only return bus at 2:30. It leaves 20 minutes late cutting our time short and the driver states that he’s even confused. Better to either drive yourself or try a taxi.

Positive experience: I think the cost is a bit high for how long the tour lasts, but Victoria isn't a very big city either. We visited historical sites and the driver was attentive and explained each place we visited very well. They are located in front of the parliament and accept credit cards.

Negative experience: Wish I could give it zero stars. Tour guide was harsh and targeted my children upon arrival about being silent during his commentary. I would understand if they had been a problem but they hadn't even said a word, only selected their seat! Our children are older and never a problem. Truthfully, you can hardly hear a word the guide says anyway. Maybe that's for the best. If you "hop off" you will not find another bus anytime soon to get back on. If you have rain, forget it, you will get rained on because they don't take into account they operate in a wet climate. After getting back on and sitting in the cold rain for 30 minutes with our kids we decided to just get off and scrap the rest of the tour. We've done Grayline in other cities and enjoyed it immensely. You will not have that experience in Victoria. Avoid.

Negative experience: The gardens were fine and worth a visit if you like that sort of thing, HOWEVER Grayline as a company were very poor. They cancelled our bus on the day, with no effort to contact us. Along with many others, we were left at the stand in Victoria where two youngsters were left to cope with us -no sign of any Grayline leadership or management to help with the situation. Buck up Grayline, why have you no SOP or protocol to cope with this?? Eventually the youngsters were given permission to organise taxis for us, but we had to organise return taxis ourselves, and pay. We were supposedly given a partial refund of 87 Canadian dollars but have not seen it. A frustrating day. PS Two hours is more than enough to see the gardens.

Negative experience: Booked the “sightseeing with Butchart Gardens” turns out to be a shuttle to Butchart Gardens, not a tour at all. The website offered NO direction to check in and was generally not helpful -the hotel staff were helpful in directing us to find the location (address on website takes you to the back of the hotel- very confusing). Start at 9:30, back by 1:30, only ever going to Butchart Gardens and through ChinaTown. Save your money, drive yourself to the gardens.

Fantastic experience: We were about to give a miss to this tour as we came from the free to visit nearby Legislative building when I decided to ask the young girls with a kiosk on the street if they have deals for the day only. Fortunately they did and the great price (a bit over half of what they normally ask) was a great incentive to join the bus about to depart: - the tour was simply great as we ended up to the Beach drive, on the eastern side of the town, which we could have easily missed if we were to travel using our own car, bearing in mind the narrated tour had lots of information about this amazing place: if I was not to love Europe above everything, probably this would be the second place on my list due to my love for wildlife - we also passed near Beacon Hill park, a stunning location, and not as busy as Regent's park or Hyde Park in London, UK, with amazingly friendly deer besides geese, ducks etc and gorgeous settings. More deer in the nearby cemetery and a deer with it's 2 young one stopping the bus as they crossed a road in this area, going to a house near the water!!! Loved that, besides the amazingly beautiful houses near this park - passing through China town and other locations, where the narrator detailed of some great restaurants to visit, we also passed through some great residential streets where people looked happy and friendly - no wonder very few left the tour and most returned to their cruises or downtown to explore more.

Negative experience: They left us, We were at the stop they drove by us, we walked a mile and a half back to our hotel.

Fantastic experience: I live in Kelowna and was accompanying my husband on a business trip in Victoria so I decided to do this tour while he was working. It was a beautiful sunny June day. The weather was great. I love that they offered blankets to help keep you warm as it gets windy by the water. And I like the fact that there are seat belts and half of the top is covered for wind and rain. The volume of the speaker was really good too. the staff were friendly right from the girl who I bought the ticket from in the visitor center named Adriana. She was very thorough in explaining where the good stops would be and circled it on the map for me, which I find very easy to navigate. Aaron was really funny and I like all the little extra tidbits of information that he offered. The other driver Michelle was also super super nice and sweet. The tour ended up being about 2 hours and I did it twice after I saw where I wanted to get off and they were punctual and on time as per the schedule. Great job guys and I will recommend it to friends coming to visit.

Negative experience: AVOID THESE BROKEN DOWN BUSES. Sweltering on a bus now with my 89 and 85 year old parents. Told the driver 4x air was not working. He finally pulled over and came upstairs and said, “ my lights show it is on, nothing I can do “. Went back down and continuing to drive. WE WANT OFF THIS SAUNA BUS !!!

Positive experience: The 3 star is not indicative of our driver Aaron. He was personable, and added a few little tips here and there. In addition, he adjusted the sound so we could hear better on the top level. I felt that overall the narration was not particularly enlightening. With the exception of a few snippets of information it was all surface level, repetitive, and not particularly informative. I know a little bit more than I did when embarking, but not enough to impress anyone. Having ridden several variations of hop on bus tours this one felt subpar. I would much rather have seen a smaller footprint on a pedicab tour and had more information.

Fantastic experience: Our driver, Ed, gave excellent advice ("Stay to the left as you tour the garden") and was very relatable and entertaining. Ed did an excellent job of describing local attractions and history stories and was a highlight of our first trip to Victoria!

Negative experience: Just use transit, you'll get better value.

Positive experience: Informative pre-recorded tour plus very nice "live" staff on bus. Great way to see the town. Not always clear when you can hop off, but the stops easy to identify. Lots of options and we used it to get around town for rest of day,

Fantastic experience: Good tour. Drivers courteous. Spoken, not recorded narrative. Old 1957 double decker bus was a kick. A little cramped, but fun.

Fantastic experience: Fun and informative bus tour. Great way to see the city. We loved being able to hop off to explore or eat and hop back on. Our bus driver was friendly and enjoyed his witty banter.

Negative experience: Super disappointed that they let me purchase tickets for a day that they weren't running. Then there was no communication or call back. Luckily they did at least refund. Purchased for my daughter's birthday and then had to scramble to make other arrangements after waiting at the bus stop.

Negative experience: Too expensive for what we got. Used hop off all over the world with much better quality and value

Negative experience: Very bad experience, avoid using Gray Line Victoria. We had booked the Butchart Gardens pickup and admission tour from the Empress hotel, for a specific time/date. When we turned up 15 minutes prior to the tour, we were told the bus would leave 1.5 hours later at 11am rather than the promised 9:30am departure. There had been no SMS text, phone call or email from Gray Line Victoria, despite booking this tour 2 weeks earlier. As we had very limited time in Victoria, it was not possible to take the 11am tour. We immediately sought a full refund. Since then, we have sent 4 emails to Gray Line Victoria, none have been acknowledged and certainly no agreement to a full refund. We are hundreds of dollars out of pocket. Never, never, never again will we travel with Gray Line. Very un-Canadian.

Fantastic experience: Pleasant and easy experience for seeing Victoria’s attractions

Positive experience: A nice little 90 minute tour around the Victoria town. You could rather go by yourself if you reserve well ahead for all the attractions.

Positive experience: The bus picked us up right outside our hotel and we rode it the full circuit. We had been to Victoria before but this gave us a chance to see more and learn more about the city. Since we got a late start we didn’t take advantage of the hop on and off piece but would do it again. One downside was that they did not allow for ADA electric scooters to be brought on board and that was limiting for a member in our party and another reason we just rode the bus all around. Also the bus is it continuous and when you get back to stop 1 there is an extended break before it starts up again.

Positive experience: Good frequency of buses and they are mostly on time.

Fantastic experience: 90 minutes narrated tour and it gives you perfect flavour of the city. Once you finish the whole tour, then continue to go each place and then hop on and off. If your guide is Tim, you are going to enjoy it even more.

Fantastic experience: Fun way to get a glimpse of the city and find things that interest you.

Fantastic experience: Very nice tour! I love the flexibility of being able to use it all day. With the 15 stops you can explore Victoria your way.

Fantastic experience: One of the best things to do in victoria

Fantastic experience: This was an awesome experience. Lots of things to see on this tour and you can stop and get off/on at many great locations. The bus was quite clean, the driver and staff were friendly and informative, and the narration was very well done. This is definitely something I would do again.

Fantastic experience: Great narrative, and very informative ride. Nice to be able to get on and off as desired. Safe driver! Such a fun way to see Victoria.

Fantastic experience: Fun and relaxing

Fantastic experience: Loved seeing Victoria this way!

Positive experience: Bit expensive. Every 40 minutes is ok. Think there should be more stops and more frequent. Also Chinatown market square esquimalt and more.

Fantastic experience: Entertaining and informative. And so beautiful. It gives you a good overview of one of the prettiest cities in the world. I saw a park that I went back to several times later. It is called Beacon Hill Park. Also the driver told some historical antidotes that gave some depth and brought to life some places we saw like the church made of redwood from California and about the First Nations people who lived in what is now Beacon Hill Park.

Positive experience: A very thorough look around this small capital city and its suburbs. Its perfectly good if you are an English speaker, but that is the only language. A full 85mins of sightseeing.

Positive experience: Bery enjoyable tour.

Fantastic experience: Best way to see the city. Friendly driver.

Positive experience: Hop on hop off. Only hits stops once per hour. If you miss it or get out of sync it is hard to get back on. We got to a stop five minutes early and found it had already been an left. About 20 of us left behind. That being said it was a good way to get the lay of the land on day one here. Not as good as similar services in New York for example.