Charging in Victoria

[Lyon]

My turn,

A large percentage of government buildings here have chargers ( municipal and provincial ), the downtown parkades operated by the City (not robins) have chargers and really cheep parking rates with the first hour free (Parking not charging). A lot of the premium hotels have chargers.

The transit system is great if you prefer.

Food wise I have a few suggestions

capalano- really great atmosphere and amazing Chef
brasorie lecole- no reservation first come French restaurant. This place has a line up before opening and is worth the wait. Once they take your info, they will text your cell phone, no need to wait around.
Roast in the Victoria Public Market- best lunch in town
Cafe Fantastico- best coffee
Shine Cafe- love their breakfast
blue fox cafe- always has a line up for breakfast.
we have local Brewers (Phillips and Vancouver island) cideries ( sea cider and marridale) and wineries. All worth trying.


And of course if you need a personal chauffeur, I would gladly drive you around in your Model X ��

Thanks for the info, I'm compiling quite the list of places to charge and places to eat. Both my Model X and my belly will be full and happy!

Also, we're finally picking the Model X up on Monday morning so it'all be available for our trip!

 

[Lyon]

Okay folks, good news! The Model X came on Monday and has managed not to break down in the last couple of days. As a result it will be taking us to Portland, OR tomorrow and then to Victoria, BC on Saturday! Thanks for the help with everything.

Send me a message if you've got any interest in seeing it and will be there next week.

 

[MikeBur]

Interested in knowing how your trip went?

 

[Lyon]

Interested in knowing how your trip went?

It went really well! On the way up we charged overnight at my parents' condo in Portand and then Supercharged in Centralia before driving up to Port Angeles. The only charging hiccup was getting unplugged at the charger there.

We were able to plug in at the house we were renting in Victoria so the car was basically trickle charging all the time. We also used the chademo at the mall for an hour or so to fully charge. That was especially great because of the coffee meeting the the Victoria EV club!

Coming home was easy. We stopped at Centralia and Woodburn and, in both cases, the car was ready to continue before we were.

All in all, the X is a fantastic road trip vehicle.

Oh, and Victora is beautiful and the fantastic food caused me to gain several pounds. I tried to have them confiscated at customs but they didn't seem interested.

 

[MikeBur]

It went really well! On the way up we charged overnight at my parents' condo in Portand and then Supercharged in Centralia before driving up to Port Angeles. The only charging hiccup was getting unplugged at the charger there.

We were able to plug in at the house we were renting in Victoria so the car was basically trickle charging all the time. We also used the chademo at the mall for an hour or so to fully charge. That was especially great because of the coffee meeting the the Victoria EV club!

Coming home was easy. We stopped at Centralia and Woodburn and, in both cases, the car was ready to continue before we were.

All in all, the X is a fantastic road trip vehicle.

Oh, and Victora is beautiful and the fantastic food caused me to gain several pounds. I tried to have them confiscated at customs but they didn't seem interested.

Sounds like a great time. Wonderful to hear. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Ranman]

There are chargers at most city parking lots in Victoria. I think they have free overnight parking.

 

[Kira]

There are chargers at most city parking lots in Victoria. I think they have free overnight parking.

I currently park at the city parkade on View Street and inquired about this last week (only slightly excited about my Model 3 apparently). The fellow who was working said that there's currently a 3 hour limit on the charging parking spaces so people are expected to come and move their vehicles out to a non-charging spot after that time expires. I should have asked about overnight to see if there were any different rules about that - I'll do that today after work.

 

[Cascadian]

We're planning on a vacation to Vancouver Island, and hopefully staying relatively close to Victoria. Looking for a house near good charging capability, probably on VRBO or something like it. Pretty excited about the upcoming supercharger in Nanaimo, but it's a bit too far to go to for regular charging while we're up there. Would love to know if anyone has compiled a listing of homes for rent with decent chargers on site, or are situated conveniently to at least a CHAdeMO in the area. Thank you!

 

[rypalmer]

We're planning on a vacation to Vancouver Island, and hopefully staying relatively close to Victoria. Looking for a house near good charging capability, probably on VRBO or something like it. Pretty excited about the upcoming supercharger in Nanaimo, but it's a bit too far to go to for regular charging while we're up there. Would love to know if anyone has compiled a listing of homes for rent with decent chargers on site, or are situated conveniently to at least a CHAdeMO in the area. Thank you!

Have you tried Plugshare?

I went digging for the Airbnb+Tesla partnership map, but it has disappeared Looks like they are no longer offering this which is a shame. They really need to offer a filter to show which accommodations offer EV chargers!

 

[Cascadian]

Yep, I use PlugShare, and in fact got some great charging location tips from a most helpful guy named Joe, member of the Tesla Owners Group on Vancouver Island. What I am hoping for is indeed some kind of filter to be added to sites like VRBO, HomeAway, etc., through which we'd love to rent a house (not a hotel) with good charging on site (or very nearby) for our Model S.

I think that Nanaimo is about 90 minutes or so from Victoria. Darn! We'd look for a house to rent there if it were only closer to Victoria.

 

[Drone Flyer]

Well, I don't want to "advertise" and it's no benefit to me anyway, just passing along the information that the Victoria Regent (Victoria Regent Waterfront Hotel | Luxury Accommodation in Victoria) has 2-bedroom large suites with kitchens and is right downtown on the waterfront. I don't know what the hotel prices are or whether it fits with your plans (and you've already reserved elsewhere for this trip anyway). I live there but as a resident (about half the owners have put their suites into a "hotel pool"). There's a 60A (48A continuous) and 40A (32A continuous) plug-n-go Sun Country charging station in the secured parking lot, great for overnight charging, free for guests.

There are also plenty of L2 public free charging stations at all the rec centres, most of the downtown multi-level parking lots, and most of the major malls, however they are all 30A (24A continuous) so rather slow. If you don't want to have to go into the rec centre to get their card key to open the charging handle, you can sign up for an AddEnergie (Home) account - I think the card costs a $10Cdn deposit but all the charging locations in Victoria have the usage paid by the host, so if you use your own card (WAY more convenient) your account will get a $0 charge line item. Some are Chargepoint (e.g. Hillside Mall) and can be opened by any credit card NFC, again electricity cost is paid by the host. Hillside Mall has 12 charging spots so they've seen the future.

Since you're in James Bay, if you need a relatively quick charge for pay, the Hotel Grand Pacific (across the street from the Legislative Buildings) has a Sun Country 90A station. Downside is it's like $7 per hour to park there, may have even increased over last couple of years.

Things to do
1. What better way to use up all your kWh but to go for a drive from the Breakwater (south end of James Bay area) around the "Scenic Drive" out to UVic and beyond (Dallas Road to Beach Drive to Finnerty Road...). It's maybe 30km return.
2. The Butchart Gardens | Victoria BC Attractions | National Historic Site of Canada is usually a must see for lots of people.
3. The kids would probably like Beacon Hill Park Victoria BC, possibly its petting zoo depending on age, and it's a beautiful scenic area for wandering, filled with birds and lots of pets. Our ferret used to love to go on walks there.
4. Plenty of options for tours of all kinds, e.g. whale watching, kayaking, taking a "pickle boat" (Victoria Harbour Ferry & Water Taxi - Tours & Charters, Victoria BC), double-decker bus, etc. Note the pickle boats only operate starting in early March through end of October - their website is frustratingly sparse on 2016 (or any) operating date information. In 2015 they opened March 5th.
5. We haven't yet tried Red Fish Blue Fish but there are lineups every day. They are highly popular. Lots of very good restaurants abound.
6. Royal BC Museum is an excellent source of all sorts of information, and it's right in James Bay.
7. If you like going for hikes etc then Thetis Lake Park is great (Find a Park or Trail | CRD). The whole Victoria area has thousands of fabulous parks. Our favourite 30-minute walk is on Charlie's Trail at Royal Roads University (Charlies Trail | Royal Roads University | Victoria, BC). There are lots of other different forest trails on RRU's grounds as well. While you're paying for parking anyway ($1/hour), if you really need it there's a Sun Country 30A station in the middle of the grounds. If you like deep forest there are places like East Sooke Park Vancouver Island British Columbia about 45min from Victoria downtown. From downtown we like taking Westsong Walkway | Walking In Victoria for some exercise and scenery.

Hopefully that will give you a few ideas. If you have any questions feel free to post here or PM me. My opinions are free! (except for the cost of having to listen to me)

- - - Updated - - -

Forgot to add, we regularly go to Portland for NBA games, and it's no trouble whatsoever in an 85. We'll be doing our first "dead of winter" trips in January and February 2016.

Two options for ferries, both have advantages and disadvantages.

1. Vancouver / BC Ferries: beautiful trip through the Gulf Islands. Downside: Seattle traffic

2. Port Angeles / Black Ball Ferry: no-frills ride but you disembark within hundreds of meters of your rented house, likely. The drive from Olympia to PA is nice.

Timing-wise, they're actually about the same and depends highly on the sailing departure time. Worthwhile doing both IMHO. Check the Black Ball's departure times from Victoria, that might work out better for the trip back.

There's also the Washington State ferry from Sidney to Anacortes.
I would stick with BC Ferries, the "Air Canada' of the BC/Washington ferry systems.
Best service, newest boats, good buffet, most scenic.
The Black All ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria and the Washington State Ferry systems are both Pig styes. Stay away from that filth is all I can say.
There is a Supercharger about to open in Nanaimo. Great for up island trips.

 

[Skipdd]

Wished I had thought to look for this thread before our trip. Am in Victoria now, leaving tomorrow. Was great fun. Never saw a Tesla while I was here.. Took a day trip to Seattle to visit a cousin via Seaplane, and unsurprisingly saw several in the few hours we were there.

Got to see the salmon run - which was cool.

I wish I could stay til 2021.. great people fun place.

 

[MarcoRP]

Wished I had thought to look for this thread before our trip. Am in Victoria now, leaving tomorrow. Was great fun. Never saw a Tesla while I was here.. Took a day trip to Seattle to visit a cousin via Seaplane, and unsurprisingly saw several in the few hours we were there.

Got to see the salmon run - which was cool.

I wish I could stay til 2021.. great people fun place.

...but no Teslas...

 

[Ugliest1]

...but no Teslas...

Approximate count would be 100+

 

[Skipdd]

Approximate count would be 100+

You all were avoiding me I guess..