Ferries from Tsawwassen

The water off Delta is too shallow for a ferry berth, so British Columbia built a road two kilometres out to sea and put the terminal on the end of it. Everything about Tsawwassen follows from that causeway: the queueing, the parking, and the fact that once you are on it there is no turning round.

A terminal at the end of a road

The berths sit at the southwestern end of a 2 km causeway jutting into the Strait of Georgia. Sailings run to Swartz Bay for Victoria, Duke Point and Departure Bay for Nanaimo, and the Southern Gulf Islands.

Our timetable holds 300 active sailings across 16 routes from here — the busiest mainland terminal in the BC Ferries network.

⚠ The causeway is the queue

Vehicle holding happens on and around the causeway itself, which means a full sailing does not produce a queue in a car park somewhere; it produces a queue on a two-kilometre spit with water on both sides.

Arrive without a reservation on a summer Friday and that is where you will wait. There is no alternative route, no way to leave and come back quickly, and very little at the far end except the terminal.

Parking and fares

The terminal has 884 parking spaces — 168 short-term and 716 long-term. Leaving a car here and travelling as a foot passenger is a common strategy for Vancouver Island trips and removes the vehicle-deck problem entirely.

As of 1 January 2026 a one-way adult fare on the Victoria route starts around CAD 20, with children aged 5 to 11 from about CAD 10. Infants under five and BC-resident seniors travel free on that route.

Which Vancouver Island terminal you want

• Swartz Bay — for Victoria and the Saanich Peninsula, and the Gulf Islands interchange.
• Duke Point — for Nanaimo and the mid-island, aimed at through traffic.
• Departure Bay — also Nanaimo, closer to the town centre.

The Vancouver Island guide sets out which gateway suits which trip; the short version is that Swartz Bay is for the south and Nanaimo for everywhere else.

Reservations

Vehicle reservations exist on the main Vancouver Island routes and are worth having. The Gulf Islands sailings work largely on arrival order, which on a causeway with finite space is a different kind of gamble.