The gardens were a wonderful experience , beautiful and beyond expectation. The bus trip not so, bus was late for morning pick up at the Empress Hotel and then waited another 30 minutes for three people being shuttled from another hotel. We were told by the driver that the bus returning to Victoria would be at least 30 minutes later than scheduled so we planned our garden tour according to his instructions only to learn that the bus had arrived on time and had departed for Victoria and that would need to wait another hour for our return trip. We ended up using public transit to return to Victoria. Knowing what we do now we would have used public transportation from Victoria to Butchart Gardens and back to Victoriaat a rate of $2.25 per person each way, much less money and in this case more reliable.