How to Get to Garibaldi Lake Without a Car from Vancouver, BC
Photo of Garibaldi Lake by orryan
Long story short, to get to Garibaldi Lake from Vancouver, BC without a car, you need to take a bus up to Whistler Village. Then, from Whistler Village, take a taxi up to Rubble Creek Trailhead, and hike up to Garibaldi Lake from there.
| ROUTE FROM VANCOUVER, BC TO GARIBALDI LAKE | COST | TIME |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Vancouver, BC → Whistler Village | $30+ one-way, $40+ round-trip with a shuttle bus | ± 3 hours |
| 2. Whistler Village → Rubble Creek Trailhead | $60+ one-way with a taxi | 25–30 minutes |
| 3. Rubble Creek Trailhead → Garibaldi Lake | $0, you gotta hike up there | 3–4 hours |
| Total cost and time needed for a one-way trip | $90+ for a one-way trip | ± 7 hours |
| Total cost and time needed for a round-trip | $160+ for a round-trip | ± 14 hours |
1. Getting from Vancouver to Whistler Village via Shuttle Buses
To get from Vancouver to Whistler Village without a car, you can take a shuttle bus. There are several options you can go for—I have personally used both Skylynx and Epic Rides.
It is cheaper to book a round trip ticket compared to a one-way ticket. A round trip ticket between Vancouver and Whistler for one person should total up to around $40–$50, while a one-way trip would cost about $30+.
A bus ride from Vancouver, BC all the way up to Whistler Village will take approximately 3 hours. The bus stop at Whistler Village where the bus service terminates is called the Whistler Village Gateway Bus Loop.
Different shuttle buses offer different pick-up points. For example, Skylynx has pickup locations in YVR Vancouver Airport, Pacific Central Station, and also Downtown outside Hyatt Regency Hotel near the Burrard Skytrain Station.
Epic Rides has pickup locations near the same Hyatt Hotel near the Burrard Skytrain Station all year round, and during the winter, the bus also offers pickup at the UBC Campus, Broadway and Granville in front of the Indigo Bookstore, and Sheraton Wall Centre Hotel. Always check the websites of the bus service for the latest update and their current pick-up points.
Views from the shuttle bus on the way from Vancouver to Whistler
2. Getting from Whistler Village to Rubble Creek Trailhead via Taxis
Once you are at Whistler Village, you should be able to find a taxi willing to take you up to Rubble Creek Trailhead. When I took this taxi ride back in 2022, the cost was around $60+ and the ride took around 25–30 minutes.
3. Hiking from Rubble Creek Trailhead to Garibaldi Lake
The Rubble Creek Trailhead is just a parking lot with a trailhead.
Once you are here, hike up the trail and it should take about 3–4 hours to get up there.
The trail to the lake is an upslope hike. It can be a challenging and longer hike (beyond 5–6 hours) if:
You are not used to hiking and you need to take a lot of breaks
You are carrying camping gears and other outdoorsy items
The weather is not cooperative
Also, there is barely any cell service along the trailhead all the way up to the lake, so plan accordingly.
You might get a bar or two occasionally along the trailhead, but chances are you'll have a very difficult time connecting to the outside world through your phone.
Snippets of what you’ll see on your way up. Not showing too much here so you can discover the views yourself!
4. Almost There
One sign when you are about to reach Garibaldi Lake is when you hike past a smaller lake called the Barrier Lake, which is about 2.7 kilometres away from the Garibaldi Lake Campground.
Once you are here, it means that the campground is only about 45-minute hike away.
Over and Out
My journey to go from Vancouver all the way up to Garibaldi took about 8 hours:
About 3 hours to bus up from Downtown Vancouver to Whistler Village
About 0.5 hour to taxi from Whistler Village to Rubble Creek Trailhead
About 4+ hours to hike up from Rubble Creek Trailhead to the Garibaldi Lake Campground
The views were worth it.
5. Getting back from Rubble Creek Trailhead to Whistler Village via Taxis
After you hike down from the lake to Rubble Creek Trailhead, you can call a taxi to take you back to Whistler Village.
The taxi company I called: Whistler Taxi, +1-604-932-3333.