Pick your travel date to see which sailings are sold out for RVs and trailers. Watch one and we text you, free, if oversized space opens.
This is the camping route. Tofino, Strathcona, the whole mid-Island road trip corridor starts with a Horseshoe Bay sailing, which puts the over-height allocation here under pressure from exactly the people most likely to need it — campers, trailers, truck-and-boat combinations, vans built out for the summer.
Oversized space is booked separately from standard space and disappears earlier. Everything below is the over-height pool only, so what you see is what your vehicle can actually use.
Why oversized space goes first
Peak demand meeting a terminal that was not built for it
Horseshoe Bay is hemmed in by the highway and the village around it. There is little room to stage over-height vehicles, and the oversized allocation on each sailing reflects the terminal as much as the ship. Summer weekends put maximum RV and trailer demand through the tightest terminal in the system.
Leaving Horseshoe Bay, there is no being caught without a reservation
Since 15 October 2025 every vehicle sailing from Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay has to be booked and paid for in advance, and over-height vehicles get no exemption — there is no oversized drive-up queue to fall back on. That makes an alert on a sold-out sailing the whole game in this direction: you are not choosing between a reservation and a wait, you are choosing between a reservation and not going. The one thing that softens it is the booking cut-off, which is 30 minutes before departure, so a spot that opens while you are already on the highway is still bookable. Coming back from Departure Bay the old rules hold and oversized drive-up space is whatever reserved vehicles leave behind.
Is your vehicle oversized?
Oversized starts at over 7' / 2.13 m tall or over 20' / 6.10 m long. On a camping route that catches more people than expected: a mid-size SUV towing a tent trailer is usually over 20' combined, and a van with a roof rack and a box on it is often over 7' without the owner ever having measured.
Measure the whole rig, tow ball to tail light, and to the highest fixed point. If the number is borderline, book oversized — there is no spare over-height space on a summer Friday to absorb a vehicle bigger than the one you declared.
The full rules, and what they mean for fares and loading, are in the BC Ferries oversized vehicle guide.
Frequently asked questions
Is oversized space on Horseshoe Bay–Departure Bay harder to get than standard?
Yes, and noticeably so in summer. The over-height allocation is small, and this is the route most camping and trailer traffic uses. Oversized regularly sells out days before standard space on the same sailing.
I am towing a tent trailer. Does that count as oversized?
Almost certainly. Length is measured for the whole combination, and once the vehicle plus trailer is over 20' / 6.10 m it books as oversized. Most tow vehicle and trailer pairs are over that line.
Should I try Duke Point instead if oversized is sold out here?
It is the first thing to check. Duke Point serves the same city, and its ships and terminals are built around large commercial vehicles, so over-height space there often outlasts Departure Bay on the same weekend.
Can I drive up with an RV at Horseshoe Bay and wait for space?
Not for Departure Bay. That direction has been booking-only since 15 October 2025 for every vehicle, oversized included, so there is no queue to join. You can book up to 30 minutes before departure if space exists. Sailing the other way, from Departure Bay to Horseshoe Bay, oversized drive-up space is the remainder after reserved over-height vehicles load, and there is not much of it.
When do cancelled oversized reservations show up?
There is no schedule, but the heaviest churn is in the 24 to 48 hours before departure, as trips get shortened, extended or called off. That is the window an alert is built to catch — a released spot is often taken within minutes, which is not something manual refreshing wins.