In my role as moderator I edited the title to make it more descriptive of the post.
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Interesting idea.
Rental cars can be expensive, especially if rented at the airport
You can do that in Victoria, BC.(inexpensive to get to nature, though you can also do car rental) Downtown is walkable, and you can get to the most famous attraction
Butchart Gardens via public bus with an all day C$5 ticket. There are also lakes and trails, and taking the bus in BC is nothing like places like Dallas or Houston
And there are fun ways of arriving besides flying, which seems to be pretty inexpensive these days. Ferries from Vancouver, Seattle or Port Angeles as well as float planes (those aren't necessarily cheap).