🌸 Victoria

What Makes It Worth It

🏛 Butchart Gardens

Victoria sits at the southern tip of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, separated from the mainland by the Strait of Juan de Fuca and a short ferry ride or floatplane hop from Vancouver. The city preserves a British character — afternoon tea at the Empress Hotel, double-decker bus tours, tweed shops — but underneath it runs a genuinely distinctive West Coast culture shaped by mild climate, whale-filled waters, and some of the best cycling infrastructure in North America. The Inner Harbour is the city's centrepiece: floatplanes taxi between fishing vessels, whale-watching zodiacs, and the old CPR steamship terminal, all beneath the illuminated dome of the BC Legislature building.

The Butchart Gardens, 20 kilometres north of downtown, represent one of the most extraordinary garden achievements in North America — 22 hectares created in a spent limestone quarry beginning in 1904, now containing over 900 plant varieties displayed across six distinct garden styles. The Sunken Garden fills the old quarry floor in a riot of colour, the Italian Garden spreads in formal geometry, and the Japanese Garden achieves a meditative tranquility. In summer, Saturday night fireworks illuminate the gardens. In winter, the Christmas lights transform the landscape into something from a fairy tale. The gardens are privately owned and operated by the fifth generation of the founding family.

Victoria's whale-watching operations run year-round, though the peak season for orca sightings runs from May to October when resident and transient killer whale pods frequent the waters between Vancouver Island and the San Juan Islands. The Southern Resident Killer Whales — the J, K, and L pods — number around 70 individuals and are among the most studied cetaceans in the world. Humpback whales are increasingly common in the strait, and minke whales, Dall's porpoises, and harbour seals are near-constant companions on any zodiac tour. The Gulf Islands of the Salish Sea, accessible by BC Ferries from Swartz Bay, offer kayaking, cycling, and artisan communities on islands like Salt Spring, Galiano, and Pender.

The Galloping Goose and Lochside Regional Trails form 100 kilometres of paved cycling routes that connect Victoria to Sidney and the Swartz Bay ferry terminal — a car-free journey through farmland, forest, and coastal wetlands. Craigdarroch Castle, a turreted Romanesque mansion built by coal baron Robert Dunsmuir in 1890, operates as a museum with original Victorian interiors intact. The Royal British Columbia Museum holds one of the finest collections of Northwest Coast Indigenous art in the world, including totem poles and ceremonial objects of outstanding cultural significance. Victoria's restaurant scene has expanded dramatically in recent years, with a cluster of excellent independent restaurants in the downtown core competing with the grand dining rooms of the Inner Harbour hotels.

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