Victoria

Old Feb 18th, 2022, 07:28 AM
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Victoria

Hi all,

Thinking about postponing our trip to Madrid and Sevilla until the fall.

Looking at Victoria (and Seattle and Oregon) for a family trip in late June with 3 young adult kids. We have never been to the Pacific Northwest 🤦‍♀️ I’d love to get your ideas for a 5-6 night trip.

We love museums, gardens, architecture, restaurants, wine bars, and would like to do a hike or two. The Butchart Gardens and Royal British Museum sound up our alley!

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
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Old Feb 26th, 2022, 09:14 AM
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Are you looking for 5-6 nights in Victoria? I like Victoria as a weekend getaway, but it is a smaller, quieter city. 5-6 days can work if you're okay getting to know a place intimately, or are planning to expand to outlying areas and do some day trips elsewhere. There is plenty to see and do. You'd want a car to explore beyond, however.

Victoria's a lovely, charming city steeped in English colonial history and English-inspired architecture. However, I like to point out that the people and culture is contemporary Pacific Northwest. The locals don't identify as being English from England any more than New Englanders do. The culture there is an extension of the culture in Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver. Don't be fooled by all the Union Jack flags and afternoon tea on offer - it's to appease the tourists!

Victoria has an excellent craft brewery scene (Ile Sauvage and Driftwood are my two personal favs, and check out the Victoria Ale Trial: https://bcaletrail.ca/ale-trails/victoria-ale-trail/), excellent coffee shops (Discovery Coffee), excellent restaurants, some legendary pubs (the Sticky Wicket, Big Bad John's, and the Bard & Banker come to mind), one of the best cocktail bars on the continent (Clive's Classic Lounge), but I struggle to think of it as a wine bar destination. That isn't to say they don't exist, but I just don't know Victoria as a wine bar place. However, I'd count on many of the restaurants to have excellent wine lists, and places like 10 Acres Commons do have a bit of that wine bar ambiance: https://10acres.ca/commons-restaurant/.

Edit: A quick search for Victoria BC wine bars show up plenty of results: https://do250.com/p/best-wine-bars-in-victoria

One thought: maybe consider spending a night or two (or a day trip or two) to the Cowichan Valley, which is about an hour drive north of Victoria and is famous for its wineries. Like Oregon and Washington state, BC also has the same climate and several established wine regions, and the Cowichan Valley is the most famous wine region on Vancouver Island. I spent a weekend there last June and was blown away by the experience. They rivaled the types of experiences I had in Australia and California. My favourites were Blue Grouse Estate Winery (https://www.bluegrouse.ca), Averill Creek (https://www.averillcreek.ca/) and Unsworth, which had my favourite wines and my favourite dining: https://www.unsworthvineyards.com/ .

The Cowichan also has a lot of agritourism and a really cool place to check out is the Westholme Tea Farm. They grow their own tea, make their own pottery, and do some fantastic tea blends. And if you're there on a Saturday, the Duncan Farmer's Market is one of the best in the region.

Browse around on the Cowichan website: https://www.tourismcowichan.com/

There are also wineries closer to Victoria in the farmland area immediately north known as the Saanich Peninsula. Church and State is arguably the most famous: https://churchandstatewines.com/victoria/

Fun tidbit: Most Americans don't know BC's wines because most of them aren't exported outside of the province due to a combo of the wineries producing at a smaller scale, and also some archaic export laws. But the calibre of the wine is excellent. If you're a wine fan, you'll have to use the opportunity to try Okanagan and Similkameen wines too - those are two other wine regions further inland in BC, but are home to hundreds of wineries in the hotter, drier, semi-arid desert-like sagebrush country, so they get more of the deep lush reds than the wineries on Vancouver Island. Either way, if you're a wine fan, you'll get an opportunity to try them at the local restaurants. A good restaurant will curate the best local wines from Vancouver Island and the Okanagan Valley.

Finally, Victoria does have gardens. Butchart is the most famous: https://www.tourismvictoria.com/see-...s/garden-parks

The Royal BC Museum is excellent, however they're currently undergoing a massive upheaval of some of their old exhibits so expect some of the exhibits to be closed. You can see what's happening on their webiste: Royal BC Museum and Archives | Victoria, BC, Canada |

For hiking, I'd drive west to Sooke, where the climate changes into more of a real rainforest ecosystem (Victoria has a drier climate). I'd probably go hiking in East Sooke Park, which takes you through rainforest and arbutus groves along the ocean inlets. It's lush and peaceful. There are other parks in the vicinity too - Juan de Fuca Provincial Park further west, or Goldstream Provincial Park further east. The Sooke Potlholes are also famous.

You can also see a list of hikes near Victoria here: https://www.victoriatrails.com/trails/

One resource you might also enjoy is the Spirit Loop, which gives you a sense of some other outlying areas around Victoria: https://www.spiritloop.ca/

You might also wish to put the Malahat Skywalk on your to-do list: https://malahatskywalk.com/

Hope this helps!

Last edited by BC_Robyn; Feb 26th, 2022 at 09:39 AM.
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Old Feb 26th, 2022, 06:59 PM
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Irice, dunno about wine bars but if in BC, move heaven and earth to buy a bottle of Church & State CBS (Coyote Bowl series) red. We first tasted it soon after visiting Burgundy, and it was as good as any of the Pinots or whatevers that we drank over there.
A+ outstanding.

I am done. The end.
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Old Mar 1st, 2022, 09:30 AM
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Originally Posted by lrice
Hi all,

Thinking about postponing our trip to Madrid and Sevilla until the fall.

Looking at Victoria (and Seattle and Oregon) for a family trip in late June with 3 young adult kids. We have never been to the Pacific Northwest 🤦‍♀️ I’d love to get your ideas for a 5-6 night trip.

We love museums, gardens, architecture, restaurants, wine bars, and would like to do a hike or two. The Butchart Gardens and Royal British Museum sound up our alley!

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

IF you have NEVER been to the northwest, Victoria demands way too great a chunk of your "5-6 night trip" to justify bothering to go there.

There are so many other directions in which to travel in the northwest, with plenty of substance in most of them. Just crossing international borders alone adds time that you shouldn't be thrilled to allocate.

BUT IF you are focused on going to Victoria, I suggest you combine it with only VANCOUVER (Canada) OR with Seattle.


(I looked at your profile to see if any quick guess as to where you LIVE could be had... and I would perhaps tailor any specific suggestions to CONTRAST wherever that might be (ocean/mountains, larger city/countryside)

Vancouver is SO wonderfully accessible to so much... that I think you should just base yourself there for much of your mentioned 5-6 nights... and perhaps visit Victoria over 2 of those nights (I'd say "one", except the time spent getting TO Victoria doesn't really justify visiting for only one night).

From central Vancouver you could even take a city bus to a place from which you could ride a gondola 3000 feet up the side of a mountain to a resort area with things to do no matter what time of year it is.

(NOT that you should bother with the bus (IF indeed you DO have a rental car)... I just mentioned it to suggest how nearby it is)


To an American who lives less than 100 miles from Victoria, either there or Vancouver are like "foreign" cities (albeit with limited concerns known to most North Americans when they visit Europe or the like)... and just the subtle differences are fun to witness. (even the sign at 7-Eleven reading: "We sell Canadian cigarettes" ) (um, congratulations on that...)

Anyway, a couple of days/nights in Vancouver would find you in the middle of a considerably diverse area that is compacted by water on 3 sides, and considerably flat, for easy walking. The streets are relatively safe at night, with sooooooooooooooo many "normal" human beings roaming around, that danger is relatively minimal late at night. (although these days I don't think I'd walk too near to the always-lively intersection of East Hastings and Main late at night if I could avoid it)...

Were it me looking ahead at the same blueprint for a trip, I'd spend the first 2 nights in Vancouver, then the next 2 in Victoria, and then the last 1 or 2 in Vancouver again.


You don't neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed a rental car for this whole thing, but I could see getting it for the Victoria journey, at least for reasons of convenience with luggage and the like.

You won't BE in Vancouver for long enough on either 'side' to cause a rented vehicle to be a great asset... because exploring very near your (strategically selected) hotel would take a day or two, and then maybe you pick a slightly different locale for your return to central Vancouver (after Victoria).

MAYbe something about the whole trip will cause you to later one day come to Seattle... but "5 or 6 nights" (and a want for Victoria) does not include enough TIME to see Seattle while giving any of the area its due.


Because Vancouver is more compact, more flat, on the same side of the border (as Victoria) and nearer to so many more points of interest, it is the obvious best option.




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Old Mar 8th, 2022, 10:41 AM
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Thanks All! I missed these responses somehow.

BC_Robyn, everything you describe sounds wonderful. The Victoria Ale Trail, Butchart Gardens, a drink or tea at the Empress Hotel, and a day for a hike somewhere. We would love the Royal BC Museum; it looks like just the Third Floor Galleries are closed.

Thanks Zebec -- yes, I will find that wine if we end up in Canada.

Northwest Male, it seems like crossing to Victoria from Seattle is not easy, fast or cheap. Is that right? We are from LA and have never been to anywhere in the Northwest (Oregon and Washington included.) Perhaps we should start with Seattle!
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Old Mar 8th, 2022, 11:59 AM
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Hi Irice,

I took the Victoria Clipper from Seattle-Victoria a number of years ago and saw it’s still taking a little under 3 hours. I liked that it took me from downtown Seattle to downtown Victoria. I enjoyed the ride the day I took it as the Puget Sound is lovely; could have lucked out with a nice day though. I didn’t find it terribly expensive and the day I took it and the Clipper ran according to schedule. A fun way to enter Canada I thought.

best wishes,

Daniel
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Old Mar 8th, 2022, 04:53 PM
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Thanks Daniel. Yes, it looks to be about $120 per person.
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