Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

I visited Victoria a number of years ago and was lucky enough to stay at the Empress Hotel for a couple of days.  I am thrilled to be going back to this beautiful city!

Celebrity Millennium will dock at the Ogden Point cruise ship terminal, about a 25 minute walk to downtown Victoria.  We are the only ship in port from 8-5; but 3 ships arrive between 6 and 7 pm for the evening!  I’m happy that we will miss all of those crowds!

Click here for a Victoria map for cruise passengers.

I love this YouTube video of Victoria!  You will see everything from the harbour, Butchart Gardens, Empress Hotel, shopping street, Chinatown, and pubs!

I've listed a few of Victoria's highlights and, of course, some of my own personal "must do's"!

My preliminary plan for Victoria:   We’ll hang a left out of the cruise terminal and stroll down to Fisherman’s Wharf for the famous fish & chips at Barb’s (well if we’re hungry at that time of the morning & if they are open).  We can see and feed the seals and perhaps hop a mini ferry over to the inner harbor where we can see the Parliament buildings and the Empress Hotel.  Oooh… it is mandatory that we stop at the Bengal Lounge at the Empress for a glass of wine or cocktail.  The Bengal Lounge was designed in honor of Rudyard Kipling and the era of the British Raj in India & has a very classic British Empire ambiance.    

Next up may be a self guided walking tour: Click here for tour information. The beauty of one of these self guided tours is that each is easily walkable within about 45 minutes. The routes have very little incline.  Best of all you are your own guide so you can stop and enjoy Victoria’s coffee shops and pubs as often or as little as you want!

Here are links to a few more self guided walking/biking tours:
Waking Tour #1 : The Inner Harbour 
Walking Tour #2 : The Old Town & Chinatown 
Biking tour : Dallas Road  

How about a pub crawl?  Pub food is, in general, very good in Victoria as one pub tries to outdo another and the beer can't be beat!  A few pub recommendations that I found online include:
Canoe Brewpub - nice view of harbour, located in a restored boathouse. "Handcrafted beer. Real food"!
The Sticky Wicket - a cricket themed pub, located in the Strathcona Hotel, decent fish & chips, pool tables, and tv's for sports.
Irish Times - excellent selection of local & Irish beer, yummy fish & chips, shepherd's pie, etc.
Bard & Banker - an interesting "history lesson" from the website lets us know how the pub name originated:  "Opened in 1862 as the Bank of British Columbia, the building remained a bank until 1988 under a different array of banking establishments’ control. Of all the bank employees to work at this location in the 126 years it was a bank the most notable was, the bard of the Yukon, Robert Service."
Spinnakers Gastro Brewpub - a short cab ride from downtown or a mini ferry hop away.  Great variety of local and English beer.  Food is not  "regular pub grub" but is made from fresh, local ingredients.  
Garrick's Head - weather permitting, have a drink on the patio.  Choose from about 44 varieties of beer on tap, including 22 from greater Victoria breweries.  Research indicates that this pub was built here because the owner thought it would be a good way to sell beer while people watched the public hangings across the square! You can see this square in a scene from the movie "Bird on a Wire", starring Goldie Hawn & Mel Gibson.
Swan's - Great beer, food, and location!  You can even get a beer sampler!  What's not to like?  

Some of Victoria's Highlights:  
 Victoria Harbour Ferries:  Let's go ferry hopping around Victoria Harbour!  You can even do a pub crawl by ferry!  Its a fun way to zip around Victoria.

Royal BC Museum - This is #1 on Tripadvisor's list of attractions for Victoria.  The exhibits include a mining exhibit, First Nations exhibit, Natural History, IMAX theatre, and much more.

Butchart Gardens –  One of Victoria’s top attractions with 55 acres of year round gardens.  Each year over one million plants are placed for uninterrupted bloom from March through October.   It's pronounced "Butch-art" and is visited by nearly 1 million people a year. The Gardens, described as incredibly beautiful,  are in a rural area, about a 45 minute drive from the cruise terminal ; it could take 1 ½ hours travel time (round trip) to visit Butchart Gardens from Victoria.  Once there, you will want to spend 3 hours to full enjoy the gardens.  So... plan your day in Victoria accordingly! Click here for the Butchart Gardens website. 

Visit the oldest Chinatown in Canada & find Fan Tan Alley, the narrowest commercial street in North America with eleven active businesses, It was originally a gambling district with restaurants, shops, and opium dens but today it's a tourist destination with many small shops. At it's narrowest point it is only 0.9 meters wide. 

Prince of Whales: Go on a whale watching tour & hang out with the Orcas!

Interested in wine or cider?  Then  head out of town to the north in the beautiful Saanich Valley where you can visit the Marley Farm Winery, the Sea Cider Farm & Ciderhouse or de Vine Vineyards. 

 
Afternoon tea at The Empress Hotel:  Tea Service starts at 12:00 p.m. daily with the last seating at 3:45 p.m.  It is recommended that you allocate an hour to enjoy your tea experience.  The current tea menu includes smoked salmon pinwheel, mango & curried chicken sandwich, cucumber sandwich with saffron loaf, free range egg salad croissant, cognac pork pate on sundried tomato bread, freshly baked raisin scone with strawberry jam & Empress cream, and much more!  Current pricing is CAD $48.95 per person.

Reservations are strongly recommended however walk-ins may be available. Tables are held for ten minutes after reservation time. You can make reservations online at Open Table.

Bits of trivia that I discovered about the Empress Hotel:

Ø  The portraits in the tea lobby are King George V and his wife Queen Mary, who originally intended to wed his brother, Prince Edward, who died of pneumonia. The portraits have been in place since the hotel opened in 1908

Ø   The difference between high tea and afternoon tea? High tea is generally taken at 4:00 p.m., and was more of a "working man's" dinner and they included hot savory items. High tea is mistakenly thought to include champagne or sparkling wine, but this should be referred to as Royal Tea  

Ø  Notable guests have included Queen Elizabeth II, Rudyard Kipling, Shirley Temple, Spencer Tracy, Princess Margaret, Rita Hayworth, the King and Queen of Siam, Bob Hope, John Travolta, Barbra Streisand, Joan Lunden, Sarah McLachlan, Mel Gibson and Nelly Furtado

Ø  The Empress Tea Blend comes from six estates, including Kenya, Tanzania, South India, Assam, Sri Lanka, and China
 

Oh what's a girl to do when there is not enough time to do everything???   I think that means that she will just have to visit Victoria again!