Victoria, BC sights and bites
 

Yeah...I made the title rhyme. :cool: :)

I'll be a first-time visitor to Victoria, BC for a few days next week (April 2016) and I'm looking for suggestions for restaurants and sights around town. My only plans right now are to wander around downtown and along the harbour and visit Butchart Gardens.

Sights:

My main goal is to get some good photographs of the city as a whole so if anyone knows of a good vantage point I shouldn't miss out on please share!

I'm considering a day trip to Nanaimo. Is this worth it or is there another location I should consider instead/as well?

Restaurants:

Looking for some good breakfast spots to start my day off well. I do not require anything fancy and I expect price to be max $15 for a breakfast entree preferably.

Dinner ideas are welcome too. Price range will be about $25-$35 for entrees.

Thanks in advance!

Ah, Victoria, one of my favorite Canadian cities!

If you like walking -- the Inner Harbour is edged by two great walking paths -- the Westsong Walkway and the David Foster walkway (that connect with each other at the Johnson street bridge). If you go as far as Songhees Point (in front of the Delta Ocean Pointe) on the north side and Laurel Point (in front of the Laurel Point Inn) on the south side, the walk one-way is about 2 km and should take you about 30 minutes. Or you can extend your walk on the Westsong on the north side to the end of the walkway (it ends on Head Street in Esquimalt). Similarly you can extend your walk on the David Foster on the south side to Fisherman's Wharf. If you do both extensions, the walk is about 5 km one-way and takes a little over an hour. These are great walks if you want to get some fantastic photographs of flora, fauna, and harbour water traffic. Depending on what time of the day you're there, you might see the Coho (the large vehicle ferry that goes to Port Angeles WA), or the Clipper (passenger ferry that goes to Seattle) making its way in or out of the inner harbour. Plus lots of other water traffic, birds and flowers. Plus, since you're into photography, make sure you get some photos of the inner harbour once the sun goes down.

If it's just flowers you want, then you can't beat the Butchart Gardens of course.

Touristy stuff in the downtown area -- if you're there on a weekday, stop in at the BC Legislature for a tour, interesting and free. The Royal BC Museum is also pretty cool, and if you're so inclined they run regular Imax showings. And for quirky, stop in at Miniature World (around the north side of the Empress Hotel).

Food -- the iconic stop of course is high tea at the Empress - overpriced but still fun to say you did it, a should-try-at-least-once event. For something very casual, the shacks at Fisherman's Wharf never disappoint, and neither does Red Fish Blue Fish which is right on the inner harbour waterfront. Mid-range, we quite enjoy the Flying Otter Grill which is right where the seaplanes take off and land on the harbourfront. A couple of other favourites are Masala Bites (1015 Fort Street) for Indian food, and the Reef (533 Yates) for Caribbean rotis. Also try Pink Bicycle (1008 Blanshard) for gourmet burgers and Baan Thai (1117 Blanshard). More upscale, Lure at the Delta Ocean Pointe has never disappointed. And if you're looking for budget options, then you may find this link -- http://soleseeking.com/2016/01/23/cu...ria-bc-canada/ -- helpful. On this list, we've tried Sally Bun, Red Fish Blue Fish, Gobind Food Market, Little Thai Place, and Masala Bites and can recommend them all.

The kayaks are already out in Victoria harbour, so if you feel like doing something a little physical, check this link: https://victoriakayak.com/. They're fun and reasonably priced.

You asked about Nanaimo ... you could certainly go there, but we've never run out of things to keep us entertained in Victoria, so I can't offer any specific recommendations. Perhaps other FT'ers can offer insights?

I'm sure I've forgotten stuff, but I've gone on more than I meant to, so I'll stop now, but please let me know if you have specific questions.

For breakfast -

John's Place (on Pandora just before Douglas) is awesome, and iconic. Depending on when you go (and what day of the week) you may have to wait briefly for a table. Prices there would be around $10-15 for breakfast, but well worth it.

Blue Fox cafe is another great breakfast joint. It's on Fort just past Quadra. Bit of a squeeze once you're inside as the tables are packed in fairly tightly, but it's a great breakfast place as well. And reasonably priced (cheaper than John's Place I think).

There's also Jam Cafe too, which is a few blocks North of Chinatown. Bit of a "hispter" vibe to it but the food is great. It's jam-packed (ha) on weekends though, and wait times can get up to 45-1 hour depending on your group size, so definitely go during a weekday.

I'd definitely hit up one (or all) of these places - although try to go on a weekday when it's less busy. Hope you enjoy your stay!!

Oh wow. This is great! Thanks for the suggestions catgirl and WesternCDN! This should keep me busy and fed for a few days. :)

Spinnakers Brewpub is great:

http://www.spinnakers.com/

Although their web site does a poor job of explaining it, the main floor is a restaurant and the upper floor is the pub, with typical gastropub cuisine, and, of course, pub-brewed beer.

A fun way to get to Spinnakers is by Harbour Ferry from the Inner Harbour:

http://www.harbourferry.com/

Get off at Songhees Landing - The ferry 'captain' will point you where to go.

Get in line for Pagliacci's (http://www.pagliaccis.ca/) and experience the scene. It's crowded and the food is cheap and people love it - an Italian restaurant run by a Jewish family, so what could be so bad?

Forgot to mention, but also try out Bin 4 Burger Lounge at Yates & Vancouver. Awesome, more gourmet style burgers there. If you like raw (sashimi style) tuna, I recommend the 'Chicken of the Sea' burger. Also, if you're up for a late night snack, head to Bin 4 for their late night specials (which is after 9 pm). You get a half priced burger if you buy a drink (pop counts), so you can basically end up getting a free beer out of the deal. :)

Well, I think the classic photo is from tourist info place at Inner Harbour. Provides boats in foreground and Parliament Building in back. But it's facing west, so either do it earlier in the day or just before dusk. If you bring a tripod, building is outlined by lights and makes for a great dusk photo - more dramatic over Xmas when they use that color scheme.

And of course Butchart Gardens.

Skip afternoon tea at the Empress. Eat at the Empress Room that night. It's formal dining but dinner jackets are no longer required. I don't know if that refers to actual dinner jackets (tuxes) or regular suits.

I understand the Bengal Lounge has closed? Pity.

Definitely - This is the shot -

http://www.cipywnyk.net/mtblog/image...ght_200502.jpg

I like to shoot a little earlier, i.e. during dusk, that way you get more than just the lights. Still, a nice picture ^

Alright, here's some more inspiration / positions then: http://tinyurl.com/zu4lk2u

Victoria recap:
 

Victoria was so nice! The whole island is so green and most people were quite friendly. Thank you all for the suggestions. I was able to get to Red Fish Blue Fish, Spinnakers, and Jam Cafe. All were very good with great service!

For future visitors: I had great coffee at the Grindstone, Beans all over the world and Crust Bakery. I also recommend Sutra in the Public Market that offers delicious and plentiful Indian food.

I'll have to go back and grab some dusk/night shots. I spent most of my time wandering around the waterfront walkways. I do have a couple of nice shots of the legislature during the day which I liked and I've included a few pics if anyone is interested.

Thanks for getting back to us ^

I see you were lucky enough to be there when cherry trees were in bloom :)

I timed my trip so that hopefully I would still catch the end of the season but the blossoms were still going strong when I got there. I was very pleased! :)

Nice photos! :)
Glad you enjoyed the trip!

We're thinking of doing a weekend getaway somewhere nearby this month. I just think Whistler is the sure option, but we've been up there countless times and every trip to Whistler drains our wallet. Anyways, the wife is intrigued by Victoria just because she's never been. We also have two little kids.

I think we'd definitely enjoy the ferry from Port Angeles, as well as the Saturday firework at Butchart Garden. Victoria also seems like a beautiful place, so maybe simply going for short walks around the town might be nice. Beyond that, I'm not sure what there is for us to do there. We're definitely not into museums. Places like Royal BC and Miniature World would not be our thing. My wife has mild interest in Butchart Garden, but the rest of us has no interest, and we probably wouldn't go if it weren't for the fireworks. Kids like rides (ferry, gondola, amusement park rides, etc), petting zoo type places, and they especially like kiddie sports/adventure type places (kind of like Blackcomb's Adventure zone).

Do you think Victoria is worth going just for the ferry ride and the firework, or are there other things that you think we'd enjoy?

I personally think it's worth it, there's lot to see just walking around.

Fisherman's Wharf is small, but you can usually see an otter or two, and Beacon Hill Park has a nice petting zoo. The park itself is quite nice.

The walk on Breakwater to lighthouse at Ogden Point is nice as well, and sometimes you can see some wildlife there as well, though not regularly.

Okay thanks, maybe we will go then. My kids would love to see wild otters up close! That alone may be worth it.

Do you think the firework at Butchart Garden is worth it? It sounds like people go there a couple hours early to stake out a spot and sit and wait. That sounds like a lot of trouble.

The otters at Fisherman's Wharf are almost a guarantee - they beg for food.

Can't help you with the fireworks, that's too far for me just to go see them.

okay that's great, Fisherman's Wharf shall be the trip highlight!
We'll also hit up the petting zoo at Beacon Hill Park.

I would be shocked if tuxes had been required anytime during the last few decades. I'd say most men wore "smart casual" attire (some wore a suit jacket, some didn't).

I agree that afternoon tea is somewhat overrated.

Instead I'd suggest having a bite to eat and a few cocktails on he Veranda which overlooks the nner harbour and has a great spot IMO.

Just got back. Glad we went. Unfortunately no otters at the Fisherman's Wharf, but there was one seal (white with black spots) and the kids loved feeding him. It was $5.25CAD to buy fish to feed him. We did go to the firework at Butchart Garden. The garden wasn't anything special, but the fireworks were amazing! We didn't really do much else in Victoria (didn't have the energy to take the kids to Beacon Hill Park), but the firework alone was definitely worth it. I've never seen anything else like it before.

Thanx fro getting back to us ^

OOOOPS, that's my bad, there are seals there, don't ever recall seeing an otter :cool: The guarantee was actually supposed to be for an otter, and you did see one - there are usually several.

English isn't my first language and while I do pretty well with it for the most part, I have been known to exchange words :eek:

Glad you had a good time.

I saw the fireworks at Butchart years ago and it is impressive. I heard that the people who are responsible also does Disney World's fireworks.

Other things I enjoy in Victoria is having afternoon tea at the Empress.

skip aft tea, as others suggested.
 

As other FTs suggested above, skip aft tea. Vastly overrated.

For those sitting on the fence, tea now costs $75 per person. The promised "improvements" consist of a piano player and less food! & yes, tea is no longer served in the Empress Gold Lounge.

There are many ferry options from WA. We took one from Friday Harbor, 2/x day. There is also non-stop service from Seattle on the Clipper (more expensive!)

Can anyone provide an update on "good value" restaurants? Plus, are the fireworks at Butchart Gardens only on Saturdays? TIA.

LAX

https://www.yelp.ca/biz/pagliaccis-victoria

Hugely popular, so get there early or you will have a long wait - Delicious and very good value.

https://www.yelp.ca/biz/spinnakers-g...ewpub-victoria

Go upstairs to the Gastropub.

Easy ride on the Harbour Ferry to get there.

I posted earlier in this thread about good dining choices. Still excellent value for the food quality/taste is Red Fish Blue Fish which is right on the inner harbour waterfront. You could also try the shacks at Fisherman's Wharf which never disappoint. A couple of other favourites are Masala Bites (1015 Fort Street) for Indian food, and the Reef (533 Yates) for Caribbean rotis. Also try Pink Bicycle (1008 Blanshard) for gourmet burgers and Baan Thai (1117 Blanshard). All reasonably priced. If you're looking specifically for budget options, then Sally Bun, Gobind Food Market (take out), Little Thai Place are ones that I would recommend. However, they are quite utilitarian in decor and not in the absolute downtown core. Depending on the transportation you have available, some will be easier to access than others.

^