Day Trips - Victoria

Shakespeare’s axiom “What is past is prologue” is best contemplated in the lobby of Victoria’s 1908 Fairmont Empress Hotel, drinking stiff black tea and eating raisin scones with double Devon cream. Afternoon tea has been served there for over 95 years and makes a perfect, if caloric, introduction to Victoria’s love affair with Olde England. With its manicured trees, fish and chip houses, and 19th-century façades, the only thing missing from the Englishness of Victoria is a Rent-A-Corgi service.

Once you’ve had your fill of crustless cucumber sandwiches, you can walk from the Empress’s central Inner Harbour location to several other attractions: the Parliament Buildings, the Royal British Columbia Museum and the Maritime Museum of B.C. If you have children in tow, you can reward their lack of fidgeting at teatime with visits to Miniature World (the world’s largest dollhouses and the world’s smallest sawmill) and the Royal London Wax Museum. The wax museum features British royals, historical figures, a gruesome Chamber of Horrors and, most terrifying of all, various Canadian prime ministers.

Double-decker tour buses are available for city tours and destinations like Butchart Gardens and Craigdarroch Castle. If you’re over-Anglicized by the end of the day, you might head to one of Victoria’s excellent non-British restaurants. Café Brio, to name one, is a well-loved local bistro rooted in Italian village cuisine and West Coast eclecticism, and the menu is guaranteed to be Yorkshire pudding free.

Getting there:
Call BC Ferries at 888-223-3779 for schedules. Victoria Travel InfoCentre is at 250-953-2033 or 800-663-3883.

The Sight:
The ghost of philandering Empress Hotel architect Francis Rattenbury — a handsome chap with a moustache and a long frock coat — usually seen hanging out on staircase landings at the hotel.

The Sound:
Dragon boat coxswains barking orders at their paddlers and drumming them to victory, either on training runs in the harbour or during the annual Victoria Dragon Boat Festival, August 18 to 20 (250-704-2500).

The Souvenir:
The Rogers’ Heritage Tin, a collection of 25 chocolates by Victoria’s oldest chocolatier, in a gift box printed with an archival photo of Government Street in 1911. Rogers’ Chocolates, 913 Government St., 800-663-2220.

The Fairmont Empress Hotel, 721 Government St., 250-384-8111.
Royal British Columbia Museum, 675 Belleville St., 250-356-7226.
Maritime Museum, 28 Bastion Square, 250-385-4222.
Miniature World, 649 Humboldt St., 250-385-9731.
Royal London Wax Museum, 470 Belleville St., 877-WAX-FACT.
Double-decker buses: Grayline of Victoria, 800-663-8390; Victoria Regional Transit, 250-382-6161.
Butchart Gardens, 800 Benvenuto Ave., Brentwood Bay, 866-652-4422.
Craigdarroch Castle, 1050 Joan Cres., 250-592-5323.
Café Brio, 944 Fort St., 866-270-5461.