| | Overview (Source: Frommers) |
If you miss the old in Vancouver, you'll find plenty of it in Victoria, some 80km (50 miles) across the Strait of Georgia on Vancouver Island. Victoria took the opposite approach from Vancouver and preserved nearly all its heritage buildings. As a result, British Columbia's capital, beautifully sited on its own Inner Harbour, is one of the most charming small cities you'll ever find (it has about 325,000 residents in the Greater Victoria area, compared to around two million in Vancouver). Since it's on an island, accessible only by ferry (the best way to go) or plane, a more leisurely sense of time prevails in Victoria. It's a perfect antidote for stressed-out mainlanders. For years Victoria marketed itself quite successfully as a little bit of England on the North American continent. So successful was the colonial sales pitch, residents began to believe it themselves. They began growing elaborate rose gardens, which flourished in the mild Pacific climate, and they cultivated a taste for afternoon tea with jam and scones. They were islanders ruled by the mother island from which all culture emanated and was exported. For decades this continued, until eventually the people of Victoria saw the glories all around them instead of those reflected from a dying empire. The town became a lot more interesting. It was discovered that not many residents of Victoria shared a taste for English cooking, so restaurants branched out into seafood, ethnic, and fusion cuisines. And
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| When To Go (Source: Fodors) | Top | Victoria has the warmest, mildest climate in Canada: snow is rare and flowers bloom in February. Summers are mild too, rarely topping 75°F. If you're here for dining, shopping, and museums, winter is a perfectly nice time for a visit: it's gray and wet, and some minor attractions are closed, but hotel deals abound. If your focus is the outdoors—biking, hiking, gardens, and whale-watching—you need to come with everyone else, between May and October. That's when the streets come to life with crafts stalls, street entertainers, blooming gardens, and the inevitable tour buses. It's fun and busy but Victoria never gets unbearably crowded. Festivals to plan your trip around Victoria's top festivals take place in summer, when you're apt to encounter the best weather. For 10 nights in late June, international musicians perform during JazzFest International. Victoria's Inner Harbour becomes an outdoor concert venue in early August for Symphony Splash, when the Victoria Symphony plays a free concert from a barge moored in the middle of the harbor. August also is the time for the Victoria Fringe Theatre Festival, during which you can feast from a vast menu of offbeat, original, and intriguing performances around town.
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