If I had a dollar for every time someone thought Vancouver was BC’s provincial capital, I still wouldn’t be that rich as most people don’t really ask. Among the thousands of things in named after Queen Victoria, Victoria City stands out as being one of the earliest settlements in Canada. Despite having a sleepy reputation, I did have fun in my few days here, and can also see it as a place for a 2 week detoxification or relaxation routine.

Arrival

While we covered this in an earlier article, see below for a summary

Ferry: The Vancouver (Tsawwassen) to Victoria (Swartz Bay) ferry is the best travel option, and typically costs under $100 for a vehicle. Note that Swartz Bay is actually 32 KM away from city center, and is accessible by public transit.

Medium Sized Plane: The Vancouver (YVR) to Victoria (YYJ) flight costs between $150-$200 typically, and is serviced by several airlines including Pacific Coastal, Westjet and Air Canada. Similar to the above, the airport is actually 30 KM away from city center.

Small Seaplane: For the real ballers, or those who are time crunched, the Seaplane flies from downtown Vancouver to Downtown Victoria in just over 30 minutes. However, this convenience comes with an added cost, with tickets typically at around $300 a person.

Politics in Victoria

I am extremely privileged to be born in a democracy, and even more so to be able to see BC’s Legislature. Finished in 1898, the legislature costed just under $1.0M - with inflation, you can barely buy a shack in Vancouver for that price.

The stuffed animals are a tribute to the suffering Native American children endured while being forced to attend residential schools. While we can’t change the past, the best we can do is acknowledge and learn from it.

On a lighter note, the BC Legislature offers tours of the building: they are first come first serve, with tickets being distributed at 9:00AM. For reference, we got there at 9:30AM, and managed to snag tickets for the 11:20AM tour.

The kind tour guide started us in the lower rotunda by explaining several notable pieces of BC history, including a hand-carved canoe from the former Lt. Governor of BC, the former mace of the legislature and the BC coat of arms. This is an amalgamation of BC’s natural beauty (animals, nature, flowers) and BC’s history.

On top of the rotunda stands a 2M tall statue of Captain George Vancouver that is covered in 14-carat gold. As we moved around the building, it was evident the builder’s fondness for gold leaf. We moved up to the 2nd floor, the Memorial Rotunda, which pays tribute to both Canadian soldiers and BC’s main industries of farming, fishing, mining and forestry. Though I suppose today it should be real estate and athleisure clothing.

For anyone attempting to steal the gold, the tour guide unceremoniously informed us that if al the gold was melted, then it would only be the size of a large coin. We then proceeded to down the hall to the actual legislative assembly.

On a national level, Canada is a federation: given Canada’s vast size and differing governing climates, power is split between the federal and provincial governments, with the latter having powers over medical care, public lands, certain parts of justice, education, natural resources. With this in mind, the BC Legislature is a unicameral (one) chamber with 87 Members of the Legislative Assembly, and is government by the New Democratic Party with the Liberal Party as the official opposition. That’s right, BC is so west that the Conservatives have no power here (they’re basically the BC Liberals).

A surprise happened: another tour guide posed as Mary Ellen Smith, the first women in the BC Legislature, and gave us an overview of her interesting, trail blazing life. Through her and other’s tireless campaigning, BC women gained the right to vote in 1917. This photograph, characterized by a hat and dress in a seat of suits and mustaches, is a tribute not only to Mary Ellen Smith, but also a reminder that there is far to go for women in many other parts of the world.

The tour meandered down the rest of the hallways, and ended on the first floor again. We were treated to many stained glass windows - these were gifts from the province of BC to Queen Elizabeth II for her years of rule as the Queen of England and the Commonwealth. The Jubilee list goes: Silver (25), Ruby (40), Gold (50), Diamond (60), Sapphire (65) and Platinum (70, hopefully soon). Seriously though, who comes up with these names.

Also, the window was accidently stored in the basement for over a decade before being found - talk about forgetfulness. This leads well into what I did afterwards, which is take a look at Victoria’s best kept food secret (or maybe not, given it’s advertised up front): the Parliamentary Dining Room.

After going through security and walking a couple minutes, I arrived at the dining room. It reminded me of those fancier, British style restaurants, as I received a proper table cloth, cutlery and even flowers on my table.

I ended up ordering a steak sandwich for $15, which turned out to kind of be a sandwich (see below). For the price, I don’t think you can get anything better in Victoria, as I saw many staffers rush in and out carrying takeout boxes.

Yes I realized I devoted several photos in a politics guide to food. But is important, as “there are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy”. The one minor complaint is that the portion sizes were a bit small, which meant I went and got fish tacos at Red Fish Blue Fish afterwards. Note the lines for Red Fish Blue Fish were really long, mainly because the Tacos were fantastic.

I visited the building later at night, and it looked splendid lit up like that.

Beacon Hill Park

This 200 acre park is one of Victoria’s prime attractions, and came into being thanks to Sir James Douglas, the first governor of British Columbia.

There is wide variety of flora (plants) and fauna (animals that eat the flora) in the park. Walking in, we were greeted by what I thought was a coyote…which later turned out to actually be a peacock!

Trying to redeem myself, I took a picture of another animal…which turned out to be a water fountain. The government maintains this park quite well, as we saw employees mowing lawns, clearing dead plants and cutting trees (yes, this is important enough to make the news).

In fairness to myself, there were a lot of bodies of water in the park that was the home of many animals, such as adorably fat ducks.

So as not to write anything wrong, here is a picture of some type of cute bird with some type of smaller birds.

And another picture of what I am now pretty sure is a peacock - note the peacock just did it’s thing in response to how awesome we were.

There also is a rocky beach at the “end” of the park facing the Strait of Juan De Fuca; we had fun trying to skip rocks.

The park also has picnic areas, law bowling, tennis courts, putting greens, cricket pitches and even a Children’s Farm, so if visiting plan to spend at least 3 hours in the park.

Park II - Fort Rodd

Despite being generally pretty peaceful, Canadian troops have maintained strength on the battlefield - during WWI, they were actually called “Shock Troops”. And some of them were trained in Fort Rodd Hill Park, a former Canadian military installation that was active until the 1950s. While entry costs $7.90 per adult, an affordable way to visit the place is through the Parks Canada Discovery pass, which can be purchased for $139 for a family.

Canada housed a lot of it’s “big guns” here, theoretically to snip at German / Axis / Other enemy ships if they invaded through the West Coast. Vancouver and Victoria, being natural harbours and home to great ports, would have been juicy targets for invaders.

There were also exhibits about how troops lived and trained, making me feel a bit better about my grinding powerpoint job.

There were also electric lights, but they were used to illuminate the ships to then be blasted at. Pity they didn’t have lasers in WWI.

There were additional pieces of older military equipment on display, of varying types and lengths.

The other cool park of the park was the lighthouse, but first we had to cross a seaside path guarded by certain animals. See if you can spot the actual seal, which is so chubby it looks like a log.

Fisgard Lighthouse is one of Canada’s last lighthouses in operation, and was built in 1860’s by the British. Apparently there was a huge squabble between different British Government departments on who would pay for it. For it’s first ~70 years, a real person / family manned the lighthouse, although it has been automated since 1928.

While I forgot to take a list of the lighthouse keepers, I do recall that there was one lighthouse keeper that lasted less than 3 months, and one that did for more than 20 years! Even though I am more introverted, I don’t think I can last more than a month as I need good food.

Royal Roads and University of Victoria

Speaking of other people, we went off any took a quick peak at Royal Roads University and the University of Victoria. Interestingly, Royal Road is actually on the Hatley Park National Historic Site - it leases the land for $1 a year from the Canadian Department of Defense. I guess why this is their main campus building.

For those looking to get married, this is a popular place: indeed, the tent above indicated that a wedding party would be coming tomorrow. The garden below is also quite cute, and there were rabbits running around in it (or more accurately, napping in it).

Next up, we stopped by the University of Victoria, BC’s SECOND best university. Some notable institutes include sea floor and ocean research, climate modelling, energy systems. In contrast to Royal Roads, the buildings were unfortunately quite pedestrian (unlike in Waterloo).

I got the sense that the University unfortunately placed less of an emphasis on walkability than the other campuses.

That being said, university buildings were closed to outsiders, so we just strolled around outside. The building below looks like a poor attempt at copying the SAUDER school of business, my alma matter.

Hotels

Victoria is famous for the Fairmont Empress, along with a myriad of other Waterfront hotels. While I debated staying at the Fairmont, from the pictures it unfortunately looked like it’s best times were behind it.

The inside of the hotel was still very grand, abet a bit tired.

The place we actually stayed at was called the Inn at Laurel Point. Don’t skip over this because it isn’t part of a big brand: this place was fantastic. Part of the hotel is undergoing a renewal, but we didn’t see anything during our stay.

For those driving, parking is $18, although the concierge kindly mentioned to us that there was a place a few minutes away to park for free.

This hotel catered more towards an older crowd - as a 25 year old, I think my friend and I were the youngest ones there.

The hotel bills itself as 4 star, which includes premium furnishings, affordable luxuries, pools, fitness centers, room service, parking, etc. The furnishings did look spectacular, and complemented the outside view quite well.

There was an art show going on - pieces started at around a grand, and only moved upwards. Me, I would rather have a new iphone lol.

The pool was open though! Which is the first time I’ve seen such a thing for at least a year and a half.

We got the base room with 2 double beds in the Laurel Wing on the 4th, or highest floor. The room overall was typical, although I do say it appear to have a lot of space considering it was only 300 sqft.

The real star of the show was the view! Drinking coffee in the morning, relaxing to that view made the vacation worth it.

Overview

Victoria gets a bad reputation for being a boring city. I will instead characterize it as it’s a city that doesn’t want to be “exciting” in the traditional sense: buzzy bars, towering skyscrapers, fast paced lifestyles have no place here. The people tended to slowly enjoy the nature and lifestyle, which in my opinion is something big city dwellers like myself need to learn. For a busy traveler, 2 days in Victoria is sufficient to hit all the “main” attractions; however, for those seeking a time away from it all, a couple weeks enjoying nature is definitely possible. After all, look at these views!