Gulch Guides

Fisherman's Wharf and the Path Beyond

Stroll 20 minutes from downtown on the path along the Inner Harbor and you'll find Fisherman's Wharf - an eclectic collection of floating docks that are home to working fishing ships, floating houses, unusual boats, a restaurant, and a fresh fish store. The outdoor restaurant, Barb's Fish and Chips, is one of the best fish 'n chip places in town. The Wharf is also home to some almost tame seals that beg for raw fish from the nearby fish market.

The path to Fisherman's Wharf goes along the Inner Harbour and is a great place to watch float planes, sail boats, and ferries visiting Victoria. To find it, walk past the U.S. ferry terminals on the east side of the harbor and follow the sidewalk to the water. The harbor ferry also goes directly to the Wharf from downtown if you prefer a ride.

If you keep walking past the Wharf on Dallas Road, you will find the Ogden Point Breakwater, a long stone and cement wall which extends out to the mouth of the harbor. The Breakwater is an excellent place to spot seals, otters, and other marine life. You can stroll along the top of the wall or join the many scuba divers who explore it underwater. Either way, you might want to stop at the Ogden Point Cafe, a self-service cafe/dive shop at the breakwater's base, to warm up.

Continue past the breakwater, and Dallas Road opens up with a beautiful view of the Juan de Fuca Straight and the Olympic Mountains. For a great ocean stroll, follow the staircases and paths that lead right down along the water.

You can walk along these paths all the way to Cadboro Bay or hop a bus downtown when you decide to head back.

The Center of the Universe

If you are in Victoria in the spring or summer, don't miss the Centre of the Universe (5071 West Saanich Road / 250-363-8262), the public interpretative center at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory. On Saturday evenings, you can get down by looking up at their weekly Star Parties. The parties are truely out of this world: you can check out the center's 1.8 meter telescope, as well as look through the telescopes of various amateur astronomers who are always happy to make the stars twinkle in your eyes. Ah yeah.

The Parliament Building & The Empress

You can't miss the Parliament Building in downtown Victoria. It's a beautiful domed building overlooking the Inner Harbor on Belleville Street. Lit up at night, it becomes quite a sight and you can't leave Victoria without taking a picture of it. However, don't just look at the outside. Be sure to take one of their free tours, which are offered regularly throughout the day.

The second most photographed building in town is next door: The Empress Hotel. The hotel is so named because the city's namesake, Queen Victoria, called herself the Empress of India. If you're in the mood to play British Imperialist, there's no better place in town than the Bengal Lounge inside the Empress. For the price of a pint of beer, you can sit on a leather couch under a lazily turning ceiling fan and pretend you're in India by saying things like, "Well, my good man, I hear Allister was eaten by a tiger. He owed me five quid too. How very unsporting." While beer is not too unreasonable, be warned that everything else on the menu is rather expensive.

Butchart Gardens - Overrated? Try Hatley Park Instead

Butchart Gardens seems to be the most popular place people want to visit when they come to Victoria. Due to a successful marketing strategy, these gardens are known to just about every tourist in North America. Sure they are nice, and if you love gardens, you will surely appreciate this one. But in our opinion, you're not missing anything if you don't go. Butchart is small, crowded and overpriced.

As an alternative, visit Hatley Park at Royal Roads University. Not only does this place have an Italian Garden, a Rose Garden and a Japanese Garden, it is also home of the beautiful Hatley Castle, where many TV shows and films have been made. For example, it served as the mutant school in the X-Men movies. As an added bonus, peacocks, including some albinos, roam the grounds. And it's free .

Update! Despite leasing the publicly owned property for $1 a year and receiving public money (more than $30 million since 1995) Royal Roads University has decided to start charging the public for admission and has plans to build a hotel on the premises. These new admission fees mean that Hatley Park is no longer something cheap or budget oriented.

To get there from Victoria, take the Trans Canada Highway #1 northwest to exit 10 for Colwood and Sooke onto the Old Island Highway (#14). Travel southwest for 3 kilometers (2 miles) and turn left at the University entrance.

Mount Doug

Mount Douglas is a great local viewpoint and on a clear day it has a 360 degree view of the island and the Olympic Peninsula. For a good workout, you can do a short, one and a half hour hike up the mountain. The paths are poorly marked, but if you keep going up, you will find your way to the top. If you're feeling a bit lazy, you can also drive all the way to the top.

Mount Doug is close to downtown (about a 20 minute drive) and accessable by public transportation.

Yoga in Fan Tan Alley

Looking for a good drop-in yoga class in downtown Victoria? The best thing about Moksana Yoga (3 Fan Tan Alley / 250-385-2105) is their location. You enter from Fan Tan Alley, which is between Pandora and Fisgard. The studio is on the 5th floor and has a nice airy, rustic feeling. The other best thing is their $5 community classes which are taught by recent graduates of their yoga teacher training school, and are taught for those at all levels of experience.

Vancouver Island Brewery

Let’s face it, Vancouver Island Brewery (2330 Government / 361-0007) looks like it’s located in a strip mall. Even worse, the inside of the brewery has all the charm of a suburban dentist office. However, the reason to take a tour of this brewery is not to inspect the décor nor to even find out the difference between a lager and an ale. Heck, it’s barely to learn how beer is made. No, the true reason to tour this brewery (or any brewery really) is to sample the product and at Vancouver Island Brewery, the product is good.

Public tours are offered at 3pm on Fridays and Saturdays (with more in the summer) and cost $6. The tour, itself, lasts a little longer than a half hour and is followed up with another half hour or so in the tasting room. You’ll be given a sample of four or five of the standard beers that they brew there and, if you’re there in winter, a taste of their popular seasonal ice bock. If you’re lucky, the brewmaster himself will stop in and share a beer and some knowledge with you. Be sure to try the Hermann’s Dark – one of my favorite local beers.

Stores to Visit in Victoria

Victoria has a large supply of unique stores. The best streets for wandering are Johnson, Pandora and Fisgard between Wharf Street and Government. Following are stores we like to visit, even when when we're not planning on buying anything:

• Silk Road (1624 Government Street). Although pretty much everything in this tea store is expensive, It's worth going in anyway, if only to get a free sample of whatever teas they have brewed that day. They have an amazing selection of teas and tea-related products as well as a spa.

• Global Village Store (535 Pandora Avenue). A small store of hand-crafted fair-trade gifts at very reasonable prices.

• Capitol Iron (1900 Store Street, 250-385-9703). This store has everything: housewares, hardware, gardening, outdoors clothing, fabric and a basement full of random memorabilia and things like vintage doors, and ship steering wheels.

• Chinatown Trading Company (551 Fisgard Street) is a maze-like store filled with a little bit of everything, including a room of baskets and huge 10 foot tall sticks of bamboo. It's located on Fan Tan Alley, part of Chinatown's historic past.

• From Salt Spring Island, Salt Spring Soapworks (575 Johnson Street / 386-7627) makes a wonderful line of natural soap products at a reasonable price. When you go in, sample their salt or sugar scrub. They will leave your hands feeling silky smooth.

• The Rave 'N' Iron (Market Square / 250-361-3644) bills itself as an "intuitive urban art gallery". They take reclaimed iron and steel and polish, weld, meld, and cut it into beautiful and very unique jewlery and art. Be sure to ask the friendly owners who are often working behind the counter how they make their stuff.

• A Little Bit of Hanoi (Market Square / 250-388-6830) is easily found by the gleaming rickshaw that is usually parked in front of the store. The small shop sells Vietnamese imports ranging from brightly colored silks and handbags to hand-made crafts and gallery quality arts.

The Westsong Walkway

One of the nicest walks in Victoria is the Songhees Westsong Walkway. This promenade follows the twists and turns of the Inner Harbor and provides great views of the Olympic Mountains, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the busy harbor. There are plenty of picnic tables, benches, and drinking fountains along the way.

To get to the Westsong from the Inner Harbor, cross the blue Johnson Street Bridge and follow the sidewalk that leads to the water in front of the hotels. The trail is roughly 2.5 miles long each direction and it takes about an hour and twenty minutes for a round trip walk.

The far side of the trail ends and the Westbay Marina and stopping by the Fin and Gill for a cold beer or nice meal before walking back to downtown makes a nice afternoon outing. Alternatively, the trail also winds in front of Spinnakers, another great spot for sipping a beer while watching the view.

Swimming in Victoria

One of the sad facts of life in Victoria is that the water that surrounds Vancouver Island is usually too cold for swimming. However, Victoria makes up for it's lack of a warm, tropical ocean with a variety of good fresh and chlorinated swimming holes.

Freshwater Swimming:

• Located about 12km from downtown is Thetis Lake Regional Park. This 1600 acre park contains Upper and Lower Thetis Lakes which, during the heat of summer, are great places to go for a dip. There is a large, sandy beach near the main parking lot or follow the paths around the lakes to reach other swimming areas and bays. Walking the complete loop around the lakes is a great activity no matter what time of year. To get to Thetis Lake, follow Douglas Street, which becomes the Highway 1, west from Victoria. Take the Colwood exit. Turn right onto Six Mile Road, which leads you directly to the parking lot. It's easy to find and there are signs.

• Sooke Potholes Provincial Park is one of the best places to go swimming on the entire island. The "potholes" are a series of naturally formed pools carved out of the sandstone bedrock of the Sooke River. The water in the potholes is clear and clean. You can swim in the pools or hike along the narrow canyon and as the river cascades through small sets of waterfalls. The Sooke Potholes are a popular destination are are located about 45 minutes from downtown Victoria. To get there, follow the Highway 1 (the Trans-Canada Highway) from and take the Millstream Road exit (Exit 14) to Sooke. Follow Veterans Memorial Parkway, then turn right on Sooke Road. Turn right on Sooke River Road and follow the signs.

For a great day or weekend, you can bike to both the Sooke Potholes and Thetis Lake on the Galloping Goose Trail, a 55km multi-use and mostly off road trail that goes from downtown to Sooke. Camping is also available at the Sooke Potholes.

Pools:

• The Crystal Pool (2275 Quadra, 250-361-0732) is within walking distance from downtown. It has a large 50-meter pool, a water slide, a kiddie pool, a sauna, a steam room, and a hot tub. If you'd rather not get wet, there are also various cardio and weight rooms. It costs $4.75 and is open late most days. It's only $2 after 9pm.

• The Saanich Commonwealth Place (4636 Elk Lake Drive, 250-475-7600) was built for the 1994 Commonwealth Games and is a first class place to go get wet. It contains a 50 meter pool, a dive tank, Victoria's only wave pool, a water slide, a steam room, a sauna, and several kiddie pools. It also has a full size gym, dance and yoga studio, a cafe, and a full library (what good pool doesn't). Admission is $5.25.

The Bubble Tea Bar

Bubble tea is, without a doubt, one of the most ridiculous beverages ever created (well except maybe for $3 bottled water) and yet I find myself drinking them often. They consist of a healthy tea infused with a super sweet or tangy flavor and slightly smaller-than-marble-sized balls of tapioca. This brightly colored drink started in the 1980’s in Taiwan and they are drunk through super fat (and always neon colored) straws throughout greater Victoria.

The Bubble Tea Bar at Panacea Imports (532 Fisgard / 250-391-8960) in Chinatown is probably the most popular place to get your bubble fix in Victoria. It has one of the largest selections of exotic flavors in town and the staff have perfected the art of the bubble. The prices here are fairly competitive with other bubble tea stores in town. Try my favorite - the Jungle Fever - for a tangy blend of pineapple, kiwi, and lychee.

Jimmy's Barber Shop

Need just a gentle trim or a full out taming of the shaggy beast on your head? Jimmy’s Barber Shop (250- 384-2629 / 728 Fort Street) offers an old world charm and professionalism that is sorely lacking from most modern, chain store haircut places. Take a seat in one of the chairs (Jimmy, himself, works out of the first chair closest to the street). You’ll be draped in a black and white pinstripe cloth that matches the barbers’ own jackets, given a stellar haircut, and have your neck slathered in hot lather and shaven with a straight edge razor. Just when you think the visit is over, the barber will strap a 1950’s style shiny “magic fingers” vibrating box to the back of their hand and give you a brief head and scalp massage. All of this for just $12 - it’s the best deal in town.

How to Get There - By Bus

Victoria has a good bus system, BC Transit, (250-382-6161), that features working double decker buses. You can get most places if you know how, and now there's a site to help with that. It lists 100 of Victoria's attractions and how to get there by public transportation for about $2 or $3.