Victoria Things to Do Tips by tvor

It's going to be on everyone's list. If you dont' like flowers and nature, of course, you won't want to go there. But even for someone like me who can take or leave this sort of thing, you will find it an attractive and peaceful place to visit. The one caveat is the crowd. In summer the paths will be chock full. I went at the end of April on a sunny day and it was fine though not all the gardens were in full bloom.

It was originally a quarry and the owner's wife began designing bits of it near the house into gardens in 1904. Eventually people were coming just to see the gardens and horticulture took over. It's still owned by the same family.

Some of the favourite spots in the 55 acres are the sunken gardens, the Japanese Garden and the Rose gardens. There are several cafes and restaurants on site as well as gift shops, seed shop and public facilities.

It's 21 km north of Victoria but there are busses and special day tours out from downtown Vancouver as well, sailing over on the Schwartz Bay ferry.

Leave a Comment

Directions: The 75 bus from downtown Victoria will get you there.
Website: http://www.butchartgardens.com/

What an interesting museum! It's located right downtown beside the provincial buildings on one side and the grand old Empress hotel on the other. In behind the museum is Thunderbird Park where there are about a half dozen or so totem poles. When i was there, there was a special exhibition at the museum called Out of the Mists, the special treasures of the Chiefs of the Nuu-chah-nulth but the English word for the tribes is Nootka. Some of the other west coast tribes are the Haida, Saanich and Tlingit. There were a lot of wooden decorated ceremonial masks and "curtains" in particular.

There is a natural history section with a full size replica of a wooly mammoth.

The third part was focussed on the history of Victoria and B.C. in the last hundred years with reproductions of shops, and businesses, artifacts and costumes and even a half-model of the Cook ship Discovery. Captain Cook was said to have landed in the Vancouver/Victoria area although the cities weren't really established until the mid 19th century. There were settlers, loggers and trappers here and there of course. You couild spend all day in this museum!

Leave a Comment

Website: http://rbcm1.rbcm.gov.bc.ca/