"Facing the Weather and the Mountains" Victoria by glabah

Located on a series of peninsulas towards the southern end of Vancouver Island, Victoria is positioned so that it is closer to many cities in Washington State than it is to Vancouver, British Columbia. Here, on the southern end of Victoria, you can look south at the Olympic Mountains. On a somewhat clear night with just a little cloud cover in the distance, you can see the lights of Seattle reflecting off the clouds from this area.

A considerable amount of wind from the Pacific Ocean comes blasting down the Straight of Juan de Fuca. On some days the waves are quite impressive. On others, the water is fairly calm. So, from this spot you can also look west and get some idea of what the weather will be like in the very near future.

However, the core of downtown Victoria sits on the Inner Harbour, which is very well protected from the rough water. It may not be as well protected from the wind and the rain, though.

As with some of my other cities, I have developed a travelogue that gives more detailed step by step account of my visits.

Parliament Decorated for Christmas

I think everyone who visits Victoria takes at least one photo of the Parliament Building. This is the building decorated for Christmas, which a much smaller percentage of the visitors get to see. Victoria is a popular summer tourist destination, but once the winter weather hits tourists are much less common. This means there are some great deals on hotels and other parts of visiting that are not available at peak season.

However, there are also some things that are simply not available to do. For example, most of the whale watching trips shut down by October. As Victoria is known for several of its famous gardens, there are many plants that will not be in bloom in the winter.

Yet, winter months see a number of Victoria's attractions still operating. Butchart Garden is open all year, and while the hours are reduced it is even open on Christmas Day itself.

The weather here is highly unpreductable, as it is with much of the Pacific Northwest, and any time of year has a chance of clearing weather that will expose the mountains in the surrounding area. When such a clear day happens, it is best to be in Victoria in the winter, as then a wonderful view of the snow capped mountains is all the more impressive. By August, much of that snow is gone and replaced with bare rock.

Totem Poles and Family House Poles

Victoria is at the southern end of Vancouver Island, and therefore sits fairly far south of the mainland border between Canada and the USA. Direct ferry connections have operated between Victoria and various places in Washington for many decades, and even though those services are more limited today, there ferry services connecting downtown Victoria with the USA than there are with Canada.

To get to Victoria from mainland Canada, there are several ferry terminals quite far north on Vancouver Island, and connect those points with Vancouver and a number of other places. However, even the primary ferry link between Vancouver Island and Vancouver at Sidney is served by ferries that connect it with Washington's San Juan Islands and Anacortes.

Victoria's downtown area faces the Inner Harbour, which is a long and twisted waterway that opens to the straight of Juan de Fuca to the south. The tangle of waterways and rocky shoreline mean that there is very little room or reason to make the city streets run in straight east-west and north-south lines in a number of locations. This means that there are a number of oddly angled street intersections, and it is very important to have and study a map of the city. It is really easy to misinterpret the street intersections here, especially on a cloudy day or at night when there isn't any sunlight direction to help you with direction.

The vast majority of Victoria's tourist attractions are located within the downtown core, and are within walking distance of the various downtown hotels that cater to the tourist traffic. Butchart Gardens and the Butterfly Gardens are located fairly far north of the city, but public bus service as well as package tours with transportation included are available from downtown.

Victoria receives heavy doses of ocean weather, and the winds tend to be cold and wet. Even in the peak of summer, temperatures are seldom extremely hot. In fact, expect fairly cold temperatures as the wind is a mixture from the Straight of Juan de Fuca or coming north from the glaciers on the Olympic Mountains to the south.

• Pros:Great Scenery, and Many Things to Do. Discounts in Winter can be Extremely Good
• Cons:Unpredictable Weather, Food is Fairly Expensive