48 Hours in Victoria, BC
Kim here! Last weekend, my husband and I took a quick trip to Victoria, BC just to get out of Seattle for a bit and explore. The city offers gorgeous parks and gardens, innovative restaurants serving the freshest food, and all the charm of old world Britain. If you're a Seattleite looking for a fun Labor Day weekend activity, this would be perfect! Or if you're planning a visit to the Pacific Northwest, I would definitely recommend tacking on a two day stop in Victoria. We organized nearly every trip detail through Clipper Vacations - the ferry ride to Victoria, our hotel, and a visit to Buchart Gardens. It was all part of a package deal.
SATURDAY, 11:00 AM - BUCHART GARDENS
Once we arrived in Victoria, a tour bus was waiting to whisk us off to Buchart Gardens. The drive there took over an hour. Of course the bus took the scenic route so the guide could tell us about the history of the city. Honestly, I was still a little sleepy from waking up at 5:00am so I fell asleep during the bus ride (no shame). The Gardens are seriously so stunning! The area is sectioned off by themes, the Italian Garden was hands down my favorite and not just because there was a gelato shop there - haha! My husband and I have been trying to figure out how we want to landscape our own back yard, we left Buchart Gardens with a ton of ideas on what to do. Not all of them are realistic, but we love to dream.
SATURDAY, 6:00 PM - DINNER OVER THE WATER
After a nice afternoon nap at the hotel, we kicked off our evening festivities with dinner at Finn's Seafood Chops Cocktails . I originally chose this restaurant because of it's cute outdoor deck that overlooks the Inner Harbor. How romantic, right?! However, by the time the evening rolled around, I was way too cold to sit outside. Luckily, the inside of the restaurant is equally as cute and they have massive windows so we still got to watch the sun go down over the water. If you're not the kind of person who choses their restaurants based solely on decor/vibe, let me tell you that the food is good too! Finn's works with local fisherman to get the freshest seafood possible, caught from the sea each morning.
SATURDAY, 8:00 PM - DRINKS AND NO DANCING
Since it was a Saturday night we wanted to experience a bit of the nightlife in Victoria. So we headed to Bard & Banker for drinks. This restaurant is drunk with history, it was originally the Bank of British Columbia, and has done a great job of preserving all the beauty of a building that was built in the late 1800's. The place was already buzzing with energy when we sat down for our first round of drinks. By round two, a live band was set up and playing covers of pop songs. I wanted to get up and dance with the rest of the crowd that had formed in the bar. I mean, that's what you do when you're tipsy and your jam starts playing! But my husband is a painfully shy dancer so I settled for bopping around in my seat. I don't think the dance floor could have handled me anyways - haha!
SUNDAY, 11:00AM - STROLL THROUGH CHINATOWN
We started off day 2 in Victoria by walking to Chinatown for dim sum. The restaurant we went to was okay, I think it's hard to beat the all the amazing dim sum places we have in Seattle. Then we took a leisurely stroll through Chinatown. It's the oldest one in all of Canada and has lots of quirky shops and weird narrow alleys. Apparently, these were linked to the many opium dens Chinatown had back in the day. The narrow alleys made it harder for the po po to chase after people. These days it just makes for some fun exploring.
SUNDAY, 1:30 PM - AFTERNOON TEA
I booked our tea reservation at the Fairmont Empress nearly a week in advance. It's kind of necessary as there's like zero chance of getting a table same day, with no reservation. This was THE THING I was most excited to do on our trip. The entire experience was everything I had hoped for and more! The vibe of the tea lounge is so regal, our server even had a Scottish accent. I honestly felt like I was transported to the English countryside. The menu is a fixed selection of scones, tea sandwiches, and pastries. It was honestly a ton of food. We sat there for two hours sipping tea trying to finish it all. I had to give up by the second hour, I just couldn't do it!
SUNDAY, 4:00 PM - BRITISH COLUMBIA PARLIAMENT
It's hard to miss the green domes of the Parliament buildings in Victoria, and even hard not to wander around there. I have a thing for architecture so seeing the old baroque style buildings was kind of fun.
SUNDAY, 5:00 PM - HAPPY HOUR
You may be thinking to yourself, how on earth could they eat again?! And I honestly don't know how we did it! There were just so many restaurants I wanted to try while we were in town and The 10 Acres Commons was one of them. This is another restaurant that is committed to serving fresh sustainable food. Since we were still kind of full from our afternoon tea binge, we didn't go too crazy and ordered oysters and drinks. My belini was seriously the cutest drink I've ever seen and was soooo tasty! After happy hour, we grabbed our bags from our hotel and caught the 7:00 ferry ride back to Seattle.
There you have it folks, my complete two day itinerary in Victoria, BC! Do you have any other suggestions for things to do in Victoria or questions about my trip? Let me know in the comments!
