Victoria Holiday

Living close to Canada I have been there a few times. When young we would often be lured to go because the drinking age was 19. We went up to Vancouver one night just because we were bored to have a late dinner. So it is close and not a big deal from the Seattle area.

The first time I went to Victoria it seemed quite foreign, now not so much. It also seemed much bigger previously, now it seems fairly small and encapsulated. There actually are less people on the entirety of Vancouver Island than in the Seattle area. Victoria is all about tourism and the main income there is tourism. There really isn’t any industry there to speak of.
I had gotten a package deal off of the Victoria Clipper website, http://www.clippervacations.com/ , on the website itself I couldn’t book a package like I wanted so I talked to someone on the phone. We got four nights for the price of three and since they couldn’t get the hotel we wanted they got us an upgrade to a suite at the Executive House, http://www.executivehouse.com/.

This turned out to be a very, very nice room with all windows on two sides, a corner room on the seventh floor. One thing I have always really liked is that coming from the boat dock you can easily just walk to town and many hotels. It was a 10 minute walk to our hotel which is nice. In addition most all of the tourist activities are also quite close, within walking distance. We did take three or four taxis to places like Craigdarroch Castle, http://www.craigdarrochcastle.com/visitor.htm , which is on a steep hill, but were able to walk back down. There are buses and tours to places like Butchart Gardens, which are out of town a way.

My favorite thing was to just stroll down the street and interact with the many street people and performers. Another thing I hadn’t done previously was the “high tea” at the Empress hotel. This was fun but probably something you just do once, it was a tad pricey, about $56 dollars each. It did cover lunch though, we were quite full when we left and had deserts to go, along with an anniversary tea tin! HA! There are many fancy pants shops in the hotel selling cashmere sweaters, Indian art and the like.

We took a little boat harbor tour and since we took the less popular “north tour” we were on the small tug like boat by ourselves. By the time we left I was really ready to go home. I think Victoria is good for about four days, and then it is time to move on. The Canadian dollar is down against the US dollar once again so things are reasonably priced. This is the kind of trip even a very timid traveler can enjoy, in many ways it is less “foreign” than LA!