Victoria, BC HyperLocal City Guide featuring Neighborhoods, Zip Codes Business Directory.

With its well preserved Victorian and Edwardian architecture, bountiful flower gardens, and civilized ways, Victoria looks and feels like an outpost of the British Empire. Located on the tip of Vancouver Island, Victoria is the capital of the province of British Columbia and its second largest city.

Victoria’s most visible landmarks are the Parliament Building surveying the busy Inner Harbour. These century-old buildings were designed by Francis Rattenbury, British Columbia’s best known architect during Edwardian times. The grand-looking Fairmont Empress Hotel, also designed by Rattenbury, dominates the city’s waterfront. Afternoon tea at the Empress is one of Victoria’s defining rituals and should not be missed.

As befitting such a historic city, Victoria boasts plenty of fine museums. The Royal British Columbia Museum has excellent displays highlighting Victoria’s past, as well as natural history displays and a First Nations gallery. On Bastion Square, in the heart of Old Town, the Maritime Museum of British Columbia is housed in an 1889 building. Here you will find historical maps, navigational maps, model ships, and other exhibits related to maritime history.

Some of Victoria’s splendid old mansions have also been turned into museums. Helmcken House, built in 1852, brims with elegant Victorian furniture, and Emily Carr House was once the home of Victoria’s most famous painter. Craigdarroch Castle dates back to the 1890’s and is a symphony of elegant architectural styles. Point Ellice House serves afternoon tea in lavish Victorian gardens.

Thanks to its mild year-round climate, Victoria is a city of gardens. In Beacon Hill Park near downtown, paths wind through beautiful flower gardens. Crystal Gardens, behind the Fairmont
Empress Hotel, is a glass-covered Victorian conservatory harboring topical plants, birds, and monkeys. Buchart Gardens northwest of the city center sprawls over more than 50 acres.

Most of Victoria’s shops and restaurants can be found downtown and in Old Town. Victoria’s compact Chinatown, said to be the oldest one in North America, also has plenty of restaurants plus intriguing historic sites, such as Fan Tan Alley, which claims to be the narrowest commercial street in Canada.

Written by: John Mitchell