Victoria Sightseeing Tour – Day Trip by Air, Land and/or Sea

“No city is further away from Britain – yet no city is more British” Sarah Morgan, author

2-12 participants

Western Canada’s oldest city, Victoria BC is also the most remote bastion of Britishness. With its moderate climate and scenic setting, Victoria has retained a very vital but comfortable quality of life.

Victoria is proud of its British heritage, its fine homes and neighbourhoods, its historic and attractive downtown, the flowers and parks and, of course, the Inner Harbour with its vistas toward the famous Empress Hotel and the Parliament Buildings.

Victoria residents have a passion for gardens, golfing, and greenery and for civility. British influence is reflected in the shops along Government Street where you can hunt for linens, china, antiques, and woolens. Dozens of tearooms offer afternoon tea with cream puffs and dainty sandwiches.

Victoria is located on the Southern tip of Vancouver Island. As the crow flies, Victoria is about equidistant (100 m/60 km) from Vancouver or Seattle. However, getting there is a 4-hour one-way overland trip by car/motor coach and by ferry.

Unless you plan to stay in Victoria overnight, traveling overland to and from Victoria will take up most of your day and you won’t spend much actual time in Victoria itself.
The good news is that Victoria is a very walk-able city and a 5/6 hour stay will convey quite a comprehensive snapshot of the city’s flavor.

We offer a variety of one-day Victoria sightseeing tours from Vancouver that allow you to leave your car behind. Discover Victoria in a day on a Victoria sightseeing tour and let us worry about the transportation logistics.

Just a quick note to thank you for all your help and our fabulous day in Victoria. Lotus Land Tours took all the worry out of what could have been a difficult day. Instead, we saw Vancouver and adjacent islands from the air on a glorious morning, hopped into Victoria harbor with the fabulous flowers spelling out “Welcome” and had a wonderful day in the museums, the town, tea at the Empress and Butchart Gardens! Back to Vancouver by ferry and then coach right to our hotel door. What more could we ask for? At the end of August, this was the perfect send off for our children headed to college !

Thank you, thank you for your assistance in giving us such great service and making us feel so at home in Vancouver! Nobody does it better!

Sincerely,
Susan Weeks Leinberger
Lancaster, PA

Option 1 – Victoria & Butchart Gardens by float plane, bus & ferry
Victoria sightseeing tour time about 5 hours. Arrive Vancouver about 21:00

Option 2 – Victoria & Butchart Gardens by float plane and speed boat
Victoria sightseeing tour time about 5 hours. Arrive Vancouver about 20:00

Option 3 – Victoria & Butchart Gardens by bus and ferry
Victoria sightseeing tour time about 2 hours. Arrive Vancouver about 21:30

Option 4 – Victoria & Butchart Gardens by bus and ferry
Victoria sightseeing tour time about 2 hours. Arrive Vancouver about 21:30

Things to do on a Victoria sightseeing tour

Victoria is very walkable and the best way to experience the horticulture and architecture of Victoria is on foot. Here are a few suggestions for things to do in Victoria.

Butchart Gardens
This is easily the most popular place of Victoria, the “Garden City”. Started in 1904 in abandoned limestone workings by Jenny Butchart, wife of a wealthy quarry owner, Butchart Gardens have have been developed into a 20 ha (50-acre) horticultural tour de force without rival in Canada. The Italian garden, rose garden, Japanese garden and sunken garden are among the loveliest. Open spaces among the pools, fountains and the many exotic plants are used for artistic and musical performances.

Allow at least about 1.5 hours for the visit. From Victoria the Butchart Gardens are located 11 miles northwards on the Saanich Peninsula, near Brentwood Bay. If you are returning to Victoria, allow an hour travel time for the round trip. Two of our Victoria Trips (Options 1, 2 and 5) return to Vancouver directly from the Butchart Gardens. For more information visit www.butchartgardens.com.

Whale Watching
Orca’s visit the waters off Victoria all year round. Humpbacks and Gray whales visit the area in the spring and the fall during their migration season. Combine 2 popular activities into one and take a whale watching safari from Vancouver to Victoria.

House of Parliament – Victoria is the capital of British Columbia and rules with British parliamentary traditions. Most of the legislature sittings are open to the public. Share one of few Canadian tax benefits and take a free tour of the House of Parliament. Tours are offered daily.

For tour information visit www.leg.bc.ca/info/2-2.htm

Shopping – Victoria is a great place to shop for British wools and textiles. Douglas Street is the center of shopping in Victoria. Browse for English silver and Victorian treasures in the antique shops along Fort Street.

Royal British Columbia Museum – Outstanding contemporary exhibits and a large screen Imax cinema with exiting programs make this one of the most visited museums in the country. Discover British Collumbias natural history and the unique cultures of British Columbia’s First Nations.

For information on current exhibits visit www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca.

Royal London Wax Museum – Meet the wax likeness of Queen Victoria and other personalities from Canada’s past. The Chamber of Horrors is always popular with kids.

For information visit www.waxmuseum.bc.ca.

Victoria Bug Zoo – Right downtown Victoria is the home of some of the worlds most incredible insects, arachnids and other creepy-crawlies. There are a variety of live creatures for your viewing enjoyment – scorpions, tarantulas, mantis, centipedes, giant stick insects, colorful beetles, huge grasshoppers and more! Friendly tour guides will let you hold some of our multi-legged creatures.

Why not take home a pet Tarantula? For information visit www.bugzoo.bc.ca.
Victoria Harbour Ferry – For a unique water view of the city take a tour with Victoria’s Harbour Ferries. Stop at Fisherman’s Wharf for a look at Victoria’s unique houseboat community.

Visit www.victoriaharbourferry.com for more details.

High Tea – the British tradition to serve tea and sandwhiches is popular in Victoria. You can, of course, go to the the Empress Hotel together with everybody else. For A more intimate experience of this English custom visit the Gatsby Mansion, a restored turn-of-the-century Victorian patrician home with a superb view Victoria’s inner harbour.

For Information visit www.gatsbymansion.com.

Another suggestion is the Point Ellice House. This historic house museum was built in 1861. It was a family home for 3 generations. Original furnishings & personal effects displayed as in the 1890-1920 period. Early Victoria pioneers. Heritage garden presently being restored to original plan. Afternoon tea served on the lawn overlooking the water 5 days a week in May-June & 7 days a week July-August. Highly regarded by visitors. Can arrive by Harbour Ferries from Inner Harbour to our dock, for $5.

For more information visit www.pointellicehouse.ca.

Marine Wild Life Tours – Race Rocks on the most Southern Tip of Vancouver Island experiences extraordinary tidal flows; among the strongest on the North West Pacific coast. Race Rocks is also a protected wildlife reserve for a myriad of Stellar and California sea lions, Elephant seals, Dalls & Harbour Porpoises, bald eagles, cormorants, auklets, murellettes, and a large number of other shore birds.
Discover the marine wild life habitats of the West Coast on a 2 hour Zodiak tour with a trained naturalist. Weather permitting trips are offered throughout the winter. Dress warm – you travel in all-weather survival suits. For more information visit www.racerocks.com.

Victoria Carriage Tours – A horsedrawn carriage ride through the city is a romatic way to experience Victoria.

Contact www.victoriacarriage.com for more information.

Victoria Harbour & Gorge Waterway Cruise - This unique 75 minute all-encompassing cruise of the harbour and Gorge Waterway will give you a taste of the ocean (Juan de Fuca Strait) as well as the sedate waters of the Gorge Waterway, going as far up stream as the famous Reversing Falls.

Highlights include a view of the Olympics from the busy Harbour mouth where huge cruise ships are moored. In the Harbour you will experience the remnants of a once proud working harbour; ships still being repaired, barges being filled with metal scrap and gravel, fish boats and their crew marking time at the dock, and in the new economy, float planes landing and noisily taking off in steady procession over a constant stream of boat traffic. In the background modern hotels and condos and busy marinas compete for the sun along the shoreline like forests of old. . Buildings such as the Empress Hotel and the grand architecture of our Legislative Buildings take on a new perspective from the water.

Once out of the harbour and under the old Blue Bridge and into the tidal waters of the Gorge, a new stream of traffic in the form of brightly coloured kayakers and racing shells play a new game of “dodgem” with our vessel. Log booms and saw mills have long given sway to expensive homes, expensive boats and optomistic expectations that its eel grass and abundant sea life will continue to make a recovery. The roar of the Reversing Falls appear to be a constant in all of this change; and time is spent here just contemplating, listening and enjoying. This cruise is truly a cruise into history and introspection. .

Visit http://blackfishadventures.com for more information.

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