Victoria?

On our upcoming cruise we stop in Victoria on the last night of our trip... we have already been to the gardens... what else would you recommend to do there? Is there somewhere else to walk or take a cab to? Maybe a good place for dinner? This is the only stop I haven’t booked an excursion and am still unsure what we are going to do there. Thank you for any suggestions you send my way....

I was really looking forward to visiting Victoria and I was very disappointed with it. The main problem was that true there wasn’t enough time or the right time of day to do anything. It was well after 7pm by the time we got set free and it wasn’t enough daylight to see the sights. In fact I turned around and went back to the ship on the first bus back after doing a bit of a walk on the main downtown street. My traveling companions decided to find some where for a drink but were faced with high cover charges to access any of the bars. They decided that for one drink it wasn’t worth it and they came back to the ship about an hour later. If I could do it all over again I’d stay on the ship and take part in the amenities I hadn’t tried. I’m sorry I don’t have a suggestion for you in Victoria.

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The Royal BC Museum is good.

If you have good weather, enjoy a nice walk from the pier to the Inner Harbor. At the halfway point, 10 minutes, you'll come to Fishermans Wharf a busy commercial wharf with restaurants, stores, fresh fish, seals, otters, eagles. Interesting floating homes as well. Map here:

http://fishermanswharfvictoria.com/page/index

The Inner Harbor is beautiful and photogenic.... Empress Hotel, Parliament Bldgs, totems, gardens, beautiful hanging baskets, or just watch all harbor traffic of pleasure boats, ferries, an kayaks, and scheduled float planes.

Or if you enjoy gardens and views, go to Beacon Hill Park, which isn't too far from the pier. It's 200 acres so lots of walking.

http://www.victoria.ca/EN/main/residents/parks/beacon-hill.html

IF the weather is bad, the Royal BC Museum is excellent.

When in doubt, always google the town's web site for helpful info:

https://www.tourismvictoria.com/

Depending on what time you dock and are released, I would second the museum. World class exhibits and specialty displays.

Enjoy your visit.

Karen

We were there several years ago and for us it was also the only port I hadn't prearranged a tour. Half of our group didn't leave the ship but my husband, 2 of my kids and I walked out. There were pedi cab operators at the end of the dock and we went on a really nice tour of the city. We really didn't go in anywhere but it was a lot of fun to see the city and we were all glad we got off the ship!

What we do on cruise stops is always the same - BC Museum if there's enough time and it's open (it's big - even a pretty cursory visit is worth a couple of hours, and they have some pretty big touring exhibits and IMAX movies that can take up more) and ALWAYS a pint or three in Swans Brewpub (British style beer recipes, 'real' ales, and most importantly a proper cellar that holds beer at the right drinking temperature - Spinnakers across the water also have a good cellar and better views, but I prefer Swans beers).

We've also hit many other pubs in Victoria over the years, though not all so maybe I'm drinking in the wrong (or rather right!) establishments, but I've literally never even heard of a cover charge for a bar in Victoria (or Vancouver, or Toronto, or anywhere else in Canada I've lived or visited) unless there's a special event/live band, especially if it's a vaguely well-known band.

In terms of a nice resto - without YOUR definition of 'nice' OP, and some idea of what kind of food you love/hate and what you're willing to spend on a meal, it's pointless making suggestions. Victoria may not be huge, but it's a government town and one of very few large 'civilized' areas on the Island, so they have a very high proportion of restos/bars for their population. Way too many choices without some extra info to narrow things down!

On our upcoming cruise we stop in Victoria on the last night of our trip... we have already been to the gardens... what else would you recommend to do there? Is there somewhere else to walk or take a cab to? Maybe a good place for dinner? This is the only stop I haven’t booked an excursion and am still unsure what we are going to do there. Thank you for any suggestions you send my way....

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We have enjoyed walking to Fisherman's Wharf and having fish and chips at Barb's. It is seriously good. You can walk around the wharf, see the seals playing near Barb's, visit the houseboats. If it's not too dark, ride on one of the mini-ferries to the Inner Harbor in front of the Empress Hotel.

I don't know the timing with other cruise lines, but the one thing that's really disappointing with Norwegian's itinerary out of Seattle is the stop in Victoria. 6:00pm until midnight is such a limited time. They offer only 4 excursions.

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We had been to Victoria before and done the gardens and were generally not wanting to do too much. This trip we were in port from only about 6:30 PM until midnight so there wasn't a lot of time. What we decided to do was a little shopping downtown after having dinner somewhere. What we ate was poutine. We had been to a poutinerie in Vancouver a couple years ago that was great and discovered there was another by the same name in Victoria. We grabbed a cab right after getting off the ship and went straight to La Belle Patate at 1215 Esquimalt Road - it's about a ten minute cab ride from the central business district. It's a small place with only one large table and a counter to sit at at the front window - there was a couple small tables on the sidewalk too. Definitely a neighborhood eatery with many people dropping by to pick up something to take home - it's not slick and fancy but that's fine with us. Very friendly people and the food was excellent! The owner, Matti, was surprised that we had strayed so far from the other tourists. Ha Ha They called us a cab for the ride back to downtown. I'll be going back because their poutine is fantastic!

Glad you found what you wanted. I just can't fathom why anyone would go out of their way for poutine, I wouldn't cross the street for it [emoji3]

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Glad you found what you wanted. I just can't fathom why anyone would go out of their way for poutine, I wouldn't cross the street for it [emoji3]

 

 

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More for us! ;p It'd be a boring world if everyone liked and enjoyed the same thing, no?

We only had about 4 hours in Victoria on the last night of our cruise and I'm SO glad we resisted the strong urge to stay on board. We picked up an excellent map at the port that outlined three different walking routes and headed for the Inner Harbour to see the Parliamentary buildings. It was 1-2 mile walk (each way) and we really enjoyed all the charming little homes and flower gardens on the way. (There are various transportation options readily available at the port if you don't want to walk.) The Parliamentary building lit up at 9pm and was absolutely beautiful! We walked around enjoying the sights and sounds (bagpipes! cellos!) for a while before heading back to the ship by a slightly different route through the neighborhood. We didn't buy a thing or step foot in a single business, but I feel we got a good taste of Victoria in the couple short hours we were there. It has a very peaceful, gentle vibe to it. It was my first time stepping foot in Canada and was the perfect end to our cruise!

We just spent four days in Victoria prior to a cruise from Vancouver to Seward. It is a scenic, pretty town but dont expect big must sees other than the gardens. We most enjoyed walking around the inner harbor listening to the street musicians. Lots of flowers everywhere. People are extremely friendly and nice. Good restaurants and unique shops. We went to Fisherman’s wharf late morning and there was nothing going on. A few food stands with picnic tables. One shop and it was closed. The houseboats are cool to look at. We saw no wildlife at all. No fishing boats were coming or going. But it’s a lovely waterfront walk from the inner harbor. We had gone whale watching and seen the Museum on a previous visit and they were very nice. We took the bus that transfers us to Canada Place via ferry and it was an easy and reasonable way to travel to Vancouver.

Whatever you do, do NOT do the double-decker bus tour. It was awful!! We were wishing there was some way we could have jumped out halfway through. It was really almost painful. We would have had so much more fun just going for a little stroll along the waterfront or literally doing ANYTHING other than the double-decker bus tour. :(