Vacationing in Victoria B.C.

[Colorado-PC-Dude]

All,

My wife and I are taking a holiday in July to Victoria B.C. and are looking for recommendations for good hotels and restraunts and for interesting things to do. We will have our two daughters with us so we can't do any bar hopping or the like. :-(

Any advice/recommendations/sugestions welcome.

Thanks,
Ben

[randychase]

This is one of the coolest cities to visit In My Opinion. I really enjoyed it.

Must See tourist and sights:

1. Buschart Gardens. Spend the day here. Just incredible.
http://www.butchartgardens.com/main.php

2. The Royal Museum. The best dioramas I have ever seen. Very nice.
http://rbcm1.rbcm.gov.bc.ca/

3. The Empress Hotel. You can't miss it. You can have tea here or just wander around a bit.

4. Craigdarroch Castle. Really cool place. Worth the visit.

5. Beacon Hill City park. Check this out for an incredibly clean and well done park.

6. There are some nice natural spots away from the city if you like to explore a bit.

There are some typical tourist things like the wax museum and undersea gardens, petting zoo. I recommend doing the tour bus that takes you around town to get a very nice overview. It's worth it.

There are tons of places to eat. Lots of nice seafood and such. I enjoyed strolling around the downtown. Reminds me of San Francisco mixed with London, but smaller.

[randychase]

http://www.bctravel.com/aboutvictoria.html

Pretty good info.

[Colorado-PC-Dude]

This is one of the coolest cities to visit In My Opinion. I really enjoyed it.

Visit? Now that we've been there we're planning on buying a summer home there, maybe even a year-round home. As you can guess, our trip was a resoundingly good time. The only bad experiences were Black Ball Transport (ferry from Port Angeles Wa.) and some ****** American tourists. The locals are as friendly as can be but I got a good understanding why American tourists are becoming disliked almost everywhere. Only San Francisco can compare with Victoria and even Frisco doesn't compare well.

If you've never been, go! One bit of advice however. Wait until you cross the border before you exchange any currency. You get a better exchange rate in Canada than you do in the states.

Ben