Victoria Travel Forum

We spent March/06 in Victoria;back for March /07. We have a rental car.This year my DH would love to go visit areas out of town;we are seniors Any suggestions? I'm not interested in Tofino; too far.
We also want to take a bus package to Vancouver for a day or 2.Any suggestions of which hotel is more central.
Thank you.

i just went to saltsping island this past october and thought it was absolutely wonderful.

The Royal Scot Hotel has a great location as well as kitchens. Have a look here.
http://www.royalscot.com/

Chemainus, Duncan, Pedder Bay, Sooke, Pender Islands, Salt Spring Island.
There are lots of day trips

On South Pender Island I highly recommend Poets Cove for a nice Spa and Lunch break. www.poetscove.com on North Pender there is a fabulous little restaurant about 1 mile north of Otter Bay http://www.islandersrestaurant.com/HTML/Restaurant.html

You can rent boats a t Pedder Bay Marina and go fishing for the day, go NW of Race Rocks for a good spot.

Sooke Harbour House is one of Canada's best restaurants www.sookeharbourhouse.com

Chemainus is famous for murals all around the town. http://www.northcowichan.bc.ca/siteengine/activepage.asp?PageID=50

The Royal Scot Hotel has a great location as well as kitchens. Have a look here.
http://www.royalscot.com/

Chemainus, Duncan, Pedder Bay, Sooke, Pender Islands, Salt Spring Island.
There are lots of day trips

On South Pender Island I highly recommend Poets Cove for a nice Spa and Lunch break. www.poetscove.com on North Pender there is a fabulous little restaurant about 1 mile north of Otter Bay http://www.islandersrestaurant.com/HTML/Restaurant.html

You can rent boats a t Pedder Bay Marina and go fishing for the day, go NW of Race Rocks for a good spot.

Sooke Harbour House is one of Canada's best restaurants www.sookeharbourhouse.com

Chemainus is famous for murals all around the town. http://www.northcowichan.bc.ca/siteengine/activepage.asp?PageID=50

I second Saltspring Island as a great day or overnight trip. Even closer to town I was thinking of perhaps an afternoon at East Sooke Park? If you're wine fans you could consider visiting some of the vineyards that are just north of Victoria around the Cowichan Valley- see http://www.wineislands.ca/ for info.

I should clarify that the vineyards and East Sooke Park are two very different places.

Hey Crley, do you mean this place? http://www.venturischulze.com/
If so, they have some of the worlds best Balsamic Vinagar.

I was thinking more along the lines of "drive around, visit a few vineyards". Why stop at one? :) But sure, stick that one on your itinerary.

I wasn't aware there were that many, thanks

Thank you so much for all these excellent responses.

You might like to try the Qualicum-Parksville area. Qualicum is a nice little village with interesting shops. It is situated on the ocean and an overnight vist, staying at a motel on the beach should be fun.
I also second all of the suggestions about Saltspring Island. It's a short ferry ride and I think the village is very interesting, as are the people.

We went to Qualicum Beach last year with the Via Rail tour;it is a cute place,but it was quite cool the day we were there.
I really wanted to go to South Spring Island.I was told the markets are still closed in March.So we were wondering if we are there too early in March and if it is worth going.
Do you have to book ahead to get the ferry?I read different things and at the end didn't go.Maybe this March.Thanks for you response. We are hoping the weather is good; last year we had only 2 days of rain; every morning they predicted showers but by 11:00AM the sun was usually out.

There aren't too many places in BC where the weather is guaranteed to be good in March I'm afraid. I actually can't think of any. It's too bad you can't come in June. I never stay in Vancouver so I'm afraid I have no suggestions. Have a good time though.

We love in Northern Ontario with bitter -20s degrees and snow so...Victoria for us is Spring.

I meant Live in Northern Ontario; sorry!

LOL, kind of hard to Love at -20

LOL. I liked the "love" in Northern Ontario.

We went go see a bit of Vancouver
I am able to book a pk with Pacific coach.
We leave Victoria by bus and return,stay downtown Vancouver 2 night at the Vancouver Fairmont(downtown) $256.50 a person or the Fairmont Waterfront for $226.00Is this a good deal? While there my husband would like to take a tour to see something re winter games. Does this sound like a good plan?

I LOVE the Fairmont Waterfront. I've stayed there a few times and it's lovely. The pool is great! I've only been in the lobby of the other Fairmont in Van and it doesn't look as nice (but looks could be deceiving).

The Fairmont Vancouver, also know as the Hotel Vancouver, is a very nice hotel with high ceilings and large rooms. The bathrooms though are still small. It is in spot #1 for tourist location. The Waterfront is a great new hotel. The restaurant receives fantastic reviews also.

^ You should have seen the food poisoning I got at the Fairmont Waterfront! I had gone to Vancouver for training for my new job. The night before I started I ate at the restaurant downstairs (Herons?). I'll never forget that meal- I shared an order of vegetable tempura followed by sablefish with wasabi mashed potatoes. I don't believe I had dessert. I spent the entire next day throwing up like you wouldn't believe. I vomited all the way to my training session and had to leave after less than fifteen minutes. Then I vomited all the way back home to Victoria. I got to keep the job but I was so embarassed every time I saw my colleagues who had been at the training session...

Hotel - Five Jetgirly Stars
Restaurant - Negative One Million Jetgirly Stars

(That was in spring 2003... things may have changed!)

Complete redesign in 2004 or 2005

Thanks for your input; we reserved at the Fairmont Waterfront.Keeping my fingers crossed for the rain to stop.