Showing 1-11 of 11 results
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Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
East of downtown, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria houses one of Canada's best Emily Carr collections, in a restored and extended heritage mansion. Carr's paintings, writings and photos are regularly rotated to keep the displays fresh but there's also an important collection of Asian artworks on permanent display. Regular temporary exhibitions color the seven gallery spaces and there's a hopping calendar of lectures and presentations if you want to rub shoulders with local arty types.
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Bastion Square
On the old Fort Victoria site between Government and Wharf Sts, Bastion Square once held a jail, gallows and a brothel. Many of the scrubbed stone buildings are now restaurants and boutiques. You can purchase quirky handicrafts at the all-day Bastion Square Festival of the Arts, a small but colorful summer market.
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Craigdarroch Castle
Industrialist Robert Dunsmuir built the labyrinthine 39-room Craigdarroch Castle with his giant coal mining profits, but he died just a few months before completion, leaving his mourning wife to take up residence alone. One of the city's postcard landmarks, the multiturreted property is an elegant, wood-lined stone mansion with delightful period architecture and antique-packed rooms.
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Emily Carr House
A short stroll south of Inner Harbour leads to the lovely Emily Carr House, birthplace of BC's best-known painter. Restored to its original gingerbread exterior, the interior features period-furnished rooms and displays on the artist's life and work. As well as the limited number of original Carr works on display - the collection at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria is superior - there are ever-changing exhibitions of local contemporary works.
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Fan Tan Alley
Small but perfectly formed, Fisgard St is the center of Victoria's compact Chinatown. One of Canada's oldest Asian districts, it's fronted by a towering red gate that looms over sprawling fruit and vegetable stores and the po-faced ancients meditating outside family-run restaurants. Twinkling neon signs add a dash of nighttime excitement, while Fan Tan Alley - a narrow passageway between Fisgard St and Pandora Ave - draws daytime explorers.
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Maritime Museum
The Maritime Museum explores the region's salty past and present. Exhibits include 400 model ships dating back to 1810; displays on piracy, shipwrecks and navigation; and the Tilikum, a converted dugout canoe in which John Voss sailed almost completely around the world from 1901 to 1904.
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Parliament Buildings
If Fairyland had a legislature, this is what it would look like: wedding cake turrets, a grand entrance stairway and, at night, an exterior lit up like a Christmas tree. Surprisingly devoid of toy soldier guards, the Parliament Buildings keep a watchful eye on the waterfront, aided by a statue of Captain George Vancouver sitting atop the main dome. Built by Francis Rattenbury, who also designed the Empress Hotel, the elaborate complex is not just a pretty face.
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Point Ellis House and Gardens
The colonial elite used to hobnob at the beautiful 1860s-era mansion that is Point Ellis House and Gardens, which now houses one of Canada's finest collections of trinkety Victoriana. The house has 5000 artefacts, ranging from flowery teapots to intricate needlepoint artworks. Fascinating photos show how the upper-echelon O'Reilly family adapted to life on the fringes of the far-flung British Empire - apparently Mrs O'Reilly had a couple of affairs to salve her homesickness.
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Royal British Columbia Museum
The region's best museum, the Royal British Columbia Museum is the first stop for many Victoria visitors. Fans of natural history should make for the 2nd floor and some surprisingly realistic dioramas, including the museum's iconic woolly mammoth. Even better is a stroll through a re-created rainforest, where deer and grizzly bears eye you from between the trees.
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Thunderbird Park
On your way out from the Royal British Columbia Museum, visit Thunderbird Park, the museum's oft-photographed clutch of brightly painted totem poles, then duck into the adjacent pioneer buildings, including Helmcken House. One of BC's oldest structures, this tidy 1852 doctor's residence is lined with the minutiae of everyday family life. Refreshingly little is roped off and wandering guides provide the stories behind the displays.
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Victoria Bug Zoo
The city's best attraction for kids, the Bug Zoo houses creepy-crawlies such as glow-in-the-dark scorpions and ultra-industrious leaf-cutter ants. Informative 'bug guides' wander around explaining how the insects eat, mate and give birth. Those who can't restrain themselves can handle a few critters, including an alarmingly large 400-leg millipede. Hit the gift shop on your way out to pick up a souvenir tarantula for your favorite friend back home.
Showing 1-11 of 11 results
