The government is flying me out to Victoria, BC this weekend to attend a week long officer assessment board with the Navy (all expenses paid ). In addition to scheduled stuff, I will also have one or two free days to explore the city. Has anyone here ever been to Victoria? If so, what are some of the best places to visit? Grizzled -- didn't you live in BC for a while?
if it was next weekend you could have headed over to vancouver to watch my footy game and then we could have partied down. i havnt been to victoria in many years though.
If you play golf, there are some awesome courses on the Island. The botanical gardens are very nice, too, if you appreciate that sort of thing.
The Ukranian culture center. Hot girls. Dancing. Find the student info for the local university. There's a college right there. The kids like to party. There's live music venues and coffee houses and bookstores and cyber-cafes and whatnot. Fun kids. Empress Hotel. After you meet girls from above. Great fish and chips. Fresh Halibut. That pub by the empress is good. Good food all around. Good beer. I usually don't like beer. It's very good.
Smeg -- not that one; the other Victoria pasox -- I think I'm going to lay off the beer on this trip. I arrive late Saturday evening and Sunday is my free day, but I have to be up at 5:30 am Monday morning to get ready to meet the administration. Don't want to risk being hung over or sick. We're also spending a half day at sea on Tuesday. I think I'll just use Sunday to do some sightseeing and make it an early night.
If you are into strip clubs, the Red Dragon is the best I have ever seen. PS You are one lucky guy, Victoria is the most beautiful city I have ever seen.
Victoria is also the most beautiful city I've ever seen, but if I was going by myself and I only had one day......I'm not sure what I'd do. Some people call it the city for "The newlywed and the nearly dead." It does have a lot to offer in the way of romance and quaintness, but I'm not sure what to suggest to a young male out by hiself. Personally, I'd go to the gardens, but I'm weird like that. They are spectacular. As much as I love the city (I'll be there in June....first real vacation in almost two years), I'd almost suggest that you take the ferry over to Vancouver. It's a short trip, and Vancouver is much more cosmopolitan. If you like beautiful scenery, you might want to drive over to Nanaimo, then take that ferry over to the North part of Vancouver....then take the short drive up the Sea to Sky highway into Whistler. It wouldn't give you a TON of time in Whistler, but it would be a fun trip.
There will be 58 Navy candidates (3 from Newfoundland) staying at the hotel, so I probably won't be alone. Some places within walking distance: Royal BC Museum Market Square Craigdarroch Castle Inner Harbour Galloping Goose Trail Beacon Hill Park ChinaTown & Fan Tan Alley (I don't know, but it sounds cool) Market Square is probably a must. ChinaTown and Craigdarroch Castle sound neat too. I hope it doesn't rain.
Travel north up the island and rassle some polar bears! Actually, there is quite a bit of touristy things to do in the area where you are staying. All of it is easily within walking distance. I was there about two years ago and the one thing I missed out on is driving northward away from Victoria (as opposed to southward into the Pacific ). My wife and I were staying in a Best Western, one block west of the Parliament building and when we first arrived, all of the roads around the building were blockaded off and there were hundreds of protesters. I became a bit nervous and wondered if we had made some sort of mistake leaving Vancouver. Apparently we had arrived right around the time that Parliament sessions were starting up and that apparently brings the protesters out of the woodwork. A few hours later the uproar died down and the streets opened back up. It was an interesting welcome to Victoria. I definitely want to go back to visit. As silly as it sounds...I really enjoyed the ferry ride from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay. The homes on some of the outlying islets off of Vancouver Island were stunning..
