If you miss the old in Vancouver, you'll find plenty of it in Victoria, some 80km (50 miles) across the Strait of Georgia on Vancouver Island. Victoria took the opposite approach from Vancouver and preserved nearly all its heritage buildings. As a result, British Columbia's capital, beautifully sited on its own Inner Harbour, is one of the most charming small cities you'll ever find (it has about 325,000 residents in the Greater Victoria area, compared to around two million in Vancouver). Since it's on an island, accessible only by ferry (the best way to go) or plane, a more leisurely sense of time prevails in Victoria. It's a perfect antidote for stressed-out mainlanders.
For years Victoria marketed itself quite successfully as a little bit of England on the North American continent. So successful was the colonial sales pitch, residents began to believe it themselves. They began growing elaborate rose gardens, which flourished in the mild Pacific climate, and they cultivated a taste for afternoon tea with jam and scones. They were islanders ruled by the mother island from which all culture emanated and was exported.
For decades this continued, until eventually the people of Victoria saw the glories all around them instead of those reflected from a dying empire. The town became a lot more interesting. It was discovered that not many residents of Victoria shared a taste for English cooking, so restaurants branched out into seafood, ethnic, and fusion cuisines. And lately, as visitors have shown more interest in exploring the natural world, Victoria has added whale-watching and mountainbiking trips to its traditional London-style double-decker bus tours. The result? Victoria is the only city in the world where you can zoom out on a boat in the morning to see a pod of killer whales and make it back in time for an expansive afternoon tea. Still, life is much quieter and 10 times more laid-back than Vancouver, but that's part of Victoria's charm. And if you add the Butchart Gardens, a truly world-class garden that celebrated its centenary in 2004, and the fabulous First Nations art collection in the Royal B.C. Museum, you've got all you need for a memorable vacation just a 90-minute ferry ride from the big city. If you want to explore more of Vancouver Island, head to Tofino and Pacific Rim National Park on the Island's wild, wet, west coast.
