Hotels

Victoria has been welcoming visitors and adventurers for more than a century, so it knows how to do so with style. As in Vancouver, you'll find a disarming friendliness when you check into a Victoria hotel. The city has a wide choice of fine accommodations in all price ranges, most in the Old Town, in downtown, or around the Inner Harbour and within easy walking distance of the city's main attractions (except for Butchart Gardens). But you don't have to limit yourself to Victoria proper. A 20-minute or half-hour drive north, east, or west takes you to all manner of marvelous resorts and inns, some on the ocean, some next to quiet bays and harbors, and some perched on mountaintops. You'll find information on the hotel choices in Brentwood Bay, Sooke, Sidney, Bear Mountain, and Malahat in the "Outside the Central Area" section.

Spas are now an almost essential part of big hotels in Victoria -- so much so that the Inner Harbour has been dubbed Spa Harbour, with major spas at the Delta Ocean Pointe, the Fairmont Empress, and the Hotel Grand Pacific. You can get fine spa treatments at all three and also at Brentwood Bay Lodge, Westin Bear Mountain Golf Resort & Spa, and the new Sidney Pier Hotel & Spa.

Be sure to check the hotel websites for special packages, and promotional or seasonal rates cheaper than the rack rates listed here.

You'll save big-time if you schedule your holiday from October to May. When the high summer season starts in June, rates tend to skyrocket, especially at the finer resort hotels.

Reservations are essential in Victoria June through September. If you arrive without a reservation and have trouble finding a room, Tourism Victoria (tel. 800/663-3883 or 250/953-2022) can make reservations for you at hotels, inns, and B&Bs. It deals only with establishments that pay a fee to list with them; fortunately, most do.

Prices quoted here don't include the 10% hotel room tax, the 7% provincial accommodations tax, or the 6% goods and services tax (GST).

The Best Bed & Breakfast Registry -- If you prefer to stay at a B&B other than those listed in this chapter Canada-West Accommodations Bed & Breakfast Registry, P.O. Box 86607, North Vancouver, B.C. V7L 4L2 (tel. 800/561-3223 or 604/990-6730; www.b-b.com), specializes in matching guests to the B&Bs that best suit their needs.