British Columbia's capital city is more known for high teas than for parties, but we found two hotels there that will not only let you crash in a newly-renovated room, they'll keep you busy until you're all tuckered out.
The city's ultimate "party hotel," the Strathcona (www.strathconahotel.com/) has five bars. Yes, five. One of them is a giant full-floor nightclub where a college-age crowd dances to Top 40 music and the occasional medium-famous live band holds court. Upstairs, their parents and chaperones get down on an oldies-to-80s dance floor. Next to that, there's a classic English pub with 35 beers on tap and a game room, and a Coyote Ugly-style stag-parties-and-bikers dive bar. Above all that, an outdoor pub on a third-floor roof features the city's only rooftop sand volleyball court. A microbrewery is coming soon.
Circulating through these rooms could eat up several hours in a busy night, and if you want to take the party upstairs, the hotel has a full-scale liquor store that specializes in more obscure local products, like blackberry wine.
So the Strathcona turns the whole "hotel bar" idea on its head: it's really a bunch of bars with a hotel on top of them. We initially stopped by to see how the renovations were doing: the building dates back to 1913, so the family that has owned the hotel since 1946 decided the rooms could use a bit of freshening up.
"Freshening up" means rooms are getting bigger, nicer, but a touch blander; old-style rooms are typical budget-hotel fare. They're clean and well-worn, with oddball 70s wooden flowers on the doors and pale yellow, textured walls that must be a nightmare to keep tidy. The newer rooms are bigger, with fresh furniture, a soothing if rather blank new paint job, and high-speed Internet access in every room. If you want a bathtub rather than a shower, ask for one specifically.
Prices are low at the Strathcona, starting at C$59 from October-April for the "standard" unrenovated rooms and the "deluxe" renovated rooms. But remember that any room in the front of the building may be suffused by thumping bass up until 3 a.m. -- if quiet means anything to you, ask for something on the fifth floor towards the back.
The much-loved Swans Suite Hotel (www.frommers.com/destinations/victoria/H28249.html) is also being renovated, making a good thing better. The Swans is a reasonably priced boutique hotel formerly owned by a local real estate baron who willed it to the University of Victoria upon his death and made it the home of his 1,600-piece art collection. That means every room has original, unusually good art by mostly British Columbia artists, and the hotel's profits go to supporting the University.
Renovations here mean new carpets, new pseudo-Mission Style dark wood furniture replacing older pieces from the 1980s, new pillow-top beds, new marble sinks and new towels -- they're more about keeping things looking fresh yet classic than about totally redoing the place. Antique pieces (an armoire here, a bench there) are scattered throughout the hotel rooms, and all the new furniture was custom-made locally. The suites are spacious, often bi-level affairs with skylights, and the art is way above the quality you normally get in a hotel.
The one room that hasn't gotten much renovation is the 3,000-square-foot penthouse, formerly the residence of the mogul who owned the place, which has its own totem pole, roof deck, and 200-year-old benches and hairbrushes. The place sleeps at least six, could easily fit 50 people for a party, and has a ten-man hot tub on the roof, so the C$895 nightly rate and C$500 rate for parties and other events looks pretty reasonable.
The party downstairs in the Swans' brewpub is mellower and more mature than the Strathcona's raucous scene. There's some sort of live music most nights, and a very reasonably priced, tasty menu with local beer samplers in tiny little glasses. Fall/winter rates range from C$89 for "noisy suites" above the pub to C$209 for a two-bedroom suite sleeping four -- this place is great for families (and anyone else who likes a bit of style.)
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