Inner Harbour This harbour is somewhat the pivot of the town. You can see big ferries sailing to the USA, and also little boats for whale watching. The Parliament Buildings situated at the harbour are designed by the British architect Francis Rattenbury. At night, the building is beautifully illuminated along its contours by thousands of little lights. At the top of the biggest dome of the building is the statue of captain George Vancouver. The nearby Empress Hotel has been designed by the same architect and visitors can still take high tea there.

Royal British Columbia Museum This museum, which was founded in 1886, shows the history of men and the natural habitat of British Columbia. It has an Imax theatre where beautiful nature movies are shown. The museum is situated in the centre of Victoria and is considered one of the best in Canada.

Whale Watching As there are great concentrations of killer whales in the waters around Vancouver Island, boats are departing almost daily from Victoria to admire these animals. In these seas you can observe 2 different groups of killer whales. One group has a firm environment, the other group moves regularly to surrounding areas. The first group consists of three ‘schools’ totaling 90 whales. The killer whale, also called the ‘Orca’, is not a true whale but belongs to the dolphin family. They can grow to 10 metres and weigh 12 tonnes.

Chemainus This little town was created originally by the wood industry. A big sawmill was closed down in 1982 because of economic problems. To give the town new impetus, big “murals” have been painted on the walls of the buildings by international well-known artists. Nowadays you can see more than 33 of these so called “murals”.

Butchart Gardens These beautiful gardens came into being in 1904 when Robert Pim Butchart moved to Vancouver Island to build a new cement factory at the Tod Inlet. His wife Jennie began with the construction of a garden at her home. After the limestone in the nearby quarry had run out, this quarry was transformed into a “sunken garden”. Inspired by the many journeys that they made, the Japanese Garden, Italian Garden and Rose Gardens were planted, the latter with more than 100 different kinds of roses. Soon the gardens became famous after which visitors came flocking in from all over the world.

Mount Douglas Park The park is situated just outside Victoria at Gordon Head. There are trails in the park which lead you to the top of the 213m high Mount Douglas. From here you have a 360° all round fantastic view of the Cordova Bay, the flat country of Saanich, Victoria and the farther situated Olympic and Cascade Mountains.