Victoria, BC

Victoria was established as a Hudson's Bay Company fort in 1843, and the British colonial imprint remains visible in its architecture, double-decker buses, afternoon tea tradition, and pronounced enthusiasm for gardens. The B.C. Parliament Buildings and the Empress Hotel, both completed in 1898, define the Inner Harbour waterfront and reflect a self-conscious Edwardian monumentalism that was part of affirming British power on the Pacific. The Butchart Gardens in the Saanich Peninsula north of the city began in 1904 when Jennie Butchart began planting flowers in her husband's depleted limestone quarry now a 55-acre formal garden complex visited by 1 million people annually. Victoria's whale-watching industry exploits the rich waters of the Salish Sea resident orca pods, harbor porpoise, humpbacks (increasingly common as their populations recover), and Dall's porpoise are regularly seen on 3-hour tours from the Inner Harbour. The Royal British Columbia Museum is one of Canada's finest provincial museums, with exceptional First Nations collections and natural history exhibits. Craigdarroch Castle, a four-story Second Gothic Revival mansion built in 1890 for a coal baron, is Victoria's most distinctive Victorian building and offers self-guided public tours.