Things to do in Victoria

Landmark · Downtown, at the foot of Government Street

The working harbour at the centre of the city — the 1898 Legislative Assembly outlined in lights, the Empress hotel opposite, float planes landing among the water taxis, and the Coho tying up from Washington State.

Local tip: The float plane traffic is the thing to watch: this is a scheduled commuter service to downtown Vancouver taking about thirty-five minutes, and it is the fastest link between the two cities. Free public tours of the Legislature run most of the year, and the building is genuinely worth the hour.

Nature · Immediately south of downtown

Seventy-five hectares of Garry oak meadow, ponds and gardens running down to a cliff-top path above the Strait of Juan de Fuca, with the Olympic Mountains across the water in Washington.

Local tip: Go along Dallas Road in a winter southeasterly when the strait is white and the mountains are clear — it is the best free thing in the city and almost nobody visits in February. The Garry oak meadows are a genuinely endangered ecosystem, which is why parts are fenced off in spring.

Culture · Fisgard Street, north end of downtown

The oldest Chinatown in Canada, established in 1858 during the Fraser gold rush, with Fan Tan Alley — a metre wide in places — running through the middle of the block.

Local tip: The alley was a gambling and opium quarter and is now full of very small shops; go on a weekday morning before the cruise passengers. The interpretive plaques on Fisgard are unusually honest about the head tax and the exclusion era, which is not true of every heritage district in Canada.

Food · West of the Inner Harbour, Erie Street

A floating village of brightly painted houseboats, fish-and-chip and seafood kiosks, and a resident harbour seal population that has learned exactly how this works.

Local tip: Take the little harbour ferry across from the Inner Harbour rather than walking — they are the smallest passenger ferries you will ever board and in summer they perform a synchronised water ballet on Sunday mornings, which is exactly as odd and as charming as it sounds.

Neighborhood · North-east of downtown, around Gladstone and Fernwood Road

A dense pre-war neighbourhood of narrow streets and heritage houses around a tiny square with a theatre, a bakery, a coffee shop and a co-operatively run grocery.

Local tip: This is where the city's non-tourist life happens and where a newcomer is most likely to end up making friends. It is also a useful housing lesson: character conversions with cheap rent and no insulation, walkable to downtown, and precisely the sort of stock that is being eyed for redevelopment.

Nature · James Bay and Vic West, either side of the harbour mouth

A 750-metre concrete arm reaching into the strait past the cruise terminal, decorated along its base with a large Coast Salish mural, and a harbourside path opposite running from the bridge to the point.

Local tip: Walk out on the breakwater in a westerly when the swell is breaking over it — it is the closest thing this sheltered city has to open ocean. The Unity Wall mural at its base is worth reading properly, and the Songhees walkway across the water gives the best view of the downtown skyline at dusk.