Oh, Victoria. My, my! You dazzled us with your charm and beauty. You even gave us picture perfect weather during the third week of September…lucky us!
Upon our arrival, we instantly knew 2 days wouldn’t be long enough, but all the more reason to go back soon. We literally did not stop the entire 2 days. I’d say we were quite successful doing most things on our list, although we left much of the beautiful island untouched.
Here are some of my favourite shots from our time in Victoria. A photography lover’s dream, it was! At the end of the post, I’ll give you a brief summary of what we did and where we ate. To my surprise, Victoria is very vegan-friendly. Three cheers for that!
Ghost pictures were taken at night!! (click to enlarge) Eric made me do it… ;)
What we did:
– Walked around the charming downtown, Butchart Gardens, drove along the coast and walked along beaches (man, that sun is strong!), shopping (check out Sarah’s Place in Market Square), farmer’s market, enjoyed a drink or two at Irish Times pub with amazing live music, bought snack food at Planet Organic, waterfront for sunset, late night photography fun w/ tripod.
Where we stayed:
– Oswego Hotel. Modern suites. Full kitchen (I really appreciated the French press and blender!). 5-10 min walk to downtown. Downside – no A/C and a hot room, but we weren’t in it much anyway. From what I hear, A/C is rarely needed on the island. You can click to enlarge the above hotel pictures.
Food highlights:
– Café Bliss (loved the Thai Noodle Bowl and the Bliss BLT!!), the famous Rebar Modern Food, brunch at Mo:Le (vegan options like tofu scramble). All highly recommended!
I think I might have to put together an entire post on Butchart Gardens…so. many. pictures. to share!
Victoria, you’ll forever hold a special place in my heart.
What gorgeous photos! Rebar is amazing; I bought their cookbook. I’ll have to check out Sarah’s Place — did you go to Green Cuisine while you were in Market Square? They have some of my favourite desserts.
We popped in and snagged a couple desserts there….yum!! forgot to mention it in my recap.
I was just there last weekend and found the Green Cuisine and fell in love. We were there three days and found it on our last day. We went back for every meal and bought the Gluten Free cookbook. I am making dinner and dessert out of the cookbook tonight.
I have that cookbook too! Love the mudpie bars and peanut butter blondies!
Isn’t Victoria beautiful!! I am so lucky to live here full time. Can you believe the premier recently stated that she avoids Victoria?! “No real people” “sick culture” or something along those lines.
So thanks for showing how nice it is here! Hope you enjoyed yourself!
Love that you went to cafe bliss!! Hope you got a chance to try some of their desserts too!! My fav stop in Victoria! We love it there – it’s only 3 hours away but we don’t get their often enough!
This makes me miss Vic so much!
I love Victoria! My boyfriend and I have often talked of moving there because it’s so beautiful- and spring like weather year round! I loved looking through the pictures and being able to tell where you were!
I was in Victoria this summer for a week for the Epicure Selections national conference. I agree with you, this place is amazing!! I’m from New-Brunswick and it was my first big trip. I was just truly amazed by the beauty of the city. I’m glad you enjoyed it too :)
All such gorgeous pics!! I love the one of the street art. I think I’ve been to Victoria before but I was probably too young to remember anything about it. Can’t wait to see more!!
Such beautiful photos!! Now I want to go to Victoria :) I love the art on the ground… Glad you had a good time!
LOVE Victoria! It is like my home away from home (vancouver)! Island living is so beautiful and relaxing – I hope to one day live there after post seconday schooling is done! AND so many great restaurants there – I always have such a hard to time deciding where I want to eat when I am over there.. SO GOOD! Did you go out to Ogden point and Beacon hill park?
I don’t think we made it there, but will have to next time. :)
Glad you enjoyed this beautiful city. It’s another gorgeous day here today. Come back soon :)
Ok you need to work for their board of tourism because you just convinced me to put this on my life’s bucket list of places I need to see. How stunning! That blue, blue sky! And all there is to do and see..how fun!
You’ll have to come back! You missed Green Cuisine (though the desserts are the best part) and Lotus Pond! Lotus Pond is an amazing all-vegan, Buddhist Chinese food buffet. It’s definitely my favorite restaurant here.
We did manage to snag a couple desserts from GC – so good! I forgot to add it into my food recap. I had this AMAZING caramel-like square with hemp seeds – have you ever tried it? I can’t recall the name but man it was good. Didn’t get to Lotus though, but it sounds like a nice spot.
Stunning photos! Cafe Bliss is my fav place to eat here.
Come back soon, so much more to see/do :)
I am surprised you were surprised at it’s vegan friendliness. Being vegan/vegetarian is one of our westcoast stereotypes. One I happen to love. :-) So glad you liked it out here. Next time you come through, you should travel up the island to visit some of the central/north island communities and experience our absolutely amazing outdoors. The island has it all. Wonderful cities and breathtaking wilderness.
I know, right? I’ve heard about it being veg-friendly in Vancouver, but I didn’t realize it was in so many areas. What a pleasant surprise though! We would love to go back and spend more time exploring the island. I feel like we only got a taste of it.
Such beautiful photography Angela! I’ve only been to Victoria once as a child but would like to go back. I do remember going to the gardens though. I would love to eat at Rebar! A friend gave me their cookbook years ago and it’s fabulous. Will you be sharing more of your eats from the trip?
Your photos are gorgeous (as always)!!! Looks like you had a great time – makes me want to visit Victoria some time. :)
So glad you enjoyed Victoria, and that you were blessed with beautiful weather while you were here. I’m lucky enough to live here myself and I try to take it all in on a daily basis (Rebar is one of our favorites!) Please come back and visit again soon ;)
Stefanie Dixon
P.S. Love reading your blog.
Lucky girl! We will definitely be back!!
Wow, those are beautiful photos! Makes me want to get back to Victoria.
So glad to hear you enjoyed Victoria! September is always the nicest weather of the year. I don’t think I actually know anyone here who owns an air conditioning unit for their house. We truly only get a weeks worth of super hot weather a year, it’s just not worth it. You hit up most of my favorite places so I am crossing my fingers for some Victoria inspired recipe recreations soon!
That’s what we heard too. makes complete sense!
Good to know Sept is the nicest time of the year there. I find we always have good luck when traveling in Sept!
Ya for whatever reason September seems to be fairly rain free which is rare for the island. The spring is just beautiful here, but it’s very hit and miss for rainy days. I’d only plan an April-June trip here if it was for a week just to guarantee some dry days :)
good to know, thanks!
A man we spoke with at a pottery store told us it’s not uncommon to have a couple month stretches without rain in the summer. Do you find that to be the case too?
I’d say that’s a lie. We always get a week or two of rain every summer!
It’s so cool to see that you have romped around my homeland!!! Looks like you had a great trip!
Love,
CP
I am so homesick seeing this! Miss taking the ferry over from Vancouver! Beautiful pics Ange!
Gosh those pictures look beautiful!! I want to go!
We went to Victoria last month and spent a week there. It still wasn’t enough time! It so was fun to go through the post and point out places that we saw. I was so excited to see you stayed at The Owesgo too! We loved it! I was a little surprised with the lack of AC as well but we had a great cross breeze with the windows so it was perfect. I can’t wait to go back!
glad you also enjoyed it :)
What gorgeous pictures! Was that lit up ivy covered stone building your hotel? That building is so beautiful!
Nope that was the Fairmont I think?
Hi
The hotel with the ivy is the Fairmont Empress but we just call it the Empress. The building with all the lights is our Legislative Building. It and the Empress were built at around the same time, and designed by John Rattenbury. We are very proud of both those beautiful buildings :) Victoria is my home town, can you tell?!?!
I think it is perfecting timing that I found your website right after you were here. I was looking for a gluten free, dairy free pumpkin pie and yours was the first recipe to come up. The pie is in the oven and I can`t wait to try it. I made it with the classic filling and the pecan crust. Smells great in my house :)
So glad you had a great trip! Lovely photos!
Is that a cruise ship? I’m sure that would be a gorgeous area to take a cruise!
I think it might have been! We were on the ferry to the island when I took that pic.
That’s actually another BC Ferry (similar to the one you were on). They go in both directions non-stop throughout the day and at one point in the 1.5 hr journey, you will pass each other. :)
But yes, our ferries that take you from Vancouver (the mainland) to the Island are more like cruise ships. They have cars in the lower decks and then 2-3 decks of seating, restaurants, etc. Nothing fancy but better than most ferries I’ve been on around the world!
Looks lovely! Can I just say that this is my favourite travel post I have ever read? I’m not a big fan of travel recaps when they are long and drawn out. This was a perfect way to do it – the highlight reel :-)
Thanks Sarah!
Omg – the buildngs! So beautiful. I hope to visit B.C. one day, too.
Beautiful photos! Looks like you guys had a really great trip. I love the ghost pictures, haha – you two are adorable :)
Oh my! It looks amazing! I wanna go too :)
It looks beautiful there- I would love to visit it someday.
I moved to Victoria this summer. I’d fallen in love with it for all the reasons you mentioned! :)
I was born and raised in Victoria but left in mid-September to go to the UK, in hopes of finding work (not happening!) and staying for a bit. In doing this, I’ve realized how much I actually love Victoria and now I terribly miss it. Ah, sigh! Thank you for this post, it’s so lovely to see other people’s perspectives on my hometown. Rebar and Mo:Le are amazing!
Beautiful photos! Isn’t the west coast amazing? I sure miss Planet Organic—I think they have another location somewhere in the GTA area though? Brampton maybe?
I definitely find that BC is more health-friendly, animal-friendly, environment friendly in general.. it’s hard not to be when you’re surrounded by such perfect scenery. Glad you enjoyed your trip!
yup we have one in Port Credit :)
Victoria looks beautiful! I had been when I was very young so don’t remember a lot of it, but from the looks of things…i have to go again! :) Glad you had such a great trip!
We lived there for a year and I have to say I felt Rebar a disappointment, but that was more than adequately made up for by many other places around town. Green Cuisine was always a favourite and easy go-to though : )
Gorgeous shots – I love that one of the sunset (sunrise? I can never tell the difference)! I really hope to visit there someday soon.
I am SO putting this on my ‘to visit’ list! Gorgeous pics!
Wow, such gorgeous photos, Angela! :D Did you guys EVER luck out with the weather! xoxo
Gorgeous photos! I love your pictures, they make me want to visit Canada!
Completely beautiful! Thanx for sharing the pics, now I know where I’ll be headed for my next vacation :P
I’m so thrilled to see you had such a wonderful time here in Victoria! I absolutely love living here and I am so lucky. Next time you must check out other towns/cities on the island. I grew up in a small town about 3 hours away and it is completely on the water. Not a lot to do, but if you are an outdoorsy person (which I know you are) you will love it! Glad to see you checked out a few of my favourite restaurants, especially Rebar! Their vegan brownie is to die for!
Would’ve loved to have run into you while you were visiting my hometown! I would’ve told you just how much I love your blog and how you never steer me wrong with your recipes. Victoria is so amazing and I never take for granted just how beautiful and awesome it is. So glad you ate at the restaurants you did – Mole is my absolute favourite!! Well, and Rebar (fantastic cookbook also), Green Cuisine and many others. You’ll definitely have to go back!
I love Victoria! We live in Washington State. If we drive up north to Port Angeles, WA there is a ferry that goes across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Victoria, BC. Absolutely beautiful!
I love Victoria. I have only been there once and it also holds a place in my heart. Your pictures and trip just looks so fun!!
WOW, absolutely stunning scenery!!! Great pictures, now I want to go for a visit :D First I’ll have to get an updated passport [minor detail haha]…
My sister works at Rebar – Victoria is full of vegan and vegetarian places!
Pretty! It looks gorgeous.
Thank you for the gorgeous photos and the feature on my hometown. My husband and I moved here exactly one year ago, a dream come true. I have wanted to live in Victoria for as long as I can remember. I was not surprised that it is vegan-friendly; after all, this is the west coast! Love your site.
i too love the island. So much to see. Nanaimo and Parksville/Qualicum are lovely too. Parksville has a store called Naked Naturals that makes the most amazing green bars that I adapted to my own :-) Tofino…ahhhh. I need to go back. I loved Buchart Gardens too. Sigh. Time for an Island trip.