Victoria

Perched out on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, pretty, well-to-do Victoria hails as the most English of Canadian cities. Amidst its bustling downtown streets, grandiose castles and gothic townhouses rub shoulders with the cultivated parks of Butchart Gardens and Beacon Hill. All around, the click of bicycles and the clink of craft beer bottles forms the soundtrack, while students and backpackers weave between the market stalls of tight-knit Chinatown, the sprawling exhibitions of the acclaimed Royal BC Museum, and the regal frontispieces of the Inner Harbour—with its curious sculpture works, floating shopping streets and the iconic facades of the ivy-clad Fairmont Empress Hotel. Victoria tour guides also often recommend breaking away from the heart of the city, whether to the rolling vineyards of the Saanich Peninsula, to the sleepy streets of nearby Oak Bay, or for an unforgettable whale show in the icy northern waters, complete with humpbacks and orcas to boot.