Day Trip to Victoria, BC, Canada
- Kimi's Travel Thoughts
- Aug 4
- 5 min read
I have been looking forward to the day I could attempt a day trip to Canada since I spent a summer living in Canada and I found a way to make it happen on a technicality. How did it all come together? This blog post provides all the key details!
Lodging
The technicality of my day trip to Victoria is a result of spending the weekend visiting Seattle for my mom's birthday trip with her and my siblings. We spent all of Friday hanging out in Seattle (my second time experiencing a Seattle day trip) and decided to go to Victoria on Saturday because it has been a goal of my mom's to back there after she and I vacationed there with my grandma 16 years ago. For this weekend trip, we stayed at the Hampton Inn & Suites in Downtown Seattle and had a surprisingly nice suite given that it was a Hampton. My mom insisted that we stay at a hotel with breakfast included, and this turned out to be the best option for having that amenity in a good location which my brother (who lives in Seattle) confirmed when I let him know where we would be staying for the weekend. This hotel also offered breakfast to-go bags for guests that would be leaving before hot breakfast was going to be served, and that came in handy when my mom and I left early Sunday morning! I had such a nice stay at this hotel that I would like to stay there again during my next trip to Seattle.
Transportation & Getting Around Victoria
To get to Victoria, I booked FRS Clipper tickets online for me, my mom, and my sister a few weeks earlier to catch the ferry from Seattle for our day trip. With our passports in hand, we got checked in and boarded the boat early Saturday morning for a 3-hour cruise to Canada and arrived at 11:00 AM. Once we were in Victoria, we walked around most of the time to check out how the city has changed since the last time we stayed for about a week while on vacation. To get from one side of the city to the other, we caught a water taxi as a shortcut and had an opportunity take some photos and enjoy lovely views of the harbor that we hadn't experienced in the past.
Victoria Day Trip Food & Activities
With only the afternoon to hang out in Victoria, my mom, sister, and I had to be efficient with our time and know exactly what we wanted to experience for the day which primarily centered around food and photos.
Fisherman's Wharf
After docking at the ferry terminal, my mom and I were able to remember the path to walk to Fisherman's Wharf where our trio planned to eat lunch and made our way in that direction. We passed by the condo that we stayed in 16 years ago when we vacationed in Victoria which was about a block away from Fisherman's Wharf. As we approached Fisherman's Wharf, we were impressed by the amount of expansion it has seen over time. It's now a tourist hot spot that was super busy right at the lunch hour. Fortunately, we arrived shortly before the lunch rush and ordered fish and chips from Barb's Fish and Chips for a filling and delicious meal that would be heavy enough to keep our bellies full until we returned to Seattle for late dinner.
Fisherman's Wharf Fish and chips Victoria Water Taxi
Water Taxi
We decided to go to Chinatown in Victoria after lunch and opted to catch a water taxi to get there. There is a water taxi stop at Fisherman's Wharf, but we walked over closer to the condo that we previously stayed at to catch the boat from a stop next to the building. I scanned the QR code on the sign at the stop to make a request for pickup and we had an empty water taxi pulling up roughly 10 minutes later where we were able to pay with a card for one-way tickets priced at $15 each. Our captain was kind enough to take some photos of our trio as we boarded the small boat before picking up additional passengers on the way to our destination.
Pro Tip: The captain of our water taxi highly recommended using card to pay for everything because you'll get the most fair exchange rates between USD and CAD. Not all businesses use the most current exchange rates for cash payments.
Exploring Chinatown and Downtown Victoria
Once we arrived at the Chinatown stop for the water taxi, we got off the boat and decided to walk around and take some photos in the neighborhood. From there, we walked into the downtown region of Victoria on a quest for gelato because my mom loved checking out the gelato shops when we were vacationing there 16 years ago. We found ourselves in the Victoria Eaton Centre (a shopping mall) along the way and spent some time seeing what stores were there across several floors. Our search for gelato was a complicated one and we saw many places with ice cream, but no gelato. It wasn't until we were across the street from the iconic Empress Hotel that we found a little gift shop that sold gelato and my mom happily walked in to get a scoop.
Since we were across from the Empress Hotel, we walked over and took some pictures outside the building which had gorgeous gardens tulips all over the premises. We noticed a protest passing by on the street as we were taking photos and I pointed out that the Parliament Buildings were just across the street along with the ferry terminal. After walking over to the Parliament Buildings for some photos and listening to a live music performance in the background that was taking place at the front steps, we decided to spend the last 45 minutes nearby to take in the harbor views and wait to board the ferry to return to Seattle.
Wrap-Up
And that is how I accomplished a relaxing day trip to Canada on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon! I still have plans to pursue a day trip to Toronto, but this trip to Victoria was a great experience and I am happy to say this marks my first day trip to another country. If you haven't visited Victoria, BC, Canada before, I highly recommend going. It's lovely there in late spring and summer with consistently temperate weather conditions and a calming atmosphere. It's a perfect location for those that enjoy beautiful scenery, options for walking or biking, and spending time in nature. While things have certainly changed in Victoria since I vacationed there over a decade ago, the same feeling of calm and relaxation immediately hit me as I got off the ferry and that is the thing that will always draw me to traveling to Victoria.
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