Cruising with a stop in Victoria BC

We are cruising in mid-May and pretty much booked most of our excursions except for Victoria. When I was researching I ran into Pedicab tours. I would appreciate any information on if you enjoyed them and your thoughts.

We've been on two cruises that stopped at Victoria. We stayed on the ship both times. It's such a short time to be there, so we decided not to miss dinner.

If you have any interest at all in gardening or just enjoy beautiful landscape design, I highly recommend Butchart Gardens. When we did this 11 years ago the cruise line excursion also included a scenic drive and narration about downtown Victoria.

We looked at one of those when we were there last summer. If I remember, we skipped it because they were pretty expensive. We just wanted to walk around a bit and kind of keep it cheaper. I think after spending so much on the excursions during the cruise, and the limited time we had, we just wanted to keep it simple. We grabbed a cab to see some castle, although it was closed, and then walked about a mile or so back into the city. The downtown/waterfront area is so pretty.

We did want to do the Butchart Gardens, but there were some really mixed reviews on doing that excursion. Since we didn't dock until later afternoon, you don't get to the gardens until the evening and there just wasn't a lot of time to view things, plus it got dark. Just looking at the reviews for that excursion, it still only gets 2 stars. It's really too bad the timing doesn't work better for that.

We took a cab from the pier to Chinatown and it only cost us $12 CDN. Walked around a bit, saw Fan Tan Alley, had dinner at Wah Lai Yuen and had a nice walk back stopping at the Empress Hotel and then along the Inner Harbor - its beautiful with all the buildings lit up

We will be in port from 7am-2pm. I would like the gardens but, I don't think my husband would. Maybe we should take a cab and they would do a sightseeing tour of the highlights and then walk around town a little before going back to the ship.

It's an easy walk to the Inner Harbor from Ogden Point. After about 10minutes you reach Fishermans Wharf with shops, restaurants, fisherman, otters, seals. The Harbor is another 10 minutes away where you'll see the Empress Hotel, Parliament Bldgs, beautiful hanging baskets, etc. The Harbor is beautiful and very busy with lots of boat traffic and float planes. The Royal BC Museum is excellent. Some great pubs off the main drag. China town is pretty interesting .... walk or take a cab.

http://fishermanswharfvictoria.com/page/index

Or on the other side of Ogden Point is the Beacon Hill Park .... 200 acres with gardens, petting zoo, ponds,

https://victoriasbestplaces.com/parks-and-gardens/victoria-parks/beacon-hill-park/

Victoria is lovely. It doesn't sound like you have a lot of time to go too far. I would recommend heading into town (maybe there's a shuttle?) and then walk around. You can go into the Empress Hotel and just wander around the lobby. We walked around a bit and then took a leisurely walk back to the ship. We were fortunate enough to see some street theatre along the way, so that was fun. The walk back along the inner harbour is fairly easy and there's lots to see. Unless it's pouring rain, I wouldn't stay on the ship.

Check Groupon they always have a deal

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We waited until got off ship and did pedicab. Much more fun than expected. Relaxing, saw lots of things. Even kids enjoyed.

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