Adventure in Victoria
Finding the quaint and the quirky
As much as we were loving Vancouver, it was our obligation as tourists to see more of British Columbia. To this end, we planned a short excursion to the city of Victoria on Vancouver Island. We drove our car onto the massive BC Ferry in Tsawwassen, which is about 45 minutes south of downtown Vancouver. We sailed early so we would have most of the day in Victoria since we were only staying one night.
The ferry took us on a delightfully scenic 90-minute voyage through the San Juan Islands via the Georgia Straight to our landing at Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island. The views were stunning and the ride was quite smooth. I’d forgotten to take anything for potential sea-sickness, but fortunately didn’t need it.
If you’re traveling with a pet, your options are to leave them in your vehicle or to accompany them to a small pet-sanctioned area on the starboard side of the vessel on Level 6. It’s a small area, but it’s nice to get some fresh air and be able to appreciate the scenery. It is rather breezy and cool up there, however, so packing extra layers and a hoodie or beanie is recommended.
Once the ferry landed at Swartz Bay, it was about a half hour drive to the capital city of Victoria. Victoria is not the capital of Canada - that’s Ottawa - but is the capital of the province of British Columbia. It’s a quaint and colonial city of about 100,000 and has a bustling downtown harbor. Unbeknownst to us, there was a huge antique car festival taking place the day we arrived — which happened to be on the street right in front of our hotel. It was a bit overwhelming trying to navigate the crowds of people admiring these impeccably polished and restored cars. We’re not really what you’d call “car people” so to us it was large and unexpected crowd, occasionally punctuated by the piercing growls of the old engines revving and sputtering. Our room was somewhere in that cluster of orange umbrellas. We were told this car show only comes around every three or four years.
We navigated our way out of the crowd and enjoyed an outdoor lunch on Victoria Harbor with a view of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, a.k.a. parliamentary buildings. This was taken from our table at Milestones Bar and Grill. I tried my first Bellini here and had a very nice seafood Cobb salad.
For our afternoon entertainment, we hopped on the bikes to check out the Dallas Road Trail, which hugs the southern coastline of the downtown area. We navigated some roads in town from our hotel to our starting point in Fisherman’s Wharf Park. We found Dallas Road at the westernmost corner of the park and rode alongside a few cars for about a half mile until we reached the waterfront (near Pilot St.). From here, the shared bike/pedestrian trail follows the coastline of the Salish Sea for just over 3 miles. It’s well paved and well marked and not completely flat, but also not hilly by any means. It’s an easy ride at sea level and the scenery was spectacular.
About halfway down the trail, we were approached by an older couple on an e-bike with two small white dogs in a front basket. The woman in the back was recording video on a cell phone and they were both wearing lapel mics. They were making content for their YouTube (or was it TikTok?). I guess we’re on someone’s vlog, but now I can’t remember the name of it. They were truly excited to see other bike riders with a dog in a basket. They seemed like a quirky old couple. Is this going to be me and Greg in a few years??
Continuing down the trail, we came to Clover Point, which juts out into the sea. We rode all the way out to the tip, Point Zero, to enjoy the view. (Not to be confused with Mile Zero, commemorating the beginning of the 5,000 mile long Trans Canadian Highway. This marker is just one mile west of Point Zero and can be easily visited from the Dallas Road trail.) We also enjoyed some delicious treats from a lone food truck parked at the point called Walnut Cakes. We tried the taiyaki fish-shaped cakes, which are a Korean treat. These were soft and had a vanilla custard filling. I also got a fresh mango lemonade. Everything was delicious! They also gave Penny a treat, so this shop gets our top rankings.
Just past the point, the trail descends onto a concrete path that parallels Dallas Road, but is several feet lower and protected by a berm. It feels less natural and more manicured here, but is still very beautiful.
One little oddity I found was along this stretch. Someone has set up a small table along the concrete wall (you can see it in the picture above) and placed an old rotary phone on it. It’s called a “Wind Phone” and it’s a quiet, peaceful place to say whatever is on your heart or mind. Next to the phone was a pad of paper with some tributes to lost loved ones. Apparently there is an online network of maps to guide you to other wind phone locations. A cursory glance shows of that site about 450 of these around the world. These are the little things in life we certainly miss when we travel only by car.
We rode a bit further and reached St. Charles Street where the trail ends, so we turned around to do it all over again from the other direction. This is a picture near the turnaround spot. It’s so scenic!
Heading in this new direction we got a good view of the cruise ships docked in the area.
Just beyond this point we were able to hop off the trail and take some city side streets back to our hotel. Here is the route highlighted in pink. It was about 8 miles out and back with the added segments to and from the hotel (not included on the map). We stayed at the Days Inn on the Harbor, which I don’t really recommend. Great location, but in massive need of updates if not a total teardown. But for one night it served our purposes. I’ll include a picture of the room that was taken as we prepped for the next day’s ride at the end of this post.
Victoria is not a bad town to cycle through, even on the downtown roads. In fact, we took some of these the next morning so we could check out some of the longer trails in the area, including the Galloping Goose and the Lochside Regional Trail. We started by riding through downtown Victoria to arrive at the Galloping Goose Trailhead, which is near the futuristic looking Johnson Street Bridge (which glows bright blue at night, as noted from our hotel room).
After the bridge you take a right (heading north) on Harbor Road, which has a dedicated bike lane. Just before the road curves away from the water, the trail breaks off on the right to continue north. Here, it follows the coastline of the Upper Harbor until it branches to the right again and crosses the Selkirk Tressle Bridge, dedicated to cyclists and pedestrians. Some of the wooden trestles are uneven, so it makes for a slightly bumpy, but satisfyingly thrummy sounding ride. The route is outlined in pink on the map below.
The Galloping Goose trail is about 34 miles long (55 km) and takes you from Victoria to the ghost town of Leechtown via the town of Sooke. The first third or so of the ride is quite urban and at times parallels Highway 1, the Trans Canada Highway. Right around a place called Mill Lake, the path changes from paved to gravel and remains that way to its terminus. On this helpful map, the Galloping Goose is marked in red and the Lochside Regional Trail (discussed later) is in blue.
Once you reach an area called Happy Valley, the trail becomes much more forested and you can pedal through serene wilderness. Because we only had part of a morning to ride, we turned around soon after the trail merged with Highway 1 in an area called Saanich. This was a great place to turn around because it’s very near the junction of the Galloping Goose and the Lochside Regional Trail. When we came to that junction, we passed through a tunnel taking us north onto the Lochside Trail toward Swartz Bay where our ferry had landed.
Even though this trail it’s still in town, it feels very secluded as it follows a greenway. This is the type of trail where it crosses many small side roads where cyclists have the right of way and are not expected to stop. It reminded me of when I used to ride the Pinellas Trail in Clearwater, Florida. Just as then, I had my head on a swivel. The locals did not, however, and would just blow down the trail without worry.
The Lochside Trail is lined with greenery, including blackberry bushes that were just beginning to ripen. They are everywhere! I’d been watching these since we’d arrived in Canada, hopeful they would ripen during our stay. And they did! We stopped to sample a few along the Lochside Trail.
The Lochside Trail is 18 miles long (29 km) and stretches from Victoria all the way north to Swartz Bay. There are just a handful of small gravel stretches and the rest is fully paved. Those stretches are noted on this map with white patches outlined in blue. Once again, we didn’t ride the entire trail. We had to get back to the hotel to check out so we could spend the rest of the day touring Butchart Gardens. A must-see when on Vancouver Island!
We had a little bit of time to kill after touring Butchart Gardens (our feet were tired!) so we headed up to Swartz Bay to look for a place for dinner before our 7 pm ferry back to Vancouver. We found amazing seafood chowder at the Stonehouse Pub not far from the ferry terminal. It was a perfect spot for this little chunk of time. Because we had Penny along, we ate on one of their shaded outdoor patios.
It was also fun to walk the property and see the silly and irreverent fairy gardens that were scattered throughout. This place really captured my heart and imagination. I would have love to have gone on a fairy hunt here as a child.
We had arrived at the pub at the same time as a group of older women on bicycles. I was so curious about their adventure and managed to ask them a couple questions after we ate. The said their husbands ride motorcycles on Monday nights so they decided to ride bikes together. The took the ferry over. Ultimately, it sounded like more pub hopping than actual riding, but it also sounded like a very fun group. Canadians really seem to know how to have fun! I would like to join their group.
The ferry ride back to the mainland was just as stunning as the ride out and was actually one of the highlights of the entire getaway.
As promised earlier, here is our hotel room and what it looks like to travel with bikes. Sometimes you have to carry them up the stairs to your tiny hotel room. We never leave them on the car overnight. You can check with hotels ahead of time to see if they have a storage room. If not, they become your non-paying extra roommates (along with the dog!).
Great post - Victoria is one of my fave cities, and you guys hit all the high spots. It's also the first place i had a poke bowl.