Parked at the southern end of rugged Vancouver Island, Victoria is the capital of British Columbia and an ideal destination for travelers looking to blend outdoor adventure with urban exploring. Victoria’s residents and visitors are spoiled with outdoor recreation opportunities close at hand—hiking, biking, surfing, and whale watching, to name a few—as well as great restaurants, museums, and cultural centers and galleries celebrating the local Indigenous peoples. And since Victoria is situated in the rain shadow of Washington State’s Olympic Mountains, it boasts clearer and bluer skies and relatively mild weather year-round compared to the rest of the Pacific Northwest. In other words, there’s really no bad time to visit.
Southeastern Vancouver Island is the historical home of the Saanich Nation of Coast Salish Peoples, whose presence remains influential and celebrated in and around Victoria. Today the current population lands around 100,000, and the city itself is situated roughly midway between Vancouver, Canada and Seattle, WA, although it’s separated from both cities by water. (You’ll need to fly or take a ferry to get there.) Just outside of Victoria lie the rainforests, mountains, and world famous surf spots of Vancouver Island—an outdoor lover’s paradise. Though Tofino is the island’s best known surf destination, there are multiple beaches within Victoria, including Gonzales Beach and Willows Beach, and the sea around the city is home to orcas and other sea life (peak whale watching season stretches from March to October). Surfing picks up in the winter, and the nearby town of Jordan River offers three breaks that draw surfers from across the island and beyond, too.