Headed for Victoria, VI? Bring bikes!

Our July 2016 trip to British Columbia's Vancouver Island exceeded expectations. My preconceived notions about Canadians (snooty) and the city of Victoria (congested, commercial and difficult to navigate) were wrong, wrong, wrong. I had also underestimated the beauty and allure of other places we visited on the Island. 

Photo taken from the Royal British Columbia Museum overlooking Victoria's Inner Harbor. Lined with historic buildings, shops, restaurants, vendors, and buskers on wide pedestrian-and-bike-friendly streets, the harbor is the heart of the city. The museum's First Nation exhibits alone are worth the price of admission, which is CA $24 for adults, $17, seniors and youth six and older. The exchange rate was favorable to US citizens, so those, and all other Canadian prices, translated  roughly into a 25 percent discount.

Victoria, British Columbia's capital, adorns the southern tip of Vancouver Island. It's a spirited city full of history and beauty, water and flowers, boats and .....bicycles! Known as the Cycling Capital of Canada, the city is a wonder of interconnecting bike paths, bike lanes, and, most astonishingly,  bicycle-friendly drivers!

The Galloping Goose is a 34-mile rails-to-trail, part of an
impressive network of cyling/walking trails that make the Victoria region
a boon to bicycle commuters and also a cycling destination.

Paul on an unpaved stretch of the Galloping Goose trail. The packed gravel surface
worked fine with our skinny-tire road bikes.

By "bicycle-friendly" I mean if you're standing with your bike on a traffic island awaiting a green light, drivers will STOP and let you go, even with a long line of traffic behind. They will give you lots of space in your bike lane and, in the rare event a bike lane doesn't exist, they'll hold back to allow you to slip into your rightful place in the traffic lane. We experienced and saw these behaviors numerous times.

Our first night on Vancouver Island we scored (advance reservation) a site at the Westbay Marine Village and RV Park. This park has 61 sites and is smack in the middle of the harbor area. Except for its location, it's nothing special. It cost $42.50 a night, not including wifi or showers. But the great location allows campers to walk, bike, or catch a water taxi to outstanding restaurants and tourist sites. We couldn't get reservations at Westbay for our return trip.

The view from the water's edge of the Westbay Marine Village. That big ship is a ferry. The harbor is abuzz all day with private boats, water taxis, seaplanes, tour boats and so on. Surprisingly, the park was quiet at night. 

I admit, I was leery about biking in Victoria. I am not at all keen about biking in cities, let alone large unfamiliar ones. PK, however, was game the afternoon we arrived. I prevailed, as it was late in the day, and even he agreed we'd be better off starting a bike adventure in the morning. Instead we took a harbor ferry/taxi across the bay into the historic downtown, had a great dinner and walked back on a waterfront trail skirting the harbor, discussing our cycling plans.

This is what we saw the next  morning. No cycling. Boo hiss!

 Even the campground's waterfront sites couldn't escape gloom. Fortunately,
this was the wettest of our 11 days on the island. 

The harbor ferry stops next to the Marine Village and takes passengers

across to the Fisherman's Wharf. From there, you can take a series of walkways,
including a paved walking path skirting the harbor, back to the RV Park.
Without dawdling, it can be navigated  in about an hour. But why hurry?

Classy houseboats (marine homes) are part of the Westbay Marine Village . A sign asks visitors to respect occupants' privacy. It also says residents live here year-round and explains, because they know you were wondering, that all houseboats are hooked into the city's sewer system. Note the floating flower garden.

Sailboat moorage is next to the colorful houseboats and part of the Marine Village.. 

Glimpse of Inner Harbor action from the water taxi—a sea plane roaring in behind a whale watching craft.

On our return trip we stayed two nights in the Fort Victoria RV Park. It has 742 sites and we got the last available space reserving two days in advance. (We couldn't get into the Marina  again.) We stayed two nights and had a TERRIBLE site under big power lines and towers the first night, but were able to move the next night. 

The worst (but most high-powered) campsite ever! But Fort Victoria RV Park in Victoria had benefits. Chief among them, its proximity to a bike path connecting with the 34-mile Galloping Goose Trail. It also had strong wifi, a rarity, and the cleanest most commodious bathroom/shower facility I've ever seen in an RV park. $40 a night. 

If it wasn't for reconnecting, via Facebook, with a dear friend from my distant past, we probably  wouldn't have visited Vancouver Island.

Lesson learned - The Island is way too good to spend just a few measly days, as we did. We're already sketching out a return trip that includes more time in and around Victoria, a lot more bicycling, Vancouver Island Music Festival, and a return visit to Tofino and Ucuelet. Not to mention places we didn't get to. I'd say 3 weeks might be enough. (Posts about the music festival and Tofino are in draft.) 

More photos, and a link to our Butchart Gardens visit.

Especially fetching hanging baskets enliven Victoria's Inner Harbor area.

Typical Victoria street scene. Food and drink, art and music, 

A Victorian-looking bank on a Victoria street.

One image from the Royal British Columbia Museum's First Nations exhibits. Outstanding. 

 Other posts from this trip:

Butchart Gardens 
Hoh Rainforest on the Olympic Peninsula, The Hoh, the Hikes and the Bike Scum