Victoria Sightseeing & Walks

Victoria's set pieces cluster around the Inner Harbour: the Parliament Buildings, the Fairmont Empress, the Royal BC Museum and the causeway where the seaplanes and whale boats leave. A two-hour walking tour covers those plus the old town's alleys and Fan Tan Alley in Chinatown; the evening ghost walks use the same streets to different effect. Pedicabs — cycle rickshaws — are the local answer to a short tour with a driver-guide, and they wait for cruise ships at Ogden Point.

Horse-drawn carriages leave from the corner of Belleville and Menzies beside the Parliament lawns for loops through James Bay and Beacon Hill Park. The hop-on hop-off bus is the way to reach Craigdarroch Castle, Oak Bay and the Dallas Road waterfront without walking, and private tours in a van do the same with a guide and a flexible route.

Self-guided audio tours and scavenger hunts are listed here too. They are inexpensive and fine on a fair day, but they are apps, not guides — read what you are buying.