Things to do: Buchardt Gardens, BC Natural History Museum (particularly the third floor and fossils on the second floor), sightseeing the waterfront, shopping Wharf and Government Streets, Antiquing up Fort Street, Craigdarroch Castle, Greater Victoria Art Gallery. If you are not on crutches, there are some wonderful old communities to tour.
Hotels are well, pricey! I have stayed through the years in the Empress, Quality Inn (ex Courtyard Inn), James Bay Inn, the old Fairview (now gone) and Craigmyle Bed and Breakfast. Favorite would have to be Craigmyle, but for closeness to the harbor Quality Inn is good and cheaper than the Empress by 50%.
My suggestion concerning hotels - join up with choicehotels.com, it is free and can save you significant coin on accommodations!
Getting to Victoria is varied too. You can take the Victoria Clipper (catamaran ferry) and be there in 3 hours, Kenmore Air ( seaplanes) and do the trip in 45 minutes, or drive and take a car ferry either out of Port Angeles, Washington or Tsawwassen, BC, Canada. The Black Ball Ferry, out of Port Angeles, drops you right downtown Victoria. The BC Ferry runs out of Sydney on Vancouver Island and a bit of a drive out of town. Both work well. For this trip, i took the Clipper due to the crutches, but I do prefer to fly in the little DeHavilland Beaver!
Next week I ought to have my pictures ready for putting up, so who knows what you will be subjected to!?!?!?!?!?
Showing posts with label Travel Tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Travel Tips. Show all posts
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Dining In Victoria
My last trip to Victoria was back in the early 1980's - so one should anticipate change, but I had hoped for oh so much more! In a word, the dining was horrible!
The hotel had an attached cafe, so I did all of my breakfasts there. The food was good, similar to home, but one would hope for selections that you do not make at home. At least that is always my philosophy with restaurants - if you can make it yourself: stay home. But, like most hotel spots - the food was edible and not a bad price.
Lunches were a little harder. The area restaurants were ghastly! Greasy, undercooked, over priced. It took all I could do not to the blame the service staff and still tip them! Lunches ran about $25. Best I had was a Dim Sum in Victoria's tiny Chinatown. There at least most of the selections were good but the bad was sooooo bad it really killed off the good!
My favorite dinner spot used to Milos, where the food has fallen to only resembling Greek food and short changing the customer is apparently the standard practice. Probably too afraid of not getting tipped I imagine.
So how about tandoori? In most Commonwealth countries there are great India places to dine. And yes I tried one but again the food really lacked in almost all regards. Sigh.
And, although too much to hope for, there is the Rathskeller for German food. In my note book I had noted this served Holstein style of cooking and pretty good. Well, those days seem to have been long gone. The menu read much the same, however the food was the absolute WORSE of the entire trip of eating failures. Sigh.
So where did I end up, since obviously I did not starve? The Old Spaghetti Factory served up not only the best meals but also the cheapest! There was just one drawback - you may well not get what you order. So, it appears to be copying Italy for originality of service! My seafood fettuccine morphed into spaghetti with Mizithra cheese (bleech!). I did insist on my original order and after some teenage attitude coming my way did get exactly what I had coming to me. Never piss off a teenage waiter.... The hostess was most apologetic and I never did see said waiter there again during my stay.
So, when in Victoria: Museum Cafe, Lee's Dim Sum and The Old Spaghetti Factory were all ok food sources... Just be sure to bring a bag of beef jerky with you so you will not starve if you try elsewhere.
The hotel had an attached cafe, so I did all of my breakfasts there. The food was good, similar to home, but one would hope for selections that you do not make at home. At least that is always my philosophy with restaurants - if you can make it yourself: stay home. But, like most hotel spots - the food was edible and not a bad price.
Lunches were a little harder. The area restaurants were ghastly! Greasy, undercooked, over priced. It took all I could do not to the blame the service staff and still tip them! Lunches ran about $25. Best I had was a Dim Sum in Victoria's tiny Chinatown. There at least most of the selections were good but the bad was sooooo bad it really killed off the good!
My favorite dinner spot used to Milos, where the food has fallen to only resembling Greek food and short changing the customer is apparently the standard practice. Probably too afraid of not getting tipped I imagine.
So how about tandoori? In most Commonwealth countries there are great India places to dine. And yes I tried one but again the food really lacked in almost all regards. Sigh.
And, although too much to hope for, there is the Rathskeller for German food. In my note book I had noted this served Holstein style of cooking and pretty good. Well, those days seem to have been long gone. The menu read much the same, however the food was the absolute WORSE of the entire trip of eating failures. Sigh.
So where did I end up, since obviously I did not starve? The Old Spaghetti Factory served up not only the best meals but also the cheapest! There was just one drawback - you may well not get what you order. So, it appears to be copying Italy for originality of service! My seafood fettuccine morphed into spaghetti with Mizithra cheese (bleech!). I did insist on my original order and after some teenage attitude coming my way did get exactly what I had coming to me. Never piss off a teenage waiter.... The hostess was most apologetic and I never did see said waiter there again during my stay.
So, when in Victoria: Museum Cafe, Lee's Dim Sum and The Old Spaghetti Factory were all ok food sources... Just be sure to bring a bag of beef jerky with you so you will not starve if you try elsewhere.
Buchardt Gardens
So, your right foot is blown out, you can barely stand, what ya gonna do!? Go for a visit to a garden with miles of trails, thousands of stairs and people prone to kicking your crutches! Oh yeah, bad idea.
But, the gardens were lovely as usual. Lots of humming birds visited with me at my frequent stops where I was occupied icing down my foot. Lots of strange looks - but then again, women opened doors for me! Without the injury I know for a fact none of them would have even cast me a second look. I actually tested that hypothesis once just to see and sure enough - man on crutch gets talked to, doors opened for him, etc. Guess without a motherly instinct, Kris is indeed invisible ... LOL!
Now why bring up this boring post? Because I have a travel tip for you! I looked at booking this jaunt to the gardens through the online travel agent, had another opportunity to do so through the Victoria Clipper, again through my hotel and even checked with the visitor's bureau on the waterfront - they were all basically the same: $30 for the bus fare, $34-37 for the admission ticket.
Actually cost! (drum roll please!)
Riding the BC Transit bus number 75 - $5 round trip
Admission to the gardens: $29 full adult fare
Ok, so I or you can easily save $30 just by catching a public bus and not have someone else handle your tickets for you!
Also there is a high tea at the gardens, $28 - however, everyone was pre-booking at $29.50-34 per person. But, it was not worth the price. Crowded seating, a few dainties, some sweets and tons of noise. The Empress was more pricey but a better deal concerning room and noise levels. Foodwise, slightly better.
But, the gardens were lovely as usual. Lots of humming birds visited with me at my frequent stops where I was occupied icing down my foot. Lots of strange looks - but then again, women opened doors for me! Without the injury I know for a fact none of them would have even cast me a second look. I actually tested that hypothesis once just to see and sure enough - man on crutch gets talked to, doors opened for him, etc. Guess without a motherly instinct, Kris is indeed invisible ... LOL!
Now why bring up this boring post? Because I have a travel tip for you! I looked at booking this jaunt to the gardens through the online travel agent, had another opportunity to do so through the Victoria Clipper, again through my hotel and even checked with the visitor's bureau on the waterfront - they were all basically the same: $30 for the bus fare, $34-37 for the admission ticket.
Actually cost! (drum roll please!)
Riding the BC Transit bus number 75 - $5 round trip
Admission to the gardens: $29 full adult fare
Ok, so I or you can easily save $30 just by catching a public bus and not have someone else handle your tickets for you!
Also there is a high tea at the gardens, $28 - however, everyone was pre-booking at $29.50-34 per person. But, it was not worth the price. Crowded seating, a few dainties, some sweets and tons of noise. The Empress was more pricey but a better deal concerning room and noise levels. Foodwise, slightly better.
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