How to Spend 3 Days in Victoria, BC | Ultimate Walkable Travel Guide
In this episode of the Winging It Travel Podcast, I take you through a full 4-night-3-day, no-car travel guide to Victoria, BC—perfect for a long weekend on Vancouver Island. From ferry mishaps and transport hacks to standout brunch spots, coffee culture, and celiac-friendly eats, this is a practical, real-world itinerary you can actually follow.
You’ll hear exactly how we navigated the city on foot and public transport, including costs, timing, and what’s truly worth your time. We explore cultural highlights like the Royal BC Museum, wander through Chinatown Victoria—the oldest in Canada—and walk the iconic Fan Tan Alley. Expect plenty of coffee stops, coastal walks, and honest takes on popular spots.
This guide is ideal for budget travellers, backpackers, and anyone visiting Victoria without a car, with loads of tips to help you avoid common mistakes and make the most of your time.
If you enjoyed this episode:
00:00 – Intro + what to expect
02:00 – Ferry chaos + getting to Victoria
04:20 – Arrival + hotel + getting around
05:00 – Day 1: Brunch, coffee & Royal BC Museum
08:50 – Chinatown, Fan Tan Alley & harbour walk
10:00 – Dinner: gluten-free Chinese spot
10:30 – Day 2: Parkrun + brunch spots
12:00 – Walking the city + coffee + donuts
13:30 – Dinner: standout Mexican food
14:40 – Day 3: Cafés, bakeries & local favourites
15:20 – Mile Zero + Terry Fox story
16:30 – Public transport tips + pub stop
17:40 – Trendy cafés + harbour drinks
18:50 – Vegan/gluten-free dinner
19:20 – Final morning walk + views
20:00 – Travel wrap-up + heading home
20:10 – Final thoughts
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Hello and welcome to this week's episode and this week I'm taking you to Victoria in BC on the Vancouver Island for a practical no-nonsense three-day travel guide. So if you're looking to get over to the western side of Canada and you fancy taking in Victoria on Vancouver Island, this will be our travel guide based on our long weekend exploring a city without a car. more on that in a second. So some ferry mishaps, some public transport hacks, brunch spots.
coffee shops, celiac friendly eats, top sites, walking activities, exactly how we experience Victoria. So let's get into it. It is a three night, four day itinerary and I'm going in order of what we did for a long weekend. And if you're planning a trip or just want to feel a vibe, one of Canada's most charming cities, then this one's for you. Welcome to the Winging It Travel Podcast, your weekly ticket to the world.
dropping every Monday and hosted by me, James Hammond, proudly part of the Boy Escape Network. This is a travel podcast that throws out the itinerary and dives straight into the raw, real and unpredictable essence of global exploration, chasing moments over milestones, those spontaneous encounters, immersive sounds and unforgettable stories. Whether I'm hiking up volcanoes in Guatemala,
James Hammond (:or camping under the stars in British Columbia.
I've met incredible people, seen breath taking places and collected unforgettable stories. I now get to share them with you, alongside some of the most diverse and well travelled guests from around the world. Expect engaging conversations that bring fresh perspectives and inspiring travel tales. There are also raw, reflective, subtle episodes where I share personal insights, practical tips and honest stories from the road. This is a podcast for travellers, streamers, backpackers and anyone who's ever thought, what if I just went for it and travelled? If you're looking for stories to tell, tips to share,
and experiences to inspire, then you're in the right place. There's so much travel content coming your way, it might just spark that trip you've been dreaming about for years. You can find Winging It, a more fantastic travel podcast from around the world at voyescape.com. The link is in the show notes. Let's go and explore the world. We originally booked our ferry for the Thursday evening. This is on the Easter weekend and we're taking our car. It's about an hour.
drive from Vancouver down to Swanson ferry terminal. But BC ferries actually cancelled our ferry the day before because they have some mechanical issues, which wasn't the most convenient of things to do for us. So we had to think on our feet, excuse the pun. So we rebooked the trip to go on as a foot passenger. So they gave us a refund, which was $250 actually with a car and two people return to Vancouver Island.
So we have that in the process right now. So we booked a $40 return each from Twoson Ferry Terminal to Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island. But this basically means you have to get to the ferry terminal either at Twoson or Swartz Bay by foot. So the journey for me was a bus, Metro and a bus. I met Emma in downtown so for her it was one less bus and we got to the ferry terminal in good time. Walked on 47pm ferry sailing, successfully got across.
James Hammond (:And then we had a choice. Do we try and get the bus or do we get an Uber to Victoria downtown? And weirdly what happened is we chose Uber, which was an expense, but quite late at night, quite tiring journey. We saw the bus pull up and it just drove off and a passenger is waiting there. So I'm not sure what happened to that bus. Anyway, Uber cost about 70 to $75 into Victoria and we arrived probably about
9.45 because there's so much traffic getting back from the ferry terminal on the Highway 1 to Victoria. And because of this, we actually had to pay more like a surcharge. So it's $88 in the end. Still not really sure why, so I'm investigating that further, but there you go. So between $70 and $90 for an Uber from the Swartz Bay Terminal to Victoria downtown. Once in Victoria, we arrived at the Strathcona Hotel in the center of the city.
Four nights is $777 Canadian dollars all in for the newly renovated Queen room. No breakfast and it's time for sleep after a long journey. So Friday morning, woke up in Strathcona. It's right in center of town. So it's quite busy with revelers for the long weekend, but got a good night's sleep and we walked out early doors to get some brunch. And Ruby on Johnson is the first cafe for breakfast. Has fantastic options for celiac people. I had the house made sausage Benny.
on the croissant with camelized onions and roasted peppers. This was unbelievable and a lot of food, probably too much. And it came in mini hash browns as well. Their coffee they serve is called Discovery Coffee. You'll find this is a very popular brand across Victoria and Vancouver Island. And I was quite impressed with the cup of coffee actually. Really liked it, quite strong, much needed for the day ahead. And of course it's a BC brand, so local brand. Emma had the gluten-free shredded hash.
which is two eggs, kale, mushrooms, onion, roasted yams, cheese and served on hash browns. Bloody good. Let me tell you, would highly recommend Ruby on Johnson. They have another location further up in the city. Our first activity of the day was the Royal BC Museum. We are museum goers, not huge, but this is a highly recommended one. So we thought, you know, we're going to check it out. And I've got four things I absolutely loved in here. And of course there's other stuff around that, but four things I thought were really impressive. The indigenous learnings.
James Hammond (:on one of the floors. So we learned a lot about their languages and culture. And it got us thinking we really want to learn one of the languages. There are 36 distinct languages spoken by 204 First Nations communities in BC. So a lot to choose from. And on the interactive screen, it gives you information about each language and how much of the population can speak it and how much of the population is actually learning it. So we chose one sort of local to this area where we live. And I think we're going to try and learn the Salish.
language, which is going to be really hard. I'm really excited to try and learn a few words and a few sentences and interact in the First Nations language. Overall though, the learnings about that whole community, the history behind it in Canada and in BC is recommended highly for me because you need to learn about what's going on in the past and also now with those communities. Number two, in the museum there is a traditional old town built. It's a replica of what it was like over a hundred years ago and I absolutely loved it.
different types of buildings covering different types of communities. So you're going to have the Japanese community in there, the Chinese community, Chinatown, et cetera. You're going to have the old cowboys with hats, that sort of like ranch type building in there. It's really quite interesting to walk around, just telling the story of BC through all the different types of trades, buildings, people's super interactive. Number three, and maybe the highlight is the augmented reality experience called critical distance.
which is an experience of being with orcas and telling the stories of the threats and how they exist in the water. It's an augmented reality. And you're thinking, what is it like? It's like a big VR set on your eyes, on your head. You see orcas swim around you. You can touch them in theory. And there's about eight people at one go in this little dome where it happens. And honestly, super, super cool. Did not know what to expect. It's free once you're in the museum and it's on until July. So it's a must if you go.
would highly recommend it. Next up, I was really impressed with the super cool photography exhibition from some of the world's best up and coming photographers and so many great photos ranging from different types of animals to nature to humans, relationship with animals and everything else. I love photos. To see the photo then reading about what's trying to portray is very, very impressive. So would highly recommend that. So great activity. It'll cost $18 to enter the museum per adult.
James Hammond (:and would highly recommend we're in there for a couple of hours. Great stuff. So of course we need a cafe after that. So we went to the Art of Slow Food, which is an exclusively gluten-free cafe. So, you know, everything in there is gluten-free. So Emma had a cinnamon bun. I tasted a bit of it. Incredible, quite girthy and heavy. They do bread, sandwiches, sausage rolls, pastries and pizzas. So if you're looking for a completely stress-free snack, this is the place to go if you're celiac.
Next door to them is the deer and dough bakery cafe. This is where I went for my snack. I actually got gluten free fudge cake. Unbelievable. But they're not celiac. They are gluten free with some stuff, but they have a shared kitchen and they make that well known with a notice in the cafe. They serve drum roaster coffee, which is another great BC brand. And the coffee tasted so good. Love the setting in there as well. You can sit outside on the chairs on a glorious day. So a lot of walking on this day. We walked to Chinatown next.
And it was developed between:And it tells a story of the historic Chinese community that came to Canada many years ago. Then we took a walk down to the harbor front, getting the views of the water and ultimately walked and passed the legislative building for the BC government. It's quite an impressive building and a quick rest for us after this because a lot of walking and a little nap before we headed to the restaurant in the evening, which is called J &J Wanton restaurant on Fort Street. It's a 10 minute walk from the hotel and they have a whole gluten free menu for Chinese food. So we ordered.
Something called chow fun. So a like a chow mein, which is a gluten free noodle with veg and a sauce. Lovely. Emma had tofu and veg and black bean sauce. I had chicken and veg in a Sichuan sauce, which originally wasn't gluten free, but she made it gluten free. And what an absolute plethora of food we had. We were so stuffed afterwards. They don't open on Sundays or Mondays. So bear that in mind. heck of a lot of food. Great to eat something we don't have to worry about in terms of celiac or contamination.
James Hammond (:And they take it very, very seriously after 13, 14,000 steps. We're done. And it's time for bed on a Saturday. We normally do one activity on the morning at 9am. We normally go for a park run. So this time it was a new park run for us at clover point, which is a bit further south from downtown sensational morning, clear skies, mild, great views of the Olympic national park in the U S across the water, snow cap mountains. It's a dream. Lots of.
positivity, loads of people doing the run, a great vibe and we enjoyed our 5k run along the path which goes along the coast up and down Clover Point. A great start to the day, didn't run too hard because I wanted to enjoy the rest of the day and not be too wiped out. So of course naturally after that we hung around, spoke to a few people, wanted back to the bus stop, got a bus back in and we got to the hotel for a change up. After a shower
We like right, need some food. So the breakfast shop on Cook Street is our next port of call. This is actually owned by Ruby, but has a different menu, which is also CDAC friendly. The same Discovery Coffee will be served here as well. Fairly similar vibe, but we've both got the breakfast bowl. Emma's was veggie, mine was with bacon. A classy brunch. The portion's not too huge like Ruby's and really, really tasty. Would highly recommend. And the best thing about it, no queue because we walked past Blue Fox Cafe, which I do highly recommend in Victoria.
We went there many years ago. There's a very popular brunch spot, probably about five minutes before the breakfast shop. And there was a queue for probably about half an hour by the looks of it. We don't queue. We were thinking of giving it another go, but too long. Walk past there, went to the breakfast shop and had a great brunch. So there's another walking day in the city. Bear in mind, we don't have a car, so it's all Victoria based. I tried to get an Empire doughnut for afters. I got there about midday and they pretty much ran out. Not great, but I do have the most
unbelievable selection of donuts. But I did have the rhubarb and custard with strawberry donut and I quite liked it when I had it later on. Emma went to a yarn store and then we went back to the big BC government building and we sat in the park with the blue skies, mild weather and ate our donut and snack. Lovely vibe. People visiting, probably from US, taking photos and videos, kids playing football on the grass. There was a protest as well going on which started, we just got there as they left. All in all,
James Hammond (:great place to be in the middle of Victoria and enjoy people watching and taking it all in. Enjoyed the sun and ate our snacks. You can carry on the walk around the harbour which we did. So went to Duo Cafe which felt like it was in a hotel for a much older clientele. However the coffee was great and we sat in the lobby of the complex looking out of the window over Victoria. So if walk around that harbour a bit you won't be disappointed with the views but also there's a place to sit and have a coffee and enjoy it even more.
I must say at this point we're flagging big time after a run and I think we hit 22,000 steps just walking all over the show. So we headed back for another nap before heading out into Chinatown to a Mexican restaurant called May's M-A-I-I-Z, Nick's Tamal Eatery and Tortilleria. And my word, this place is unbelievable. Fully celiac friendly as everything is corn based. I the chicken tinger enchiladas with both the green and hot sauce. My word.
I could not believe how good that tasted. Possibly the best Mexican food I've had outside of Mexico. And this place is run by Mexicans too. Had a nice chat with the staff. The hospitality was second to none. And Emma had the butternut tacos, which looked awesome as well. We shared chips and guac, but this was a lot of food. And to finish it off, I had a Mexican Coke, which of course is the best drink in the world. And Emma had a margarita. All the food prices here, you're probably paying around 20 to 23 Canadian dollars per meal as an FYI.
After 25,000 steps and a 5k run, we're absolutely done in for that Saturday. We're out early on Sunday to head to Habit Coffee, which is a very popular cafe in Victoria in the atrium. So a super trendy location. Love the inside of the coffee house as well. Very airy, lots of windows and the coffee tastes great. It a great start to the day. It's also a very popular place for people working on laptops. So be sure to get there early to grab a table. I went to a non-celiac bakery called Crust Bakery.
And I think this is the best cafe for the plethora of selections anywhere in Victoria. It was overwhelming. I got myself a raspberry lemon croissant to go, but I could have had anything from sausage rolls, to fudge brownies, different flavored croissants. It was just spectacular. I actually went back there later in the day at 12 p.m. and they had pretty much nothing left. So this is very popular. Get there early so you get a choice of everything that they have.
James Hammond (:Our next walk through downtown was to the Terry Fox statue and the Mile Zero sign as well, which is the start of the number one highway in Canada, which goes across the country to St. John's in Newfoundland. I actually want to refer you back to the episodes of 2023, where we road tripped across Canada on the one. So you can hear more about that on those episodes. absolutely epic trip. Terry Fox is huge in Canadian culture. He was a young guy at 18 who was diagnosed with bone cancer and was forced to have his leg amputated 15 centimeters above his knee.
in: th,:to our next location. So public transport, we haven't got a car. If you download an app called UMA, U-M-A, you can download it quite easily from the app store and top up cash to use on public transport. It's $3 a go on a bus to a maximum of two trips for being charged. So what I mean by that is you do three trips, you're only going to be charged $6 because that's the price of a day ticket. So we headed to the Six Mile Pub, which is BC's oldest pub. And it definitely has a UK vibe in there.
Yet again, a celiac friendly establishment. So we had a brunch there which runs until 2pm on a weekend. A classic breakfast for me with eggs, bacon, mushrooms, potato rosti, salad, toast and a tomato. Emma had a hollandaise dish for a great brunch. Wash down with an English breakfast tea. They've got darts in there, pool tables. Of course, all the ales and beers, etc. It's an easy drive out of town if you've got a car. So I would recommend it. It's the oldest pub you're going to find in BC. Bit of history. You can read about it in the pub.
James Hammond (:and a great recommendation if you're looking for a pub lunch or that pub feel in Canada. After a great brunch, we headed back into the city center for a yarn store visit for Emma and another coffee at one of the most trendiest places I've had a coffee in a long time. And that's called the 109 Cafe Roasting Studio. The aesthetics in this place is second to none. Unbelievably trendy, doesn't even serve milk. That's how trendy it is. White walls, espresso explanations for each of the coffees they serve.
private little rooms for privacy and coffee roasted on site. About as trendy as it gets, especially given the coffee was a light medium roast. To finish our Sunday, we went to the Craft Beer Market at the Victoria Harbour for an all-day happy hour and $10 cocktails. And my word, it felt like summer. The sun was out, we're sitting in the patio, warm weather, ordering cocktails, gluten-free beers and a dreamy location to look over the harbour for a couple of drinks. So get yourself there on a Sunday. The food looks great too.
And you can have gluten-free beer or normal beer, but also $10 cocktails. think I had a porn star martini and a slushy type cocktail. Quite sugary, but my word, great. Our last place to check out for dinner is a place called B-Love. This is a vegan gluten-free establishment, which opens till 9pm. So everything on the menu is gluten-free and vegan. So if you're one of those, no dramas. And I went for the special wild mushroom tagliatelle. And then I went for the pesto sandwich, both were fantastic and a lot of food.
And they even do a decaf Americano, which I had to company my dish. So wrapping up my trip here, a lot of walking as always, and we get to Monday and we went for another walk where mile zero was. We carried on around the harbor to stunning views of Olympic mountain and that mountain range, my word. The water was so calm, so blue, the views breathtaking and the weather was mild. Lots of people up early doing their walk or their run. We dipped into Imagine Studio Cafe around the harbor.
For a coffee, they served great coffee and the place is Greek inspired. The food looked good, but the only downside was the guy making the food gave out a of a stressy vibe, ordering people about, a bit cringe at times. He just needs to chill out. But the food and coffee looked great. We finished our walk, got back to the hotel, checked out at 11 AM and caught the bus to Sydney to grab fish and chips at Fish on Fifth and caught the bus again to get to the ferry terminal to catch our ferry back to Swanson Bay and ultimately Vancouver.
James Hammond (:And we're both absolutely done at this point. So that wraps up our three day travel guide to Victoria based on foot. No car because we didn't have one. And it's a city that for me really delivers when it comes to walkability, food, and an all round easy going vibe. From the harbor front strolls, the cultural stops, the genuinely great celiac friendly dining. I think it's a place that doesn't try too hard, but still impresses. And people love Victoria and Vancouver Island.
because it feels like the British culture in terms of the way it looks, the pubs, et cetera. This is a bit like home for me, for example, and us and obviously other people who want to experience that part of British culture as well. If you've got any questions, let me know. And we really enjoyed our time in Victoria. So if you enjoyed this episode, make sure to follow or subscribe wherever you listen on your podcast app. Make sure to give that five stars if you do. And if you plan your own trip to Victoria or have any recommendations that I should check out next time.
Feel free to reach out or drop a comment. So until then, I'll see you on the road and thanks for tuning in and keep winging it. And that's it for this episode on winging it. I hope you took something from this episode where it sparked a new idea, offered a different perspective or simply let you feel part of the journey. If you enjoyed it, leaving a quick rating or review on your podcast app really helps the show reach new listeners. And if you know someone who might connect with this episode, share it by word of mouth or social media.
it makes a huge difference. Head to voicecape.com for more amazing travel podcasts as well. And thanks so much for listening and I'll see you in the next episode. Until then, keep winging it.