Day 1
Sitka, photo by Kat Craats
Base yourself at the luxurious Magnolia Hotel & Spa. Start your day with a five-minute walk to Discovery Coffee’s Blanshard Street location for an Americano and a Yonni’s doughnut before wandering down Fort Street and into the many antique stores. Shop for old-school gems and retro treasures at funky Zeitgeist Vintage Store and at Charmaine’s Past & Present Home Collection. After a lunch of Crispy Chicken Tacos at Tacofino on Fort Street, walk 20 minutes to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria to admire the paintings of Emily Carr, a Victoria-born legend. Then, walk 25 minutes down View Street to Government Street for a little shopping at Sitka, a local surf, clothing and lifestyle store. Return to the Magnolia for dinner at the hotel’s recently opened restaurant, The Courtney Room, an elegant spot known for its seasonal cuisine.
Day 2
Phillips Brewing and Malting, photo by Dan Reid
Enjoy a late brunch at the Jam Café, which serves all-day breakfast. Then, make your way to Chinatown to explore its many stores; visit Fan Tan Alley, the narrowest street in Canada, to purchase rare records from The Turntable and leather handbags from Jovee Handcrafted. Continue across Pandora Avenue to browse The Regional Assembly of Text—a stationery store—and Tonic Jewelry. Shop for clothing from Oxford and Still Life on boutique-packed Lower Johnson Street before walking north to Phillips Brewing and Malting’s tasting room for a pint. Spend the rest of the day in the artsy Fernwood neighbourhood; look for vintage clothing, local art and ceramics in Luna Collective before having a charcuterie dinner at Stage Wine Bar. Finish with a theatre production at Belfry Theatre: Mustard and Griffin & Sabine are its final two shows in 2018.