Victoria: Victorian gardens on the Pacific

Capital of British Columbia more British than Canadian in appearance, Victoria preserves one of North America's most visited gardens inside an exhausted limestone quarry.

The center is explored on foot; Butchart Gardens require a car or bus.

The Parliament of British Columbia, illuminated every evening by thousands of light bulbs, dominates the city's inner harbor with its oxidized green dome.

Just steps away, the Fairmont Empress Hotel, opened in 1908, remains one of the most elegant historic places to enjoy the traditional English afternoon tea.

In the afternoon, it's worth reaching the Butchart Gardens, gardens born over a century ago inside a former limestone quarry, now among the most visited in Canada.

Towards evening, the Chinatown neighborhood, among the oldest in North America, closes the day with restaurants and historic alleys.

The Butchart Gardens began with the initiative of a limestone quarry owner's wife, who decided to transform the exhausted mining area into a garden rather than leave it abandoned.

Victoria receives on average more sunshine and less rain than much of Canada's west coast, a microclimate that has enabled the growth of plants otherwise difficult to cultivate so far north.