Wander the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria

Canada's narrowest street, three feet wide at points, once a gambling den, now vintage records and ice cream.

Victoria's 1913 grand hall still fits 1,400 seats under an ornate ceiling and a wildly varied bill worth dressing for.

Thirty to forty-five minutes of model ships, BC coast history, and genuinely enthusiastic staff at Nootka Court, for very little money.

Where Fort Victoria stood in the 1840s, now there are heritage brick, café patios, and an artisan market.

A 90-minute guided walk through Canada's oldest Chinatown, with earpieces, a local guide, and gambling dens you never knew existed.

Stand a foot away from an actual Emily Carr for free, then quietly reconsider your salary when you see the price tags.

Victoria's first board-game café, eight dollars buys you all night, a game guru, paninis, milkshakes, and at least one minor dispute.

Belly up to Chinatown's tea tasting bar, argue over blends, then disappear into a spa for two.

A 225-seat restored 1940s movie palace doing Chekhov like it's urgent, which it turns out, it is.

One of Canada's largest university art collections, free to walk through, in a calm room on Yates Street.

Victoria's 162-seat black box runs touring theatre, dance and spoken word, and becomes three Fringe shows in one night every summer.

A 1909 bank vault of a bookshop on Government Street, on every world's-best-bookshop list, and it costs nothing to wander.

Rated one of North America's best British antique strips, and it costs nothing to lose an afternoon in it.

Greater Victoria's only aquarium packs 3,500 local sea creatures and a touch pool into one low-key Sidney afternoon, closed Wednesdays and Thursdays.