Wander the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria

A coal baron built a 39-room sandstone castle, died before moving in, and accidentally created Victoria's best self-guided date.

A genuine 1908 castle with free Italian, Japanese and rose gardens, peacocks, and a film resume that includes Professor X's mansion.

A woolly mammoth, a walkable old BC town you can actually wander through, and a First Peoples gallery that'll stop you cold.

Emily Carr's 1864 yellow Italianate childhood home in James Bay, tours by donation, and Dallas Road is right down the street.

A 1890s Fernwood church turned theatre so intimate the actors skip the mics, and the pubs are right outside.

More than 85 hand-built dioramas inside the Empress, featuring one of the world's largest model railways and zero self-consciousness.

Hold a tarantula at this tiny downtown menagerie of 50 species and discover exactly how brave your date actually is.

Eighty-plus years of volunteer theatre in a 175-seat Rockland coach house, plus a gallery, a bar, and absolutely no parking.

Quirky black-box shows tucked through Victoria's brick-lined Old Town, cheap enough to gamble on two and compare over late drinks.

A candlelit, scented journey through the afterlife with 250 real ancient artifacts, at Victoria's Royal BC Museum.

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.