Squeeze Through Fan Tan Alley

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Seven galleries, an 1889 mansion, twenty thousand works, and a Japanese garden with a real Shinto shrine waiting out back.

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

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

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

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

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

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