Beachcomb the Sand Flats at Island View

A punchy 5 km return over glacier-scoured rock to a 449 m summit with the Saanich Inlet spread below.

A 1.2 km mossy stroll to a 30-metre waterfall and a sandy beach with the Olympic Mountains thrown in.

A warm little swimming lake with a sand beach 200 metres from the car, wrapped in a 3.9 km forest loop with water views most of the way.

A Heritage Grove of Douglas fir around five centuries old, reached on a flat boardwalk that a wheelchair or a stroller can manage.

A lantern-lit guide leads you through the shadowy alleys of Canada's most haunted old town for an hour of murder, hauntings, and harbourside history.

Short, steep and just sketchy enough at the top that you'll naturally steady each other on the slabby rock.

Paddle the glassy freshwater lake where Canada's national rowers train, then reward yourselves at Hamsterly Beach with a swim and a snack.

A 5.3 km loop through 300-year-old Douglas fir and a Garry oak meadow to Pickles Bluff, looking over farmland to Haro Strait.

A First Nation-owned outfit with two decades on the water, launching into the calm island maze where orca actually live.

A 120-year-old garden in an old limestone quarry, where Jennie Butchart invented romance out of an industrial problem.

The lesser-known flat rail trail where you can talk the whole way, ending at Sidney's bookshops and waterfront patios as your reward.

Paddle a sheltered tidal inlet past heritage homes to Western Canada's only reversing rapids, then sensibly turn around.

An easy, gorgeous walk beside Butchart Gardens: a shaded descent through big cedars to the calm shore of Tod Inlet.

Ocean River's guided paddle from Oak Bay to a wild marine-park island where seals shadow your hull and the city completely disappears.