Live Music Till One at the Bard & Banker

Seven nights of live Celtic fiddle, the largest Irish whiskey list in Canada, and 1am doors on Bastion Square.

Order The Volcano (it's on fire), book the karaoke room, and accept that tonight is going to be a story.

Twenty-nine craft taps, a late kitchen with a following and a historic brick courtyard open till midnight every night in Victoria.

Cash-only, peanut shells on the floor, bras stapled to the ceiling: Victoria's most beloved dive bar open until 2am.

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

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

A downtown day spa where Ayurvedic massages have a near-cult following and a rainy afternoon becomes a whole personality.

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

A bright, clattering Mexican brunch room inside Market Square, where the benny lands on a potato pancake under pulled pork.

Down Trounce Alley in Victoria, a snug tapas bar where the sherry list is one of the biggest in Canada.

Oak Bay's beloved tearoom, two decades strong, where the Big Muckle Giant Tea for Two arrives in a tiered tower of house-baked scones and shortbread.

Willow Stream Spa inside the Fairmont Empress: fireplace, harbour view, two therapists, one mineral pool, zero reasons to care about the weather.

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.

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