Swim and Sit at Glen Lake

Victoria's Saturday farmers' market in Fairfield, with a busker, a market dog, and the constant internal debate about the jam.

A secret spiral staircase, a rocky cove almost nobody else shows up to, and all the driftwood logs you need.

The Parliament Buildings light up, a unicyclist might be there, and it costs nothing to watch Victoria show off.

Victoria's best postcard view of downtown, from the wrong side of the harbour, at the exact right time of day.

Canada's oldest Chinatown, a freshly restored 12-metre dragon gate glowing at dusk, and stone lions from Suzhou. Worth every cent of zero.

Old-growth firs, a waterfall, a trestle, and in late autumn the river runs red with salmon while eagles watch from above.

A tiny seaside village wharf, the glassy calm of Saanich Inlet, and a 25-minute ferry you do nothing but watch. Free.

A flat, shaded 2.6 km through big cedar to a sheltered saltwater lagoon with benches right at the water, behind Butchart Gardens.

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.

Six ziplines and a treetop obstacle course in Langford: the cure for every polite, seated, sitting-across-a-table date.

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

Fifty-five kilometres of flat, car-free former railway where you can actually talk the whole way and the picnic is mandatory.

A 9 km ridge loop earns a 434 m summit above the Saanich Inlet, with the Malahat on the horizon.

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