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Canada's mild west

Kate Johnson finds that Vancouver Island is full of genteel charms - from lush gardens to cucumber sandwiches and grand, old-fashioned hotels

This is the ideal place for a second wedding,' our guide says, which is a blow for those of us yet to secure a first.

We're in Vancouver Island's glorious Butchart Gardens, which began life as a family-run quarry in the early 1900s.

When the limestone ran out, matriarch Jennie Butchart set about creating this living shrine to nature. Now, with the help of 50 gardeners, nearly 1,000 varieties of plants thrive in its 55 acres.


The stunning Butchart Gardens


The gardens are 30 minutes' drive north of Victoria, the state capital of British Columbia at the southern tip of the 300-mile-long island off Canada's Pacific coastline (the bottom quarter of which is below the United States border).

Named after Queen Victoria, its inner harbour is big enough for sea planes, private boats and tiny water taxis, with bright yellow and chequerboard paintwork like New York cabs, but too small for cruise ships.


Take a scenic flight over Victoria Harbour


It's wonderfully genteel. Government Street is downtown's backbone with cafes, restaurants and clothes shops, most of which sell outdoorsy no-nonsense stuff, and running off it, Canada's oldest Chinatown (all two streets of it).

At the far end is homegrown Phillips craft brewery, where a cheery man with a ZZ Top beard arranges a tasting for us.

We're staying in two hotels. First is the vast, grande dame, the Fairmont Empress, which overlooks the marina and the copper-domed British Columbia Parliament buildings. It offers elaborate afternoon teas with cucumber sandwiches and sumptuous rooms.

From here you can pick up the harbour walkway which winds around to Fisherman's Wharf - all craftsy shops, fish and chips and brightly painted floating houses. Nearby is our second hotel, the Inn at Laurel Point, which looks like a cruise ship on the outside. Its rooms are gigantic and all look out over the water.


View from the Fairmont Empress


It's all about The Great Outdoors on Vancouver Island, a short flight or 90-minute ferry from the mainland. The new Malahat skywalk is half an hour north west (there's a free shuttle). It rises gradually through the Douglas fir and cedar forest, dotted with huge driftwood sculptures of lone wolves and eagles - then spirals gently to 820 ft above the Salish sea, looking over the Saanich Inlet, Mt Baker, Washington state beyond. The best way down is the whoosh of the 60ft covered slide (a young girl liked it so much she did it 47 times) before retracing our steps.


You'll see amazing views from the Malahat skywalk


We go in search of whales on the ocean waves. Technology helps track them and a marine biologist explains how the orcas operate (the males never leave the pod and 'live their entire lives in the equivalent of their mom's basement'), but regulations mean we have to stay 600 ft away from them and 300ft from a solitary humpback.

Joyfully, we do get close enough to eyeball a colony of ungainly sea lions lumbering about on rocks.

I recall a hoarding I had seen earlier. 'Always believe that something wonderful is about to happen.' That's not difficult on this enchanting Canadian island.


First published in the Mail on Sunday -  November 2024

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