Victoria

Known as the “City of Gardens”, Victoria is British Columbia’s capital city and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada’s Pacific coast. Named after Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and of the Dominion of Canada, Victoria is one of the oldest cities in the Pacific Northwest, with British settlement beginning in 1841. The city has retained a large number of its historic buildings, in particular its two most famous landmarks: the British Columbia Parliament Buildings (finished in 1897) and the Empress hotel (opened in 1908). The city’s Chinatown is the second oldest in North America after San Francisco’s.