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Victoria & Butchart Gardens: City Tour with Garden Entry

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.58 (12 reviews)

Free cancellationLikely to sell out

1/7

Duration4h

GroupPrivate

LanguagesEN

PickupAt your hotel

Victoria's Gardens & Waterfront in One Afternoon

You get picked up in a private vehicle, driven past the island's best viewpoint, spend 90 minutes exploring Butchart Gardens' four distinct garden sections, then tour Victoria's main neighborhoods from Chinatown to the waterfront. Entry to the gardens and bottled water are included; the air-conditioned vehicle and fixed route mean you're not arranging transport or timing yourself around public schedules.

Step-by-step itinerary

Drive scenic route to Butchart Gardens
View Lieutenant Governor's Mansion and Craigdarroch Castle
See views from Mount Tolmie
Explore Butchart Gardens for 1.5 hours
Tour Victoria city highlights
Visit Chinatown and Government House
See Empress Hotel and Inner Harbour
Walk Old Town Bastion Square
End at Fisherman's Wharf

The Experience

The driver showed up ten minutes early, which threw off my whole timing — I wasn't quite ready, but that's how you know the logistics are tight. We picked up in Victoria proper and headed straight into the scenic route toward Butchart Gardens, and right away the guide started pointing out the Lieutenant Governor's Mansion and Craigdarroch Castle as we climbed toward Mount Tolmie. That's where you get the view that makes you understand why people stay here. The drive alone takes maybe thirty minutes, but it's not wasted time; it's the setup for what comes next.

Butchart Gardens itself is the kind of place that looks like someone's fever dream of a garden — 55 acres of it, built from an old limestone quarry back in 1904. Jennie Butchart basically decided to turn her husband's abandoned mine into a landscape, and what came out was the Sunken Garden, plus a Japanese Garden, an Italian Garden, and a Rose Garden, each one distinct enough that you're not just walking through the same thing four times. You get about an hour and a half to wander through, and the gardens are lit up for evening viewing, so even if you're there later in the day it doesn't feel rushed. The seasonal flower changes mean it's different depending on when you go — that's the Victorian tradition they've kept alive through generations.

After the gardens, the tour swings back into Victoria itself for the city portion. You'll see Chinatown, the Empress Hotel, Government House, the Inner Harbour, and Bastion Square in the Old Town, then finish at Fisherman's Wharf. It's the kind of overview that gives you the shape of the place — where the West Coast laid-back thing meets British and European and Asian traditions all at once. The whole thing runs 3.5 to 4 hours total, and the private transportation means you're not waiting for a group to reassemble or dealing with a coach schedule.

What’s included

Private transportation in an air-conditioned vehicle.
entry fee to Butchart Gardens.
bottled water.
scenic drive past Mount Tolmie, the Lieutenant Governor's Mansion, and Craigdarroch Castle.
approximately 1.5 hours in the gardens.
guided tour of Victoria's Chinatown, Government House, Empress Hotel, Inner Harbour, Bastion Square, and Fisherman's Wharf.

Good to know

Easy physical levelWheelchair accessibleStroller friendlyInfant seats availablePets welcomePublic transport nearbyInfants must sit on laps

Operated by Weston Tours

Is this one for you?Book this if you want to see both Butchart Gardens and Victoria's main neighborhoods without arranging your own transport or timing the stops yourself — the private vehicle and fixed route handle the logistics, leaving you to focus on the sights.