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Few Canadian cities wear their history as visibly as Victoria. The provincial capital of British Columbia sits at the southern tip of Vancouver Island, looking out across the Strait of Juan de Fuca toward the Olympic Mountains of Washington State. It was established as a Hudson's Bay Company trading post in 1843 and grew into one of the most distinctly British settlements on the Pacific coast, a character it has never entirely shed. The inner harbour remains the civic centrepiece, framed by the copper-roofed Fairmont Empress Hotel and the stone bulk of the British Columbia Parliament Buildings, both completed around the turn of the twentieth century and still the first images most visitors carry away.

The city's compact scale is one of its defining qualities. The downtown core, Chinatown (the oldest in Canada, established in 1858), the Beacon Hill Park neighbourhood, and the waterfront are all within comfortable walking distance of one another. Chinatown's Fan Tan Alley, reputedly the narrowest commercial street in Canada, is a useful reminder that Victoria's past is considerably more layered than its manicured gardens and afternoon-tea reputation suggest. Beacon Hill Park itself stretches from the edge of downtown to the cliffs above Dallas Road, where the Pacific winds arrive unimpeded and the views on a clear day extend well beyond the strait.