Victoria Part 04: Inner Harbour

During our recent trip to Victoria, The GF and I stayed at the Marriott by the Inner Harbour. It was a great location and a happy accident.

I booked the hotel because I had spare Marriott points in my account. I'm not sure how I keep accumulating the Marriott points; normally when I travel I try to earn Hilton points. I spend only 10-15 nights a year at Marriott properties, but they seem to accumulate.

It's a nice hotel. The bedding was comfortable and the staff was nice. Room service was tasty. The corner room was a smaller than some, but had huge windows. It was just a 6th floor room, so the view mainly consisted of the neighboring condos, But it was still nice to have. And the air-conditioner kept the room reasonably cool. Two nights at the property cost 50,000 points.

The location was fantastic. It was just a couple blocks from the Inner Harbour. The walk was actually shorter than it looked on the map, too, which is always a pleasant surprise.

The Harbour has a number of tourist activities, including the Undersea Gardens I talked about last week.

This is the Fairmont Empress Resort and Hotel. It's a beautiful building, with its back and sides shielded from the sidewalks with some lovely landscaping. It's well known for offering afternoon tea. We didn't try that; perhaps the next trip.



I probably have 5 or 6 versions of this picture. The challenge was to capture the hotel without capturing the traffic zipping along on the busy street.

I show this using a Sigma 10-20 MM lens. The wide angle was much more useful than I expected.

Nearby was a statue of Captain Cook who was the first European to reach British Columbia.



Around the corner is the gorgeous Parliament building.


Besides the buildings, though, the Inner Harbour area is just a pleasant area for wandering about. The vendors every few feet sell icecream, gelato, tourist goods, lemonaide, more gelato, and more icecream. On a beautiful, sunny day, it may be filled with tourists, but it is still infused with a light mood that promises the rest of the trip is going to be pretty darn nifty.

And if you get bored, you can always come back here and watch the water traffic. Or turn around and watch the human traffic. It's sure to be entertaining either way.