Victoria offers plenty of fun stuff for kids to see and do. For one thing, the city is filled with young families who need to keep their own offspring entertained. For another, it has all sorts of parks, beaches, hills, and trails to get them moving outdoors, as well as great, kid-friendly attractions, many of them involving actual living creatures. Your kids can watch orcas and porpoises frolic on a whale-watching adventure, pet the happy goats at the Beacon Hill Children’s Farm, play with many-legged insects at the Victoria Bug Zoo or the pretty winged ones at the Victoria Butterfly Gardens, or check out all the squiggly critters in the touch tanks at the Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre.
Of course, there are real live tide pools to investigate as well. You can find them along rocky beaches like the one in Mount Douglas Park. There are also several other parks to explore, including Goldstream Provincial Park just north of the city, which has a fascinating gold rush past, easy hiking trails through old-growth forest, and a visitor center with activities geared especially for children.
If you’d rather stay in the city center, you can find plenty to keep the little ones busy there, too. The Royal BC Museum has special programming and activities just for kids—and they’ll get a kick out of cool displays like the vast hall of totem poles and the life-size reconstruction of a woolly mastodon. Kids of all ages love Miniature World, with its huge collection of dollhouses, model trains, and teensy circus displays. The Prince or Princess tea at the Fairmont Hotel Empress will make your kids feel like royalty. And a trip around the harbor on a Victoria Harbour Ferry is fun for the whole family—be sure to stop at Red Fish Blue Fish for the best ever fish and chips.
Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.
