Fort Street
The basics
Victoria is a small city and most sightseeing tours covering the Downtown Victoria area will include a jaunt along Fort Street. You can easily explore the street in an hour, though you may spend longer browsing the various stores—which sell everything from electrics to handmade shoes to used books—as you go. If you’re hungry, head for the area east and west of Blanshard Street; the high concentration of cafés, bakeries, and ethnic eateries make this stretch a popular stop-off on food tours.
Things to know before you go
- Find public restrooms in the Bay Center at Fort and Government streets.
- Several banks with ATMs are located in and around the Fort and Douglas streets intersection.
- Pair a visit to Fort Street with trips to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria or Craigdarroch Castle; both of which are situated just off Fort Street in the Rockland neighborhood.
How to get there
Fort Street is about a 10-minute walk from the Hotel Fairmont Empress in Downtown Victoria. Various BC Transit bus services make stops on the street— including the #3, #11, #14, and #15 buses.
Trip ideas
When to get there
Weekends are busier, and you may have to wait for a table at some of the more popular restaurants during peak brunch hours. Go midweek for a quieter experience.
Fort Victoria National Historic Site
Walk all the way to the waterfront end of Fort Street and turn left to reach the Fort Victoria National Historic Site of Canada. Only scant evidence—including the mooring rings on the rocks, two bastions, and a palisade—of this 19th-century fort survive, though a plaque does mark the site, acknowledging its heritage value.
- Craigdarroch Castle
- Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
- Abkhazi Garden
- Old Town Victoria
- Race Rocks Ecological Reserve
- Victoria Bug Zoo
- Miniature World
- Victoria Chinatown
- Government Street
- Royal British Columbia Museum
- Fairmont Empress Hotel
- Victoria Inner Harbour
- British Columbia Parliament Buildings
- Bateman Foundation Gallery of Nature
- Emily Carr House