Wednesday, August 14, 2013

The Butchart Gardens


I took a 10-day trip to British Columbia a couple weeks ago. I booked a round trip flight to Seattle. From Seattle I took a 3-hour train to Vancouver.  After spending 4 days in Vancouver, I took Pacific Couch to reach Victoria.  While I had fun in Vancouver, I was blown away by Victoria. While touring the Parliament Buildings, another tourist highly recommended The Butchart Gardens. The older gentleman emphasized that he had seen many gardens and The Butchart Gardens was just amazing.

Sunken Garden

The following morning, I took a bus to the gardens. The admission fee is a bit pricy, and they don't offer student or senior discount. Once I entered it, I could see why. It is quite an amazing garden, which obviously takes a lot of people to care for it. I was also surprised that they allowed dogs in these meticulous manicured gardens.


On Saturday evenings during summer months, the admission fee also includes concert and fireworks. Unfortunately I was only staying for 4 days and leaving on Saturday morning. I had a nice lunch at The Blue Poppy Restaurant, but I certainly could have packed a nice picnic.

The bears

I would love to visit The Butchart Gardens again during a different season. The gardens look very differently during each season. Next time I will travel straight to Victoria from Seattle.  I still want to stop by Seattle so that I can pay a visit at Jack's Fish Spot in Pike Place Market.