Victoria BC, Canada

Our waterfront home is 5 min drive to the little town of Sidney. We enjoy the Main Street with its shops and restaurants. Of course, we are always by the water and dining with a view is often an option. There is a street market every Thursday evening with local crafts and live music on the Main Street. There's also music every Sunday afternoon in the bandshell on the waterfront (summer only).

If you like boating, we have kayaks at our home, and you can charter a boat and captain for the day to explore the many islands near us. There are some great hikes in the local parks. Horth Hill is the park that Harry and Megan would walk in when they lived in North Saanich! John Dean Park is larger and has lots of hiking trails. There is a good biking trail that runs in front of our house called the Lochside Trail that takes you through acres of agricultural land. Be sure to stop at Michell's Farm Market for a snack. You can also bike around the airport and visit the BC Aviation Museum.

You can drive into Victoria in 30 minutes and the inner harbour (with the historic Empress Hotel) has street musicians and a foot ferry to get out on the water, The Royal BC Museum is quite good, and it has an IMAX theatre. Victoria is very bike friendly and people often bike all day from our area (Sidney) into Victoria, have lunch, and bike back. There are many bike trails that aren't on the main roads (old rail lines, etc). We have four bikes you can use at our house. Or you can rent bikes once you get into Victoria. There are whale watching tour boats from Victoria but we have seen killer whales out front of our house. And eagles or great blue herons often perch in the trees on our beachfront. We've had river otters run through out garden! You may enjoy catching crabs off the pier in Sidney.

We are located on the largest island off the southern coast of British Columbia. Vancouver is the usual international airport for visitors to land, and they can take a ferry (www.bcferries.com) from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay in 1.5 hours. It is also possible to fly from Vancouver to Victoria (on Vancouver Island). Our house is 5 min from the Victoria International airport.
Our home is only 10 minutes from the ferry terminal, just south of Sidney. As we are on the east side of the island, we look across at the many smaller Gulf Islands. This easy access to the islands is why there are so many marinas in our area where people moor their boats. Each Sunday we can see many sailboats "racing" on the Salish Sea out front of our house.