[HoneyNutChelios]

Ok, so I've been living in Victoria a long time. It's a lovely city on Canada's west coast, just a short ferry ride from Vancouver. It's small, around 350,000 people, and very easy to get around. it is very popular with tourists, especially Americans; Alaskan cruises often stop here during the summer. The weather is very mild it's not super hot in the summer, nor super cold in the winter, so you could come any time of year. Most people here are very friendly, and it's easy to strike up a conversation with just about anyone; especially if you are visiting, jsut ask someone to help you find something I've been to most of the bars/clubs here, and there is quite a few, so I will just be talking about the best, and worst, ones ad forgetting about the in-betweeners.

What the girls are like
Most of the girls here are very friendly, and easy to talk to. At the same time, there's a little bit of special snowflake syndrome going around. A lot of girls here think they're the shit, and have this aura of unwarranted self-importance around them. Girls here tend to fall into to categories: Sluts, or Prudes. Of course there is exceptions, but for the most part the girls will either fuck you within hours of meeting you, or not until you're "a couple".

As for what they look like. Average, nothing special, but nothing bad. There's a wide variety of girls here too. White, asian, and indian being the most common. There is also a lot of Asian exchange students. There's not a lot of fatties, but there is a noticeable amount, but I think that is typical of most Canadian cities

What your competition is like
Shit

Day Game
For gaming locals, there's a lot of options. I would say the best place would be the University of Victoria (UVIC). No special game needed, but keep in mind that most of the students are very liberal. I attend UVIC and there is dozens upon dozens of "rights for this", or "save the whatevers" clubs, so I would suggest you go along with that. Other than UVIC, the big shopping centres (Uptown, Mayfair, and Bay Centre) are your next best options.

There is also Camosun College, but I have found that the people that go there are less friendly/open than those at UVIC. Camosun is a 2 year school, with a lot of trade stuff so there it's also a bit of a sausage fest.

During the summer Beacon Hill Park is great for locals, and tourists, alike. The inner harbour is also great for tourists, you can pretty much just stand there and wait. However, most tourists are there with someone. There's a reason Victoria is called "The land of the newly wed and nearly dead", most of the tourists and a lot of the locals are newly wed couples or retired. And, like I mentioned before, a lot of tourists come from the Alaskan cruises, and come with their spouse or a large group.

Night Game
Ok, aside from clubs and bars (which I will get to in a bit) the inner harbour is a great place at night. The parliament building, which is right next to the harbour, lights up at night and is a very pretty/romantic sight. You can either meet girls here, or it's also a great place to take them for a walk after a date.

I am not a huge fan of the Victoria nightlife. That's not to say it's bad, I just don't like it that much. But there are quite a few good places. Saturday is the best night to go out, and most clubs will have something special on Saturdays so I'll only mention specials for clubs that happen on other days. Cover is typically $5, and it's about $6 to $8 for a drink.

Sugar is one of the most popular clubs. It's nothing out of the ordinary as far as nightclubs go. Sometimes they have special events like Machine Gun Kelly performing, or similar events. Thursday is student night, $3 drinks and girls don't pay cover.

Darcy's/Upstairs
Darcy's and Upstairs are connected. Darcy's is more of a bar/club hybrid, and Upstairs is a just a club. A lot of people start their night at Darcy's before going to Upstairs through the VIP entrance. Darcy's usually has a live band playing, and it's not particularly large so it's easy to scout the place out, and find someone to dance with.

Upstairs is probably my favourite club in Victoria, the atmosphere here is just great. It has a decently sized dance floor, and an equally sized table/sitting area. On Fridays they have something called "Absolut Fridays" where Absolut highballs are $4.50, and if you go to Earls for dinner you can skip the line and not pay cover. Of course, going to Darcy's before hand you skip the line and cover anyways (aside from darcy's line/cover)

Distrikt
Distrikt is a newer club, it used to be called 9one9. I never went when it was 9one9 and I've only been once since it became Distrikt, and I was the designated driver that night. It's a nice club with light shows, and cheap drinks ($3.50, probably watered down to shit). There is no cover for students, so it's almost always packed.

Now the not as great places

Sticky Wicket
Part of the Strathcona Hotel (same with Distrikt) the Sticky Wicket is a typical sports bar. It's a great place to go to start the night, or to just hang out with your friends. Not a great place to game however.

Irish Times/Bard and Banker/Penny Farthing
Theses Irish, Scottish, and English, pubs respectively are again, like the Sticky Wicket, great to go and hang out with your buds, not great places to game. Too loud, too crowded, just not the right atmosphere for gaming.

V-Lounge
I've only been here twice, and neither time was great. To me it seems like it they tried to pull off being a club and a sports bar at the same time, but unlike Darcy's they haven't succeeded. I haven't been in a couple of years, so maybe that has changed. It's definitely not a bad place, but there's a lot better options and it's a little out of the way. All the places mentioned above are within walking distance of each other, and the inner harbour. V-lounge is about a 20 minute bus ride from the harbour

Paparazzi
The unofficial gay bar. It doesn't advertise itself as a gay bar, but it is one. It's a bit of a dump, small and cramped. Although, sometimes girls like to go here to get away from guys hitting on them all the time.

A good layout would be Sugar on Thursday, Darcys/Upstairs Friday, and Distrikt on Saturday

Ok, so there's my guide to Victoria BC. Hope it helps you out if you ever come here. Victoria is a great place to visit, and live, and I recommend you come here at least once. Especially if you are already in Vancouver or Seattle where it's just a ferry ride away.

Feel free to PM me if you ever do come here.

[scotian]

Nice data sheet on one of my favorite cities in Canada, I go there quite often, about once a year to visit friends and family, I was last there in July for a salmon fishing and scuba diving trip on the northern tip of the island, near Port Hardy. Victoria is a very pleasant city to visit or live in, it reminds me a lot of my home city of Halifax; near the water, concentrated down town, very walkable and quaint, well preserved historical buildings. You're right though in saying that the night life isn't that great in Victoria, especially if you're over 30 as its a student town, so options are limited, there are however some pretty good pubs (the Carriage House has great seafood) and some very tasty local microbrew beers in the city, Granville Brewery being the one I remember off the top of my head. Here's a couple of other pointers for people heading to Victoria and Vancouver:

-Its in BC (AKA Bring Cash) and things tend to be more expensive, I paid $100/day for a small rental car at the airport for example. Taxes are higher for booze and smokes, but the weed is cheap and good.

-Seafood: Probably one of my favorite places for seafood, the island has great shellfish, especially oysters and lots of fresh halibut, salmon, lincod, etc.

-Activities: While in Vic, I mostly party so haven't done much in the city but I always head outside of the city to have some adventures such as surfing in Tofino (apparently some of the best cold water surf in the world, year round), there's excellent cold water diving, some of the best in the world (according to Jacques Costeau) up near Port Hardy and of course, world class salmon fishing. There's tons of other activities to do on the island, lots of lakes and ocean so if you're into water sports then its the place to be. Also, in the winter they have skiing at Mount Washington, although I've never done it, its easy to access.

I find that the girls are quite friendly there, maybe not the sexiest in the world but typical of small cities in Canada, I've done well picking up there at the bars and clubs (Picked up a cougar at the Sticky Wicket and a drunk skank at a bar called Plan B, not sure if its called that now). The Cactus Club downtown is also a decent spot for drinks, there's a strip club downtown as well but its old and the talent was hurting when I went there.

Again, nice datasheet OP, +1 from me, I highly recommend to anyone looking for a nice place to do some world class outdoor activities to check out Vancouver Island, especially you RVF Oil Sands guys who are looking to take a quick trip of 4-7 days, it can't be beat, there's direct flights from Etown to Vic that only take an hour. I will be going there again next summer, probably in July or August if anyone is interested in joining me, OP I'll probably hit you up when I go there.

[Dr Beta]

Fantastic data sheet, HoneyNutCheerios. Thanks!

[HighSpeed_LowDrag]

Just arrived here a few weeks ago, and there's another venue I can add to the above:

Sunday nights during the summer, the best place to be is at the Rooftop Surf Club, located near the Strathcona Hotel where the Sticky Wicket/Distrikt are. Get there early (and I mean like 5pm early) since there's a huge amount of people who head there - especially on days with good weather. Bring a wingman with you to keep social. It's their industry night, so you'll have access to all the bartenders and hostesses in the nightlife scene here - easily some of the best quality you can find in Victoria. It's only open during the summer months though.

[Cattle Rustler]

How's the water temp in regards to surfing up there?

Man, I can't imagine that shit...cold to the bone.

[Laner]

Its the northern Pacific so the water temp is probably around 8-10 degrees. Jordan River is only an hour or so from Victoria and is pretty good outside of the summer. Actually, most of the good surfing is outside of summer unless something is stirring the water up off the coast.

Tofino has less predictable weather with fog, but the beaches are much nicer than Jordan River and if you are into long boarding it can be still fun in the summer. Wetsuit is mandatory year round, most wear boots, gloves and hood as well.

For summer chill spots around Victoria find someone to take you out the Sooke Potholes for some fun swimming. Its fun walking up the warm river, jumping off cliffs into the potholes and chatting with people.

[azulsombra]

This is my first time seeing this datasheet.

Would have came in handy when I visited in september but it wasn't dropped until November.

Only thing I can add to this is that the University talent is quite good, if I came back I would focus on daygame. I even saw cute girls riding the city buses.

[HighSpeed_LowDrag]

More info I can add to the above:

Lucky Bar, (517 Yates Street), is the place to be for Monday nights. They have a 90's night running then, and by all accounts the amount of people who try to go is mind-bending. It opens at 9pm, and (I've seen this with my own eyes) there's a line already there of people trying to get in. Get there early if you want to go.

Deja Vous (the new Touch Lounge, at 751 View Street) is also a pretty good spot. Structurally-speaking, it's the best place to run game in Victoria, as there are three separate rooms so that you can isolate and avoid getting noticed where necessary pretty easily. Plus, over the summer period it's free cover and $3.50 drinks all night. Average female friendliness, from my experience (plus that of other local friends) is somewhat higher than the usual here in Victoria - according to one of my buddies, it's the place where girls wanting to hook up go. Open only on Fridays and Saturdays.

[Tytalus]

I grew up in Victoria as a teenager but left at 18 and never moved back - always interesting to see other people's take on the city. I think it's also important to note that for a city of 350k people, the amount of young people is less than expected, the average age of the city is about 55 since there are so many retirees. You HAVE to go to places young people congregate because otherwise their is a thin amount of them.

Also, aren't all the homeless people living in Beacon Hill Park now?