NIGHT is for Sleeping – Day is for Resting said the piece of street art in Victoria – and the city certainly had a restful feel to it on the Sunday I paid a visit.

After stepping off a seaplane from Vancouver at the Inner Harbour, I was greeted by the unlikely sight of ferry boats dancing on the water to the strains of Johann Strauss’s Blue Danube, overlooked by the British Columbia provincial parliament building, a majestic structure topped by a statue of Captain George Vancover, who led Britain’s first naval expedition to the area, and the creeper-clad Fairmont Empress Hotel.

Victoria is rather different to its big neighbour across the water. The few tall buildings are tucked away, so do not dominate the skyline like Vancouver’s skyscrapers and – dare I say it – it does put a bit of the British into British Columbia.

There are double-decker buses, fish and chips feature on the menus of many cafes and restaurants, and there are banks converted into pubs, serving real ales, such as the Irish Times, in Government Street, where I enjoyed a pint of locally-brewed Phillips Longboat Double Chocolate Porter – you could taste the chocolate in every sip.

The busman’s holiday feel was strengthened by a visit to the Royal British Columbia Museum, also at the Inner Harbour, where the major visiting exhibition was from – where else – the British Museum in London.

Having skipped breakfast at my hotel in Vancouver to make an early start, my first port of call was John’s Place, in Pandora Avenue – one of the top spots in town for brunch.

You won’t need a Sunday lunch after a visit here, especially if you tuck into the waffles. And don’t be put off if the queue stretches out of the door, it’s worth the wait.

After a hearty meal at John’s, a walk to work off the calories is in order and this is a very walkable city, with a compact central area and other attractions close by, such as Beacon Hill Park.

While some parts feel like a Victorian municipal park at home, it becomes wilder as you reach the summit, where you look out over the water to the Olympic Mountains, in the US.

And the park contains a reminder that people lived here long before British and Spanish sailors began to explore America’s Pacific coast – what is claimed to be the world’s tallest totem pole, all 127ft 7in of it, created in 1956 from the trunk of a cedar tree.

The Royal British Columbia Museum also boasts a fine collection of totem poles in its grounds and its First Nations Gallery tells the story of the earliest inhabitants of Vancouver Island and the Canadian mainland.

If you head east away from the harbour, you will find your way to Craigdarroch Castle, a Canadian take on Scottish baronial architecture, built by the Dunsmuir family, Scots coalmine owners with money to burn, the profits from their mines at Nanaimo, further north along the east coast of Vancouver Island.

The interior is a tribute to the skills of the men who built it, with the main staircase a masterpiece of carpentry – and scaling the steps of the tower is well worth it for some spectacular views.

If you feel in need of a treat after touring the town, pop back to Government Street and head to Oh Gelato, which is a cut above your average ice cream parlour.

There 66 flavours to choose from, including hedgehog, with the gelato crafted into a fair representation of a spiky mammal, just one of the many artistic offerings in the counter display. And no, I can’t tell you what hedgehog tastes like, as I stuck to something rather more traditional!

I didn’t have time to go whalewatching, another popular activity in the area, but if you have three hours or so to spare, then there are a host of operators based around the inner harbour.

When I was there in mid-May, they were all reporting sightings of orcas (killer whales) on the first trips of the day.

The city’s visitor centre is in Wharf Street, alongside the Inner Harbour and a couple of minutes’ walk from the seaplane terminal.

  • The quickest – and most spectacular – way to travel between Vancouver and Vancouver Island is by seaplane.

Harbour Air and West Coast Air run regular timetabled services between the harbours at Vancouver, Victoria and other towns on the island, along with sightseeing and whalewatching flights.

Vancover-Victoria flights take about 35 minutes, subject to traffic in the harbours.

It’s not the cheapest way to make the crossing, with a typical return fare being about £150, although off-peak fares can be about £100.

Alternatively, there are regular ferry services, operated by BC Ferries, from Tsawwassen, south of Vancouver, or plenty of flights by more conventional aircraft from Vancouver airport.

For more details, see harbourair.com, westcoastair.com or bcferries.com