Iconic & Obscure Walking Tour In Victoria

We had an amazing day with Fish our guide. He was very knowledgeable about Victoria. He also gave us great tips about places to eat and things to enjoy on the rest of our stay in the city.

Great walk that took us through historic residential neighbourhoods, harbour front and Chinatown. Dave, a lifelong resident, had plenty of interesting things to share. Pace was good and the ground covered in 2 hours was sufficient to get a good overview of the downtown/harbour district. We especially enjoyed the Emily Carr house.

We always enjoy walking tours when we are somewhere new and this tour was no exception. Our guide was welcoming and full of interesting details and stories about Victoria. We covered a lot of ground (at a reasonable pace) and history and I left the tour more curious than ever about this unique city. And the price is a total bargain. Highly recommend.

VERY happy we found this tour company! Worth every penny and cost reasonable compared to other options in city. Our guide was David (Fish) who was extremely upbeat, knowledgeable and fun. He even took photos of us at the most beautiful locations. David truly added wonderful memories to our enjoyable visit to Victoria.

Scott was excellent. Very knowledgeable, enthusiastic and he injected the right amount of humour into the experience. Lots of recommendations for restaurants, shops and other activities. Definitely a great introduction to the history and culture of Victoria . Recommend doing the first day in town.

Our tour guide was quite informative of Victoria and very interesting to listen to. Enjoyed the tour.

This was a great quick tour for anyone taking a short pass through Victoria! Lots of history, an easy walk, and a great view of many of the city's highlights. Highly recommend!

We learned lots of History and enjoyed walking along Dave! He was very enthusiastic, informative and we had a great walk! He went above and beyond to take us to the souvenir shops after the tour was over! Super sweet!

Fish (aka David) provided an outstanding walking tour including not only insights into the iconic sights but also very interesting facts, figures and humorous trivia about local folklore. Definitely one of the best tour guides we have ever had the pleasure of spending time with!

Dave was fantastic and super informative! We were able to learn a lot about Victoria. It was nice to have an amazing guide.

Fun and informative! Fish was an friendly and energetic guide.

Very informed tour and fun too! Nice walk around downtown. Info about The Empress, historic streets and Chinatown was great.

Dave was a great tour guide knowledgeable and experienced.

It was interesting, informative and lively. Fish was an excellent guide! We had a great group. Make sure you wear comfy shoes!

Dave was exceptionally knowledgeable. His humour was great. We learnt things and history we would never have known. It was a pleasant two hours which we would highly recommend.

Fantastic experience. Fish is a very knowledgeable guide , keeps perfect pace and lots of great information plus tips for self exploration and dining after your. We loved it and also love Victoria!!

Dave and Steven were both interesting and well versed in the sights we were seeing. The pace was leisurely and allowed lots of time for questions.

Our guide Steven ushered us through a lovely brisk walk through the city. He was extremely friendly and knowledgeable. We saw the sights as the sunset and the city lights came on. We enjoyed stories of the local history and architecture.

Our guide Dave was very knowledgable & amusing about the local history & folk legends. Easy pace for families.

This tour provided a great general overview of Victoria’s history as well as the cultural diversity and richness of the city. Julie introduced everyone to each other, creating a warm and friendly atmosphere from the start. She is a very knowledgeable guide who shared many stories while also welcoming questions. She also asked questions so as to be in tune to the group’s interests, tailoring the tour so that everyone got the most out of it. We would highly recommend this tour (and if you get Julie as your guide, you’re lucky!)

We loved our small guided walking tour with Julie. She was as friendly as she was knowledgeable. Just five of us on the tour, which was perfect.

We had an awesome time walking with Ernie. He has lived in Victoria for most of his long life, and he was full of stories. From what he told us, there are a few places that every Iconic & Obscure tour goes, but each guide is given a lot of leeway to add other stops and decide exactly what they want to tell us about. This also meant he could adapt to what the group was interested in. Ernie kept the tour moving at a good pace and knew how to engage both adults and children with questions and guessing games. He clearly loves Victoria. We got a good overview of the city's well-known highlights as well as lesser-known stories. I have already retold the one about the pepperoni in the Empress Hotel several times since I've been home! Highly recommend this tour.

Ernie was a fantastic guide—energetic, engaging, and full of interesting tidbits you wouldn’t typically hear on most tours. He made a real effort to connect with our teen kids, asking thoughtful questions that matched their interests and keeping them involved throughout. Thanks to him, they’re already talking about coming back to Victoria.

Wonderful adventure with Ernie.

Ernie ended up giving us a private group tour since we were the only ones booked today. We had so much fun learning about the quirky characters in history that influenced Victoria. Ernie also pointed out popular and not so well known spots to return to and visit, which we appreciated. He’d also send us into places to notice a specific detail that linked to a special story, which made us look anew at places we had already visited before on previous trips. Ernie and this tour were delightful!

We were so lucky to get the best tour guide in Victoria! "Fish" led us about the city with stories to tell of each stop, like the Roger's Chocolate store, interesting spots to look for, like the Last Spike and personalized our walk by referring to different places that would have a connection to the walkers, like John Lennon's car. Visiting Victoria during February allowed us to enjoy the spring flowers in beds around The Empress and parks and there were no crowds! Our final dinner at Il Terrazza was truly a romantic send off. Thank you Fish for making our cross country travel memorable.

"Fish" was incredibly engaging and knowledgeable and a wealth of fun, interesting stories about poeple, history, architecture, and culture. Truly worth every step...

David “Fish” is enthusiastic and extremely knowledgeable about heritage buildings. There were just 2 of us so our own personal guided tour - no questions unanswered. We had walked through areas for 2 or 3 days but got so much more out of it knowing the history of downtown Victoria. We’d definitely do other tours with “Fish”.

This was an educational experience for me. I enjoyed walking the distance and learning new things about Victoria - a city I truly treasure. Others in my group ten to twenty years my senior were great sports and didn't necessarily dress for the weather. I bought myself a had along the way. A sunny day with no wind would have been ideal (naturally not in our control). I recommend participants dress for the weather. Layer up! We made a few unplanned stops that I greatly appreciated. I saw the inside of some buildings I have never been to before. I believe having Intentional stops built into the plan for a beverage and snack (with each person being responsible for covering the cost of their items if the establishments are not sponsoring the stops) would have been a great opportunity to talk about the city's history further while inside away from the wind. And I think venues would appreciate the additional business when not too busy to accommodate the group. Of course this would likely turn what is advertised as a two hour tour into a three or four hour tour.

There were a lot of interesting historical tidbits on this tour. We thoroughly enjoyed the information Dave provided.

David "Fish" was excellent! He did a great job making the tour feel personal by remembering our names and where we came from. He is well-traveled so he was able to relate some stories to our home towns. He knew things that weren't technically part of the tour and went above and beyond afterwards making sure we knew how to get to our next destinations. I would recommend this tour to anyone who can handle a 2 hour walk! (although a lot of it is just standing still, which makes it a bit easier on some) and I'd be willing to do it all over again to take my family who wasn't with me this time. I learned so many new things that even local Victorians didn't know!

The guide had a huge knowledge - and strong personal opinions. He was very negative about Fairmont Hotel : “A place for snobs only”

Great value for the price. Fish, our guide, was incredibly knowledgeable, personable and energetic.He delivered all the tour promised and more. I highly recommend this tour.

Our guide did a wonderful job telling us about Victoria history, both old and new! The tour was well paced and we saw many interesting places in the downtown area. We highly recommend taking this tour when visiting Victoria!

Ernie was a fantastic host for the tour. He was raised in Victoria and knew a lot of it's history. He made it fun for everyone and we learned a lot and got to see way more things than other tour.

FIVE STARS! We did a fabulous 2-hour walking tour with David AKA Fish today. He was a wealth of knowledge and offered great insight into the history and architecture of Victoria. Highly recommend and ask for Fish if possible!

David was the best guide ever!! We learned so much about Victoria and got great suggestions on museums, restaurants and shops.

Julia our guide was fantastic. A historical walk about of Old Town Victoria. She was a fountain of knowledge, well researched and had a great delivery. Highly recommend!

Our guide Fish was knowledgeable, engaging, caring, and made the walk a lot of fun! I did not bring a jacket with me and Fish even let me use his jacket when I was cold. He also offered to stay after to help anyone if they wanted recommendations or even help with any other types of bookings we might need. Terrific service, Fish! We learned a lot about Victoria and saw lots of beautiful, historic, and interesting spots. Booking was easy and fast. Highly recommend for both locals and visitors.

Great walking tour. Our guide, Fish, was very friendly and informative. He kept it interesting through the entire tour and got us back to the ship in good time! Wear your walking shoes!

Dave, our guide, gave us a great appreciation of the city's beautiful architecture, as well as its history, development, and culture. We learned some interesting facts, stories, and anecdotes and discovered many fun downtown neighbourhoods and streets we never would have found on our own.

Michael was very friendly and knowledgeable of the area. I could not have asked for a better guide or experience.

Had a great time on this tour. There were only 5 of us including the guide so it helped keep things informal. Our guide David, was knowledgeable and entertaining with some great stories (were they really all true?) and gave us a feel for Victoria's quirky and at times poignant history. He also gave us some handy restaurant recommendations. It is a walking tour lasting 2 hours so wear comfortable shoes and bring some water with you. Recommended? Yes!

Jack was our guide! He was very informative, thorough and fun. He was conscious of allowing time for pictures and answering questions(and rest room / coffee stops)! Very enjoyable! He also gave great suggestions for areas and specific restaurants/cuisine! Highly recommend!

I’ve been to Victoria few times and on this visit I wanted to learn more about its history. This was a well phased walk around the harbour and Chinatown. Our guide Dave was very friendly easy to talked to a informative.

Really great tour, I felt as part of the experience rather than just being guided around. The tour guide was so knowledgeable and somehow included our interests into the tour. At the end of it I felt like me and my partner had made friends with the rest of the group

The tour was advertised as 2 hours but the guide finished it 40 minutes early. And we had walked v-e-r-y slowly. While he was a nice guy/guide, we did not feel we got our money's worth. I would not recommend this tour.

We had a great tour with Michael. He was interesting,knowledgeable, engaging, and personable. I would highly recommend Michael and this tour.

Michael brought history to life in this Victoria Walking tour! He was engaging, fun, and knowledgeable. We highly recommend his tour! Ingrid, Chicago