The Butchart Gardens: Victoria Travel Guide (4.8★)

A Garden Planted Inside a Hole in the Ground

Stand at the lookout and the view drops away below you. The Sunken Garden fills the floor of an old limestone quarry. Grey rock walls rise around its edges, ivy climbs them, and paved paths curl between tightly planted beds down to a small lake.

This is the start of almost every visit, and for good reason. Everything else at The Butchart Gardens spreads out from here across 22 hectares in Brentwood Bay, with themed gardens, several eateries and 26 greenhouses.

The Quarry That Became the Sunken Garden

The story explains the landscape. Robert Butchart ran a cement works here in the early 1900s, and the quarry supplied its limestone. Once the stone ran out, his wife Jennie started filling the pit with topsoil and plants. That was the beginning of the Sunken Garden.

The family kept building. Over the following decades the estate gained Japanese, Italian and rose gardens, and it is now a National Historic Site of Canada. It is still family-owned.

At the far end of the quarry, the Ross Fountain sends jets of water up from a pool set deep in the old rock face. It was added in the 1960s. Walk the full Sunken Garden loop and you see the quarry’s shape from below, which is something the lookout cannot show you.

Walking the Route Through the Themed Gardens

The paths follow a single, signed circuit, so you do not need to plan a route. Allow two to three hours at an easy pace, and longer if you photograph everything. In order, the main sections are:

• Sunken Garden: the quarry, the lookout and the Ross Fountain.
• Rose Garden: arches and beds of roses, at their best through summer.
• Japanese Garden: maples, moss and lanterns, sloping down toward Butchart Cove on Tod Inlet.
• Star Pond: a star-shaped pool from the family’s early years.
• Italian Garden: a formal, symmetrical courtyard on the site of the old tennis court.
• Mediterranean Garden: drought-loving plants near the exit.

Most of the main paths are paved, though the way into the Sunken Garden includes slopes and some steps. Benches are spaced generously along the circuit.

Which Season Shows You What

The gardens change sharply through the year. Each season is worth coming for, but they are very different visits.

• Spring: the bulb season. Tulips, daffodils and flowering trees fill the Sunken Garden beds.
• Summer: the Rose Garden peaks, the beds are fullest and the crowds are largest.
• Autumn: the Japanese maples turn red and the paths feel more spacious.
• Winter: the beds are bare, so the structure, evergreens and greenhouses carry the visit.

Opening hours change with the seasons as well. At the moment Google lists 10am to 4:30pm every day of the week. Evening openings and seasonal events have been part of the gardens’ calendar for years, so check the official Butchart Gardens site for this month’s schedule before you rule out a later visit.

Getting to Brentwood Bay

The gardens are on the Saanich Peninsula, around 20 km north of downtown Victoria. The drive takes roughly half an hour via the Pat Bay Highway and Keating Cross Road, and there is a large car park on site.

Without a car, BC Transit’s route 75 runs from downtown Victoria to the gardens. The ride is slow and scenic, so check the current timetable before you set off. If you are arriving on the ferry at Swartz Bay or flying into Victoria International Airport, the gardens are much closer to you than downtown is. Many visitors stop here on the way into the city.

Several coach tours also run from the Inner Harbour. They are convenient, but they put you in the gardens at the busiest time of day.

Beating the Tour Coaches to the Sunken Garden

Timing makes the biggest difference to your visit. Usually the calmest window is 10am to 11am on weekdays, the first hour after opening. Arrive then and you get the lookout and the quarry paths before the coaches pull in.

On weekends there is no quiet stretch. The busiest hours usually run from 11am to 4pm, which is almost the whole day. Try not to plan a Saturday or Sunday afternoon here. If a weekend is your only option, be at the gate at 10am and walk straight to the Sunken Garden while it is still calmer.

A few habits make the day easier:

• Book meals ahead. Afternoon tea in the Dining Room, inside the former Butchart family residence, is a long-standing tradition and fills up early. Reserve before you come.
• Pay by card. Card payment is normal at Canadian attractions and their cafés. Tip 15–20% for table service in the restaurants, as you would anywhere in British Columbia.
• Stay on the paths. The beds are planted tightly, and stepping in for a photo damages them.
• Check the posted prices. Admission changes with the season and is listed at the gate and on the official site.
• Ask about plants at the Plant Identification Centre. The staff there can name almost anything you photographed.

Nearby on the Saanich Peninsula

The gardens fit easily into a half-day loop of the peninsula. Brentwood Bay village is a few minutes’ drive away. A small car ferry crosses Saanich Inlet from there to Mill Bay, which saves backtracking if you are heading up-island.

Victoria Butterfly Gardens is also close by, so the two make an easy pair on a rainy day. Further north, Sidney has a waterfront walk, bookshops and the ferries toward the Gulf Islands. Head south and downtown Victoria’s Inner Harbour, the Parliament Buildings and the Royal BC Museum fill the rest of the day.