Greater Victoria Invites Visitors on a Playful “Cone-Cation”
of Food, Nature, and Discovery
It starts, innocently enough, with a waffle cone. But in Greater Victoria, one cone tends to lead to another, a three-tier seafood tower, a conical castle turret against the sky, a cluster of Douglas fir cones underfoot on a forest trail. Visitors can experience a playful “Cone-cation”, a self-guided way to explore the city through the shapes hiding in plain sight across its food, architecture and wild spaces.
As travellers increasingly seek creative ways to experience destinations beyond traditional sightseeing, Greater Victoria is inviting visitors to embark on a self-guided “Cone-cation.” Part scavenger hunt, part culinary adventure, and part nature escape, the experience encourages visitors to slow down, look closer, and uncover unexpected connections between the region’s creativity, history, and natural surroundings.
Cones You Can Eat
No cone-cation starts without a little culinary creativity. At Marilena Cafe & Raw Bar in the historic Rotunda building, the showstopper is La Tour, the restaurant’s signature three-tier seafood tower stacked with oysters, sushi, tuna tartare, and a whole Atlantic lobster. White Heather Tea Room and Pendray Tea House serve a classic afternoon tea experience with tiered stands of delicate sandwiches, freshly baked scones, and house-made sweets.
Down on the Inner Harbour, Red Fish Blue Fish puts its own spin on the cone theme with Tacones, grilled flour tortillas rolled into a cone shape and stuffed with sustainably sourced BC seafood like albacore tuna or tempura cod, finished with slaw, sauce, and lemon pickled onions. Served out of an upcycled cargo container on the pier, it’s one of the city’s most photographed lunch spots, and usually comes with a line to prove it.
For dessert, Better Acres Ice Cream, a family-owned scoop shop on Government Street, hand-crafts its ice cream and gluten-free waffle cones on-site using fresh BC cream. A few doors down, Chocolats Favoris offers soft serve dipped tableside in fair-trade chocolate including S’mores, Dulce de Leche, and seasonal surprise flavours.
Nature’s Cones
Victoria’s cone obsession isn’t limited to dessert menus. It’s growing on trees. Outside downtown, Mount Work Regional Park and Goldstream Provincial Park offer forest-bathing trails through stands of Douglas fir, Western red cedar and Garry oak, with pine and fir cones scattered underfoot as a literal breadcrumb trail through some of the region’s oldest forests. Back in the city core, Beacon Hill Park is home to a small grove of Giant Sequoias planted in the early 1900s, among the largest tree species on Earth, including a beloved specimen on Circle Drive whose low, sweeping branches make it one of the park’s most photographed trees.
Sleep Inside a Cone
For travellers who want to sleep under the canopy rather than just walk through it, Greater Victoria’s cone-shaped lodging options are having a moment. At Fort Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse National Historic Site, Parks Canada’s oTENTik tents let guests camp out inside a 19th-century coastal artillery fort, falling asleep to the sound of the ocean within the fort’s walls. At Bilston Creek Farm, canvas tents among lavender fields offer a peaceful glamping escape, where guests can unwind surrounded by the sights and scents of the working farm. A short drive up-island, Merridale Cidery & Distillery offers overnight stays in round, wood-framed glamping yurts tucked into its heritage apple orchard.
For a more traditional take on the pointed roofline, the Huntingdon Hotel and Suites occupies an 1890s mansion with a turret overlooking the Inner Harbour. Nearby, the Fairmont Empress wears its turrets more grandly still: its steep copper roof is lined with a series of polygonal turrets, including one that houses Room 734, a guest room featuring a rare round bed.
Victorian Cones
Craigdarroch Castle, the Romanesque Revival mansion built in the 1890 by coal baron Robert Dunsmuir, is topped with the city’s most recognizable cones: cylindrical towers capped in steep, storybook conical roofs, climbable via 87 interior steps to a lookout over the city and the Olympic Mountains beyond. A short walk away, a stroll along Rockland Avenue and the streets surrounding Government House turns up block after block of Victorian and Queen Anne-style homes finished with the same small witch’s-hat turret roofs, a quieter, residential echo of the castle up the hill.
Look closer and the hanging flower baskets throughout the downtown core are traditionally hung in conical wire frames, spilling colour from lampposts all summer long.
Hidden Cones
Some cones hide in plain sight. Over in Market Square, Earth and Sky Connection puts its own spin on the shape: witch’s hats, crystals, and prisms fill the shelves of this longtime metaphysical shop. At The Root Cellar at McKenzie Avenue, fresh BC produce is piled high under a row of peaked vendor tents, cones you can shop under, not just admire. For a bigger one, drive 35 minutes north to the Malahat SkyWalk. Its ten-storey spiral tower winds visitors up through the treetops to sweeping views over Finlayson Arm and the Salish Sea.
Whether it’s a scoop of ice cream, a Douglas fir cone on a forest trail, or a turret against the sky, Greater Victoria’s cones are easy to miss and hard to unsee once you start looking. Like any good scavenger hunt, the fun isn’t in finding the obvious cones, but in discovering the ones you never expected to see.
About Destination Greater Victoria
Destination Greater Victoria is the official not-for-profit destination marketing organization, partnering with over 900 local businesses to drive sustainable growth in Greater Victoria. Located on Canada’s Vancouver Island, Victoria, British Columbia, is a unique blend of old-world charm and new-world experiences. Visitors can enjoy heritage architecture, colourful gardens, and a variety of activities such as whale watching, kayaking, hiking, cycling and golf. Known for its culinary excellence and award-winning beverages, Victoria boasts Canada’s mildest climate, year-round greenery, and stunning natural beauty. Recognized for its sustainability efforts with a Responsible Tourism Institutes Biosphere certification, Victoria lies on the ancestral lands of the Lekwungen-speaking people of the Xwsepsum and Songhees Nations. www.tourismvictoria.com