Victoria 5-10 on a Sunday night--what to do?

[KKB]

Suggestions?

[canadjineh]

Hi, we were in for a short port call on an early Sept Alaska cruise.  Google 'live music in Victoria' for a schedule of a little private club downtown that has great blues bands in a small venue. They started early and were done by 9 or 10. Not sure about Sunday tho, but def. worth the google search. We were in quite late and only caught the last song, but they suggested a 'dive bar' immediately next door - it was lots of fun, everyone very friendly, and we had a wild couple of hours of karaoke.  I'd return to both places when in Victoria.  Sorry so vague, but I'm at work in a firecamp security detail in my province right now and don't have access to my info at home.

[martincath]

Maybe your taste in music differs from the prior poster, or you'd rather just have a chat in a quiet bar than have any music, but I'm afraid that unless some kind of pub/club/resto experience is up your alley Victoria offers almost nothing on a Sunday evening otherwise! Biggest employers by far are provincial and municipal governments, very much a M-F 9-5 gig (unless you work in the passport office where it's tools down at 4pm even if you're in the middle of processing an application!) and probably the next biggest category of 'workers' are Retirees - it's the retirement capital of Canada, and they roll up the proverbial sidewalks by 6pm for dang near everything!

 

But the local beer scene is top notch, especially if you're a fan of 'real ales' - nowhere outside of the UK has a better selection of cask ales per capita, with two brewpubs - Swans and Spinnakers - that offer a dual cellar experience where the same beer could potentially be sampled 'warm and flat' as God intended, 'cold and fizzy' as the marketing departments of every macro brewery want you to think beer is meant to be served (I believe at last survey, this is 100% of all such on the entire continent of North America!)... and if Fate truly smiles upon you 'virtually room temp straight from a cask with a tap & spile on the bar top' for a vertical tasting par excellence!

 

Of course the danger is that finding out what beer is meant to taste like ruins almost every bar elsewhere in the world for you, so it's a dangerous business! 😉

 

Not a boozehound? Have a nice walk around (or hire a mindblowingly expensive carriage to be driven around behind a horses arse) to check out the many Ye Olde Buildings which are nicely illuminated in the evenings, maybe have an extremely ill-timed 'Afternoon' Tea at the Fairmont if it's July/Aug (they take resos as late as 9pm in peak cruise season), but otherwise it's shopping or shopping... rather than tourist tat, maybe hit a local supermarket for interesting flavours of candy and chips you can't find in the US (don't buy Kinder Eggs though - it's easier to import firearms legally!)

[em-sk]

28 minutes ago, martincath said:

Maybe your taste in music differs from the prior poster, or you'd rather just have a chat in a quiet bar than have any music, but I'm afraid that unless some kind of pub/club/resto experience is up your alley Victoria offers almost nothing on a Sunday evening otherwise! Biggest employers by far are provincial and municipal governments, very much a M-F 9-5 gig (unless you work in the passport office where it's tools down at 4pm even if you're in the middle of processing an application!) and probably the next biggest category of 'workers' are Retirees - it's the retirement capital of Canada, and they roll up the proverbial sidewalks by 6pm for dang near everything!

 

But the local beer scene is top notch, especially if you're a fan of 'real ales' - nowhere outside of the UK has a better selection of cask ales per capita, with two brewpubs - Swans and Spinnakers - that offer a dual cellar experience where the same beer could potentially be sampled 'warm and flat' as God intended, 'cold and fizzy' as the marketing departments of every macro brewery want you to think beer is meant to be served (I believe at last survey, this is 100% of all such on the entire continent of North America!)... and if Fate truly smiles upon you 'virtually room temp straight from a cask with a tap & spile on the bar top' for a vertical tasting par excellence!

 

Of course the danger is that finding out what beer is meant to taste like ruins almost every bar elsewhere in the world for you, so it's a dangerous business! 😉

 

Not a boozehound? Have a nice walk around (or hire a mindblowingly expensive carriage to be driven around behind a horses arse) to check out the many Ye Olde Buildings which are nicely illuminated in the evenings, maybe have an extremely ill-timed 'Afternoon' Tea at the Fairmont if it's July/Aug (they take resos as late as 9pm in peak cruise season), but otherwise it's shopping or shopping... rather than tourist tat, maybe hit a local supermarket for interesting flavours of candy and chips you can't find in the US (don't buy Kinder Eggs though - it's easier to import firearms legally!)

 

Victoria comes across as a tourist and government town.  That is true, but the largest sector from a GDP perspective is actually high tech.  Not the same numbers as hospitably but still sizable.  The older exposed brick building in the downtown core are mostly occupied by tech companies on the upper floors.

 

All said, yes, on Sunday night is going to be slow downtown.   Here is the local events for downtown Victoria 

https://downtownvictoria.ca/events/

 

 

[Northern Aurora]

Check if the Bard and Banker, a Scottish pub located on Government Street, is open.  An interesting pub in a heritage building.

[Steve H]

The Bard will be open as will all pubs