September 5, 2004 in Travel

If inclement weather pays an unexpected visit, Victoria’s indoor attractions won’t disappoint

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It may not rain in Victoria as much as it does in Seattle or Vancouver, B.C., but there’s always a chance part of your soft-impact adventure weekend could get rained out. If that’s the case, here are a few ways to idle away the hours while waiting for the weather to lift that don’t require sipping tea or shopping:

• The Royal British Columbia Museum. The moniker may make it sound stodgy, but it isn’t. Instead, The Royal BC Museum prides itself in going the extra kilometer to bring its exhibits to life.

Last year it featured an exhibit of robotic bugs including a 22-foot grasshopper and 22-foot praying mantis. This year, through Oct. 31, Eternal Egypt: Masterworks of Ancient Art from The British Museum features 144 items including portraits and personal artifacts from such famous pharaohs as Akhenaten, Amenhotep III, Tutankhamen and Ramesses the Great.

In conjunction with the exhibit, there are market stalls to show everyday items Egyptians used in their homes, scribes who show kids how to write in hieroglyphics and a range of specialized workshops that bring the ancient civilization to life. The museum has also convinced Spinnaker’s, a local brewpub, to create a beer for the event, a planetarium to do a show on the Egyptian night sky and Gatsby’s, a nearby bed and breakfast, to offer a package featuring an Egyptian dinner.

The regular exhibits are worth mentioning as well because the museum uses sound effects, lighting and smell to put visitors in the center of the action regardless of whether the focus is on marine life, turn-of-the-century Victoria or early Native American tribes. (888-447-7977, rbcm1.rbcm.gov.bc.ca/)

• The Victoria Bug Zoo: It may sound like the type of attraction only a kid could love, but it’s also a fun place to face your fears of creepy crawlies … and overcome them. Or not. The knowledgeable guides tell you everything there is to know about a wide range of critters including beetles, walking sticks and hissing roaches. You’ll even get a chance to hold some of the residents. I enjoyed holding the bug that looked like a leaf and the tarantula, but I drew the line at scorpions. (250-384-BUGS, www.bugzoo.bc.ca/)

• The Centre of the Universe. It’s not downtown, but this mix of observatory, planetarium and astronomy interpretive center provides a new perspective on the heavens even when you can’t see them for the clouds. The facility features interactive exhibits, a mini-planetarium with theme shows (including the Egyptian night sky) and an observatory that is so old that most of the parts had to be hauled uphill on horse carts because automobiles didn’t have enough hauling power. (250-363-8262, www.hia-iha.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/cu/)

• Spa treatments. So many Vancouver Island hotels have spas that chances are, if you’re staying at an upscale hotel, you probably won’t even have to go out to enjoy a treatment. The Fairmont Empress Hotel has one; so do the Magnolia Hotel, The Delta Victoria Ocean Pointe Resort and the Hotel Grand Pacific. For something more low-key, try the Silk Road tea shop and aromatherapy spa in Chinatown.

And if going from spa to spa to spa getting treatments isn’t an adventure with soft impact, I don’t know what is.

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