The District Museum of British Columbia is halfway between the Parliament Buildings and the Fairmont Empress Hotel. It is the best museum of natural and cultural history in Canada, with many three-dimensional displays that offer a feast of monuments, scents and sounds.
Walk through the rainforest, watch animals on the shores of the West Coast and in the tidal wetlands, sit among the columns and ceremonial masks of the indigenous people, walk through the big house, and learn the struggles of the First Nations people after European settlement.
Other interactive features include a replica HMS Discovery - a ship that brought Captain Vancouver to these beaches, and a street of shops in the Old Town.
Outside, Thunderbird Park is home to traditionally carved and memorial columns. Nearby, a small mid-19th century, Helmken House is the oldest residence in British Columbia still standing on its original location.
The house belonged to J.S. Helmcken, a local practitioner and politician. He campaigned strongly for the British colony of Victoria and British Columbia to join the newly established Canadian Confederation.
