The Butchart Gardens

I love places that teaches. I love places that feels like love lives there. I love visiting places that when you leave… you feel like you got to know somebody without ever meeting them. The Butchart Gardens is one of those places that really has a story and this is the place that you have to visit at least once in your lifetime. I didn’t really know what to expect visiting a garden and well to be honest, I didn’t really expect anything. No google searches except to find the address! It turned out to be such an amazing day for all of us because you wouldn’t believe how big this place is.

800 Benvenuto Ave, Brentwood Bay, BC V8M 1J8, Canada​

But first coffee, though! We left pretty early and didn’t really have a big breakfast so you know, our first stop has to include coffee. This is a nice welcome when you first arrive, not to mention the super cute clear umbrellas that are readily available in case it’s raining that day.

As you can tell, this place is so clean and very well organized. They offer various foods but we had two coffees I think we got white chocolate and chai latte! As for the food, the kids had hot dogs and I chose the egg salad sandwich which my hubby ended up eating as well because it was SO GOOD. If you love egg salad sandwiches, you will so love this one. As a matter of fact, I want another one right now!

It’s hard not to spend hours in this place because this area right here is the starting point and I think we stayed here for about twenty minutes? I have no idea, but they had hummingbird feeders and we just stuck around here for a bit.

The Sunken Garden was probably one of my favorite gardens in this whole place. Not only is it massive and surrounded by walls from the old quarry… but wow I just can’t grasp of how one amazing woman of the name Jennie Butchart had an idea to transform an old limestone deposit that was dreary to look at to this beautiful garden that is now one of the biggest tourist spots in Victoria, BC.

We went in the Spring, so not all of the flowers bloomed yet, but the smell is still beyond  amazing. Every step I take in this place easily calms me and puts me in such a good mood that I can’t explain!
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Like I said, I didn’t do any research when we visited this place but when we saw this horse, I KNEW. I knew something ahead was going to be magical and that is the Rose Carousel.
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I truly love and appreciate that the carousel is indoors! It wasn’t raining when we went, but just the thought of having a dry spot even just for a few minutes is pretty great.

If you see a cool simple background like this with flower pots in front of them, how can you not take a picture?​

Next is the Japanese Gardens! This was a fun one to walk through and it felt like we suddenly traveled to Japan. Okay, I’ve never been to Japan, but it was nice to have a glimpse of it. Jennie and a Japanese landscaper created this garden that was completed in 1906. I just can’t believe it sometimes that a place can surpass years like this. I love the family history of the Butcharts. You should visit their website to read more about it!

There are so many ponds like this and each of them amazing. We really want to go back in the summer because they have boat rides, more events, and would really love to see the Rose Garden in full bloom!

Last but not the least everyone,  the Gelateria has suchhhhhhh delicious ice cream. I don’t usually purposely misspell anything in my blog posts, but when something is THIS delicious… all rules are broken. BROKE. I am not lying when I have never tasted ice cream this good. I am a coconut lover and sort of partial to pineapple and I had the Pineapple Coconut flavor and I just about died and gone to ice cream heaven right there. It was so delicious like there is no artificial flavors in there. All of the flavors we had was really good, but the other that is top notch deserving of ice cream medal was the cookies and cream that my son chose. Now listen, I don’t care for cookies and cream ice cream because they’re so basic and boring but OH MY GOSH, not this one. It tastes like oven baked cookies that was crumbled into the ice cream. Oh yeah, right next to the ice cream parlor is the guest book where you can sign and tell them your thoughts. If you look us up on April 6th, 2018, there may or may not be ice cream comments in there. Yes. It was that good.​

There were also gift shops, restaurants, and I’m pretty sure there’s more than that but given that we were there for a good few hours already, we couldn’t visit all of them. I did stop by the gift shop to snag some teas, though! We had the most wonderful time in this place and can’t wait to visit again. Thank you for visiting my blog and until next time!