Hotel Grand Pacific

Located directly across the street from the Black Ball Ferry landing, the Hotel Grand Pacific is the perfect location for families traveling with kiddos or those who are traveling on foot.

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This is our first time visiting Victoria B.C. As we approach the harbour and see Hotel Grand Pacific seemingly rise up from the water we are thrilled with the shot in the dark reservation we made online. We reserved the hotel and our ferry ride from Port Angeles, WA to Victoria B.C. on the Black Ball Ferry Line website. The site offers various packages with discount bundled pricing for hotels, tours, activities, and transportation. Well worth looking at the options if you enjoy saving time and money!

The King Suite

We stayed in a king suite, modernly decorated and very functional: king bedroom, a dressing area with sink, separate full bathroom, sitting room with a pull out sofa bed, fridge, Keurig, and balcony. The bedroom is separated from the sitting area by french doors. A balcony accessed through both the bedroom and the sitting area. As a nice bonus, the room had two TVs, one in the bedroom and one in the sitting room. Which stop judging, you know is awesome.

The Pool

Aside from the unbeatable location Hotel Grand Pacific offers, we took full advantage of their pool. The hotel attaches to the Victoria Athletic Club. While staying at the hotel you have full access to the club facilities which include: a lap pool, hot tub, steam room, kid’s pool, sauna, weight room, squash court, and cardio room. We learned on our cross country road trip to ALWAYS find a hotel with a pool. (Check out our list of must-haves here.) Once, if not twice a day, we took the kiddos down to the pool for a little energy burning fun. They loved playing around in the kid’s pool, a smaller pool and only 2 ft deep in entirety. Our little guy loved being able to play freely without floaties knowing he was safe to splash and play anywhere. Levi and I were reminded daily by Claire that the kid pool was for kids only, adults not allowed. Levi and I had to “suffer” and relax in the hot tub and steam room while the kids splash and laugh only a few feet away.

Food Options

The Courtyard Cafe is located on the street level of the hotel (across from the spa). It offers a wide array of hot and cold drinks, breakfast sandwiches, bagels, fruit, yogurt, baked goods, and a variety of homemade ice cream treats. After a morning swim, the kids enjoyed some fruit and yogurt while we had bagels and delicious specialty coffee drinks. We promised the kids that we would return later in the day to check out the homemade ice cream selection. On vacation ice cream is a go-to treat for our family. The little ones pick out the smiley face emoji, ice cream dipped in thick white chocolate with a chocolate smile. Absolutely delish!! We all enjoyed the heck out of them. A perfect treat to eat walking from the hotel to Miniature World, where we finished our last bite to step inside to check out what turns out to be one of our favorite little stops.

Another fun little treat or surprise for the kiddos or even your significant other is the hotel’s snack packs. You can order through room service or even preorder when making your reservation to have them waiting in the room for you upon check-in. The kid’s Snack Pack includes SmartFood white cheddar popcorn, gummy bears and choice of two beverages. As a side note, the little cans the gummy bears came in acted as their treasure holders for the rest of the trip. A perfect way to recycle! The “adult” pack came with a bottle of wine delivered on ice with chocolate covered sea salt caramels (OMG, so good). The kids loved having a surprise waiting when they walked in the room after a day out and about. Of course I loved a glass of wine while relaxing in the king size bed!

Bonuses

It must rain a lot in Victoria (jokes we live on the coast of Washington it rains, I get it). On the 2nd day of our visit, it poured. The hotel staff was at the front doors making sure guests had dry umbrellas to take with them on their day’s adventure. We were able to walk right next door, staying semi not soaked, to catch an IMAX show and tour the Royal BC Museum.

Overall the Hotel Grand Pacific is perfect for a family with young kiddos, wanting to walk around Victoria.

Hotel staff is very welcoming. Amenities such as the pool and cafe are excellent. Centrally located and within walking distance of: Beacon Hill Children’s Farm, Miniature World, Victoria Bug Zoo, Victoria Harbour Ferry Tours, Royal BC Museum. And of course right across the street from the ferry landing.

We are so thankful we stayed at the Hotel Grand Pacific. This is our first, but certainly not last, journey to Victoria. We will be back to visit! We are already looking forward to soaking in the hot tub, snacking on homemade ice cream, and this time, taking a horse-drawn carriage ride.

What do you look for in a hotel?