We rented both suites for two weeks in February to escape the frozen north. My wife can’t handle long trips anymore and I wasn’t very comfortable with the idea of taking my 20 year Autistic son through American customs. This means no to Hawaii, the usual Western Canadian winter escape. Victoria doesn’t get a lot of tanning weather in February but is green with some flowers and sure beats the windy -37 we left at the Edmonton airport.
You can see pictures of the suites at Isabella’s web site, www.isabellasbb.com. The suites look very nice in the pictures but are actually nicer. The sun streaming though that big window in the Red Suite, funny little old restored building features, privacy, etc. add up to something a great deal nicer and warmly homey than you will find in even the better hotels. Everyone who visited us was impressed, my wife’s descriptions have her buddies asking for the address and she is giving me a hard time for not getting it together to send out our pictures or the place.
My wife and I stayed in the Red Suite and my son in the Blue. The Red was very comfortable. My son seemed to like the Blue which says a lot when you consider how Autism causes people to become fixated on the familiar. The king size beds and coverings were good quality. There is enough variety in the furniture for big men like my son and I to sit without feeling too low and short guests looked comfortable too. The suites were clean and were kept that way.
The doors to the suites open on to the same outdoor landing. If you need both suites, getting back and forth is easy and the landing serves as a nice little deck. If you only rent one suite, unless you happened to be coming or going at the same time, I doubt you would notice that the other suite was occupied.
$800 a week per suite is a pretty good price considering that it includes food and parking. Because they are a small operation there was no hotel tax so the tax was only $40 per week per suite
Judy, who does the reservations, was a pleasure to talk to and meet when we arrived. Darren, who did the cleaning every second day, is a very pleasant accommodating guy.
The suites are over Willie’s Bakery and Café, which specializes in breakfast and lunch. They gave us 20 dollars per suite per day for food at Willie’s. All the food was great, the staff friendly, and they will do anything on the menu as takeout.
Originally I’m from North Vancouver and my sister lives in Victoria so I knew the downtown was a safe place. I now live near a pretty gritty city, Edmonton Alberta, and you have to be pretty careful so I thought I should let you know you aren’t likely to encounter anything very scary in downtown Victoria. The only things you might find disconcerting are the occasional boisterous drunk late at night and the visibility of the homeless. The homeless are innocuous and their visibility probably results from the mild climate attracting them to the area plus them feeling safe to walk around.
The location is pretty well perfect for scenery and things to do. You are very close to the attractions in an active downtown with nice shops and restaurants. The area is full of restored and being restored buildings from the last half of the 19th Century. Just walking around the streets and harbor in the immediate vicinity is wonderful. Short drives will take you through well maintained old neighborhoods to vistas like snow capped peaks across the bays. Even in the low season we were minutes from more to do and see than you can manage in a couple weeks.
Even beyond the physical comfort of the place, just hanging out in the suites was nice. The alley is sort of a walk way (plus delivery, parking for the suites and restaurant drop off) between Johnson St. and Yates St. behind Wharf St. with a side alley to the Il Terrazzo restaurant which is a high end hot spot. You have an interesting variety of people passing by. There is a downtown hubbub that you see and hear when you are walking around but turns way down when you are inside.