Family Activities on the Saanich Peninsula
The peninsula is a good place to travel with children. Distances are short, the pace is slow, and most of the best things to do involve being outside. Here’s what works well for families.
Butchart Gardens
The big one. Butchart Gardens occupies a former limestone quarry in Brentwood Bay and draws over a million visitors a year. The sunken garden, the Japanese garden, the rose garden in June and July. Kids under 5 get in free.
It’s expensive and busy in summer. If you’re coming in July or August, arrive when the gates open or come for the evening when the crowds thin and the lighting comes on. Spring and fall visits are less hectic, and the gardens are genuinely beautiful in every season. Even December, when they put up the lights.
Plan for two to three hours. There’s food on-site, but it’s priced to match the admission. Packing snacks isn’t a bad idea.
Shaw Centre for the Salish Sea
The Shaw Centre sits on the Sidney waterfront and focuses on the marine life of the Salish Sea, the body of water that includes the Strait of Georgia, Puget Sound, and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
It’s modest in size compared to the Vancouver Aquarium, but the touch tanks are well designed and staffed by people who genuinely know their invertebrates. Kids can hold sea cucumbers, poke at anemones, and watch wolf eels from a foot away. The jellyfish display is worth the admission on its own.
Allow about an hour, maybe ninety minutes if your children are the type to read every placard.
Sidney Pier and Waterfront
The pier at the foot of Beacon Avenue is free to walk and gives kids something to look at: boats coming and going, harbour seals bobbing in the water, the occasional eagle circling overhead. Bring binoculars if you have them.
The playground at Tulista Park is right next to the waterfront and was upgraded in recent years. Good climbing structures, a decent swing set, and enough space that kids can run around without immediately disappearing.
On Saturday mornings from May to September, the Sidney market fills the park. Food vendors, produce, and the kind of craft stalls that children either love or ignore entirely. The kettle corn is a reliable hit.
Beach days
Island View Beach is the best option for kids who want to dig, build, and throw rocks into the water. The sand is fine enough to work with at lower tides, and the beach is long enough that you can find your own space even on busy days.
Cordova Bay works well for older kids who want to swim, though the water temperature tests anyone’s enthusiasm until late July. The beach has a gentler entry than most peninsula beaches.
See the beaches page for more detail on each spot.
Short hikes
John Dean Provincial Park and Horth Hill are both manageable with younger children. The Summit Trail at John Dean reaches the top in about twenty minutes at kid pace, and the view from the clearing holds attention better than most rewards at the end of a walk.
Horth Hill is gentler and shorter. The arbutus trees, with their smooth red bark, are the kind of thing children want to touch. Let them.
Farms and markets
The peninsula is agricultural land, and several farms welcome visitors during growing season. Check the roadside stands along the West Saanich Road corridor for seasonal fruit, corn, and flowers.
The Saanichton Fairgrounds host the Saanich Fair each Labour Day weekend, the oldest continuously running agricultural fair in western Canada, dating to 1868. Livestock shows, midway rides, demolition derby, and enough cotton candy to fuel a small army.
Rainy day options
Rain is frequent on the peninsula from October through March. When the weather turns:
- The Shaw Centre works in any weather
- Sidney’s bookshops are worth browsing (the town has an unusual concentration of them)
- The Mary Winspear Centre in Sidney hosts occasional matinee performances and community events
- The Panorama Recreation Centre in North Saanich has a swimming pool with a water slide