Guided walking tour
What it actually looks like
What the children do
A one-hour guided walking tour taking in the first floor of Hatley Castle and the surrounding Italian Gardens, with guides covering the history of the Indigenous lands, the Dunsmuir family, Royal Roads Military College and Royal Roads University. Rates are plus GST: adult (18 to 59) $24.00, senior (60+) $20.00, youth (6 to 17 years) $15.00, child 5 and under free, and family (maximum 2 adults and 3 youth) $74.00. Tickets are sold in person only, at the Hatley Castle retail store inside the museum basement on the west side of the castle; they are not sold in advance, are first-come first-served subject to capacity, and sales close five minutes before each tour. Monday to Thursday there is an additional 4:15 p.m. departure on top of the four times recorded here.
Walk for about an hour with a guide through the ground-floor rooms of a castle that is still a working university building, then out into the walled Italian Gardens, listening as the guide tells the history of the site.
Good to know
The tour route is wheelchair accessible and there are accessible parking stalls across the estate. Washrooms, indoor lunch space, rain backup and bus parking are not stated on the site, so it is worth a call.