To celebrate the end of my university career, and to just have a quick vacation since we haven’t travelled together since our Mexico trip we took over 1.5 years ago, the boyfriend and I decided to head over to Victoria, BC this past weekend!
We have both been to Victoria before, I went with my high school years ago and him with his family. Victoria is the capital city of our province, and located on Vancouver Island, which is about a 2 hours ferry ride from the Vancouver.
I will be writing a few posts about our weekend to Victoria. Today, I am starting off with a review on the hotel we stayed at, the Delta Victoria Ocean Pointe Resort!
When looking for a place to stay, we both wanted something centrally located in downtown or within walking distance. The Delta Victoria is located across the small bridge, less than a 5 minute walk to downtown and Chinatown. It has also just been recently renovated!
One of my favourite parts about the trip was the hotel room.The room we stayed at was the Deluxe Water View Guest Room w/ King Bed. It is not everyday that I am treated to such a beautiful view whenever I look out the window.
At night, it was such a breathtaking sight seeing the parliament building and Empress Hotel lit up.
I also caught this sunrise by accident. The boyfriend had wanted to wake up early to avoid the lineup at Blue Fox Cafe, and I reluctantly agreed. Funnily enough, I ended up waking up earlier than him. When I opened the blinds, I was completely caught off guard to the beautiful sunset.
I sat at the chair for a good 15 minutes watching the sunrise, appreciating the beauty of it and reflecting on how lucky I was to have caught it.
Here are pictures of the hotel room that I took:
Once you walk in, the washroom is located on the side. As mentioned earlier, everything had been recently renovated so it was quite nice. The washroom does not have a bath tub, but a large glass door shower which felt very modern. Half of the rooms are equipped with a tub, so if this is something you would like, make a note on it with the staff!
The bed was insanely comfortable, making it hard for me to get up each day! The pillows were also very soft and deep, and I found myself getting lost in them.
There is also a sitting area for guests to enjoy the view, should they choose the Water View suites. We found ourselves sitting here quite often, just watching the city.
We also took advantage of the cable and TV, and enjoyed many Christmas movies! There are also adapter plugs that you can use to plug in your laptop. Speaking of technology, each room comes with free wifi. It was very reliable and fast, with no connectivity issues at all so yay!
The Delta also has an indoor swimming pool with floor to ceiling windows that face the inner harbour. We didn’t bring our swim gear, but it looked like a great place to have fun and soak!
There is also a restaurant on the main floor! We didn’t get a chance to try it, but the restaurant was buzzing with activity on both the Friday and Saturday nights we stayed. It definitely looked like the place to be. Plus, there is a beautiful view of the water in the restaurant as well.
Want to relax and pamper yourself? The Delta Victoria also has a spa!
We really enjoyed our stay at the Delta Victoria. All the staff were really accommodating and nice, from the doorman, to front desk, to the cleaners. With the snowstorm, I had just purchased some new winter boots and was getting blisters while breaking into them (ouch). They gave me a bunch of bandaids to prevent them from getting worse and even a mini sewing kit to pop the blisters (I was too afraid to do that hahaha).
If you are planning on heading to Victoria, I highly recommend staying at the Delta Victoria. Rates begin around $160~ a night, depending on the type of room. For more information, visit the Delta Victoria Ocean Pointe website!
Keep an eye out for a couple more posts on Victoria!
Yay!
Disclaimer: This suite was offered to me at a discounted media rate. Opinions are my own.
Rare beef & beef ball pho: A $9 bowl of pho is more than I’m used to paying, but it was pretty good. I liked how it was not oily.
Special beef noodle pho: Macaroni has been here a few times already, and this is her go-to pho each time. The broth is the same, but the ‘special’ part just means there is an assorted selection of meat. You can see the generous portion of meat that they serve, and how clear the broth is! We both really enjoyed our pho.
Sticky rice & mung bean dumpling: Most of the reason why I really wanted to try Mr. Red Cafe is because my friend, and fellow food blogger, 
Banh mi: Macaroni already knew she would not be able to finish both the giant bowl of pho AND this sandwich, but she said it was really good so she had to order it anyways. She ended up taking half of it back home as well!
The product is pretty straightforward and easy to use. It dispenses in a pump, and is green. Green helps cover up redness, which I tend to have.
To give this primer the ultimate test, I wore it to Whytecliff Park on a super hot, 30 degree day. The sun was shining directly on me, no shade at all, and the perfect weather to climb the huge boulder (about a 10 minute steep trek up the boulder).
Here is another picture with the primer, with no filter or photo editing. I am also wearing the 
Paul & Joe never fails to impress me with their product designs. Like seriously, who designs their packaging because it is seriously amazing. This season, Paul & Joe have partnered up with Looney Tunes to launch a limited collection set of themed products!
These were too cute not to include. Apart from the lipsticks, they also have blush and shadow compacts with the limited edition Looney Tunes sets. Which one is your favourite design?
Remember the cat lipsticks I talked about last year? Well, Paul & Joe has launched a new cat blush this season. The cats here are also blush beads. But with a product so cute, I would be really reluctant to use it up.
Cargo is a brand that I’ve seen here and there, but I was able to learn more about it at the event. I am a big fan of palettes, so I am pretty excited to try and test their palettes out!
I raved about my 
This star light, star bright highlighting trio is part of Stila’s holiday collection. Just like their putty foundation that I reviewed last year, the highlighters also have a nice bounce to it.
Some liquid lipsticks from Stila! These come in sets of three, but I just put them all together so you can see what colours they offer.
Nail polishes from Seche & Ceramic Glaze. Both are companies that I can vouch for. Once I discovered the 
Fusion is a smaller brand that I haven’t tried that much of yet, but so far, I’ve been really liking the browfusion. It is a double ended brow pencil and gel. I love how angled the pencil is, and how easy it is to get a nice shape!
Last but not least, new products from St. Tropez. Self tanning seems pretty intimidating to me, I’ve heard many horror stories of people trying this at home and coming out looking like an orange. Perhaps one day I’ll give it a shot!
Nova Scotia Fisherman started off as a small business selling wax candles run by two nephews. Eventually, they expanded to carrying body care products that features 100% natural ingredients!
Hand & body cream ($11.95 CAD): For the past month, I’ve really been loving this hand & body cream and it’s pretty much the only moisturizer I use now. I have absolutely no complaints about it. There is a pleasant, neutral smell to it. The cream is rich and deeply moisturizes my skin without feeling sticky or greasy afterwards.
Assorted soaps ($7.95 CAD): I was sent a few of their soaps to try. Each of the soaps had a lovely scent to it. Before I had time to review these, I stored them openly in my closet so that my closet would smell nice and fresh!