Brentwood Bay is a small but rapidly growing village on the Saanich Inlet, on south Vancouver Island. It is home to the beautiful Butchart Gardens, if you have not seen these gardens, you should make an effort to visit them. Robert Pim Butchart built a quarry here in around 1906 to mine limestone for cement making. After the limestone gave out, his wife Jennie began to change the old quarry into a series of gardens and tea houses, Grandson Ian Ross inherited the gardens on his 21st birthday and created the area into what has become world-renowned, he worked tirelessly for the rest of his life, he passed on in 1997, the gardens are an amazing sight to see.
There is incredible dining to be had at the waterfront restaurants that are along the water’s edge of town, great accommodations are available, and the bay is a put-in spot for kayakers, canoeists and just a great place to just take a walkabout on one of the many trails in the area. The waters abound with marine life and there is a great chance to see otters, seals, sea lions, whales and many other types of life as you kayak the waters.
At one time the village of Brentwood Bay was known as Sluggett, after pioneer John Sluggett, who was one of the first to settle the area back in 1876, the village was renamed Brentwood Bay in 1925.
I have always liked going to Brentwood Bay, we would sometimes take a drive up the Saanich Peninsula to the bay instead of driving over the Malahat. We would have some lunch here, hike around a bit and then take the ferry that runs between Brentwood and Mill Bay. This was an awesome trip with great scenery and there was always a chance to see some marine life.
Brentwood Bay has a slower pace of life and yet it is so close to the hustle and bustle of Victoria, here you can enjoy the benefits of both worlds.