Family travel on Canada’s West Coast.
Fairmont Empress takes care of parents and kids – in luxury style!
Fairmont Empress Hotel is Forbes Four-star, 4 Diamond rating, with Fairmont Gold, Willow Stream Spa and world famous Empress 1908 gin, automatically makes you think... family vacation!!! Well, maybe it didn’t make you think that, but it should. When you’re in the mood for sophisticated old world charm, Canada’s Castle on the Coast mixes upscale and family friendly so well, it’s the perfect holiday to keep everyone happy. Of course, your kids would be happy with a trip to Disneyland but when the family is tagging along on a business trip, hotels often treat them as just that… tag-alongs. Not at The Empress; this luxury hotel has recognized this conundrum and created a family package that checks all the boxes.
From the moment we arrived on Vancouver Island via Helijet, our vacation with the Empress began with Fairmont’s BMW car service to the hotel. Our bags traveled ahead of us to our room while we checked in at the Fairmont Gold concierge, who informed us of the benefits of the gold lounge including food service times, where to find board games and an honor bar featuring Todd’s favorite purple Empress 1908 Gin.
Once in our room, the kids discovered a brilliant little ‘camp out’ set up just for them. The Empress “Let’s Take the Kids” package includes a tent for the kids complete with pint-sized robes, sweet treats, stuffed Bengal tigers, and an
activity book that sends them on a scavenger hunt all around the hotel. Our two loved the special attention and spent much time in the tent with their toys. They completed the scavenger hunt by the end of the trip and were so excited to choose their prizes.
The big kids (Todd and I) were thrilled to have a date at the Q restaurant! The house made flax and farrow bread, warm from the oven, and served with the whipped butter and honey from the hotel’s own bees, is not to be missed. But the most impressive thing about our date was the nanny service that made it all happen. A Spoon Full of Sugar Nanny Service sent their very own Mary Poppins complete with British accent and a bag of tricks to entertain the kiddies. Getting back to the room with sound asleep children was the greatest gift we could have received, because bedtime with the kids in hotel rooms always requires the most out of a parent’s patience!
The business on this particular excursion was an event sponsored by Fairmont Empress, benefitting BC Children’s Hospital Foundation and the kids and their families who have to travel for care. In keeping with the family theme, we put our kids to work at the Shine Fashion Tea and got all the
Talbots participating in the event. With Todd and I as event hosts and emcees, and Ashlyn and Kesler modeling in the kids fashion show, we were able to have our cake and eat it too - literally because the event included high tea complete with scones, clotted cream and cakes!
The event has grown quite popular in Victoria and though attendees are happy to just be there enjoying high tea in fancy hats, they are also contributing to the lives of the 8,000 children a year who need to travel from the island to BC Children’s hospital in mainland Vancouver. It’s a fundraiser that we are proud to be involved in and to teach our kids the difference they can make by volunteering. Although they might be doing it for those little bottles of shampoo with their own names on it, we can only hope that the bigger picture will sink in as we continue to include them in the work we do. We are grateful to the Empress hotel for giving us this opportunity and treating us as they do with all of their guests, like royalty.