I grew up an hour's ferry ride from Victoria, so the Empress has been the backdrop to my entire life — the ivy-draped grande dame at the head of the Inner Harbour, floodlit at night and reflected in the water. Reviewing a hotel you have loved from a distance since childhood is a delicate business; affection can flatter, and nostalgia is a poor substitute for a good night's sleep. So I checked in determined to see it clearly. What I found was a genuinely lovely stay with a few honest wrinkles, most of them the price of its age.

The location cannot be improved upon. You step out of the lobby and the harbour is right there — float planes idling in, buskers on the causeway, the Parliament buildings glowing across the water. My room looked straight out over it, and no amount of modern engineering can manufacture that view. Parking was easier than I expected for a downtown icon, and the whole approach to the building still gives me the small thrill it did when I was ten.

The tea, of course

You cannot write about the Empress without its Afternoon Tea, a ritual it has performed since 1908. I sat down braced for a tourist trap and left quietly won over: the scones were flaky and warm, the jam house-made, and the honey drawn from the hotel's own rooftop beehives — a lovely, genuine touch that a lesser hotel would only pretend to. It is a proper occasion, served with real care.

I will be candid, because our readers deserve it: the tea is not cheap, and a fair few guests feel the add-ons push it past what it is worth. I would still do it once — the setting and the ceremony justify the splurge — but go in understanding it is theatre as much as a meal, and order judiciously.

A grand old harbour hotel that still knows how to make an occasion feel like one.

Wellness, and the pleasures of slowing down

The Willow Stream Spa is, for me, the quiet heart of the place. After a harbour walk I spent an unhurried afternoon between the treatment rooms, the indoor heated pool and the hot tub, and it reset me completely — exactly the sort of restorative pause I look for in a coastal stay. Several guests single out the spa and pool as a highlight, and I would echo them without hesitation. Rooms with a working fireplace add a note of romance that suits the building's character, and the service, at its best, is warm and genuinely attentive.

Where the years show

This is a hotel built in 1908, and it does not always let you forget it. The bathrooms can be surprisingly small — even, as one guest noted, in a suite — and some rooms feel a touch dated against the five-star billing and the rates. Service, so gracious on my visit, is described as inconsistent by others, which suggests it depends a little on who is on shift. None of these are dealbreakers, but they are the reasons a stay here lands as "wonderful with caveats" rather than flawless.

My advice is to lean into what the Empress does best. Book a harbour-view room, treat the spa as an event rather than an afterthought, and take the tea with your eyes open. Walk the causeway at dusk, let the pace of the island slow you down, and the hotel's occasional creaks read as character rather than compromise.