a yoga class outside in Vancouver, BC

The Difference Between Yoga In Vancouver Versus Yoga In Victoria

At one time Vancouver was the capital of BC, specifically New WestMinster.  This changed to the island. The sizes of the cities are dramatic, Vancouver being almost 10 times the size of Victoria.

Victoria is also on an island, while Vancouver is connected to the mainland, highways and whatnot. So there is a distinctive difference – even though they are both on the West coast – in how yoga is practiced in both.

Vancouver 

Vancouver’s yoga community is much more predominant and larger not just because of size but also on a per capita basis.

Studies and surveys show that one of the reasons yoga is so popular in Vancouver is its a natural way to offset the gloomy 8 months of the year it rains in the city.

Victoria

Victoria prior to Covid had a fairly committed set of studios and a small yoga community.  But after almost 2 years of lockdowns and limits to the number of people being able to practice yoga in studios because of Covid almost half the studios in Victoria have closed permanently.

Inner Harbor in Victoria, BC

This is Moksana Yoga, Fernwood Yoga Den and the Collective in Langford.

Now people in Victoria are going back to studios, but there is now a big need for  yoga studios in Victoria and the Victoria yoga community seems to be dispersed quite a bit because of the results of the Covid.

As suggested above, Victoria and Vancouver are very much both a west coast cities – the California of Canada. But these cities are also very different when it comes to how they each practice of yoga.

Vancouver has a bustling large community, while in Victoria they’re currently is a vacuum and where the yoga community seems to be splintered and diverse.