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Nanaimo is located centrally on Vancouver Island and provides an excellent starting point for many activities. It is home to the World Championship Bathtub Race held the last weekend of July. Throughout the summer there are numerous events which encompass everything from fishing to sailing to art shows. Additionally, shopping is readily available - TIME magazine noted in 1990 that Nanaimo had more retail space per capita than any other city in North America!!

If you don't want to cook you're in luck - Nanaimo has some of the best food we've tasted. Try "The Wesley Street" in downtown Nanaimo (#1 - 321 Wesley Street). Your hosts, Linda & Gaetan will provide you with a memorable dining experience! They offer a personable setting with dishes featuring fresh Vancouver Island sourced products. Their wine list is superb. We definitely recommend reservations: 250-753-6057.

Other great restaurants include: Acme Food Company, and Modern Café.

Recent guests at one of the Laguna Way properties provided us with this great list of Nanaimo’s best. Thanks to Dave & Jan for this list!

• Best Beer – Longwood Brewery & Pub – close to the house at Turner Road and Hwy 19A
• Great Food – Take a look around the Qualicum Beach - Quality Foods Deli
• Cheap Date – Any Quality Foods deli for lunch. (Chinese food plates starting @ $4.95!)
• Great Steaks – Costco
• Farmers Market – Qualicum Beach on Saturdays in the summer from 9 am to noon. (Watch for Claire Douglas with fresh prawns and shrimp.) Another market is the Nanoose Organic Garden on the way to Schooner Cover. For more info on the Qualicum area please visit: www.oceansidetourism.com
• Live Crab – Schooner Cove on Fridays from 3 to 6 pm. Buy at the dock from the fisherman.
• Best Fish – The ones you catch yourself!
  • For salmon fishing call Don Graves in Parksville – 250-752-4221. Don comes highly recommended - if the fishing isn’t good Don will let you know so you don’t waste your time & your money!
  • Another charter skipper which comes highly recommended is Brad Brown with Snow Cap Charters. You can find him at www.snowcapcharters.com.
  • We haven't personally experienced this one, but Screaming Fish & Fly comes highly recommended.
• Best Sweet Corn – Silver Meadows Farm. Head toward Coombs and turn toward English River Falls. You’ll see the farm on the right just after you turn off the highway to Coombs. How to cook sweet corn – go to: Whole Foods Market
• Best Beach - Pipers Lagoon Park. Five minutes from the house along Hammond Bay Road.

This is by no means an exhaustive list! Spending an hour or so on the Internet is a great way to find out more about the island and find out what you'd like to do there! To start, the Nanaimo tourism website is a great source of information. Most of the communities on the island offer their own visitor's guide and Vancouver Island visitor's guides can be readily obtained at no cost as well.

Two more sites with useful information are www.nanaimo.ca, and www.nanaimo-visitor.com

In Nanaimo:

If you choose to "hang out" at the house, keep an eye on the ocean. In addition to all of the typical water traffic of barges and sailboats, we've seen a military submarine and a destroyer doing maneuvers - not something we see everyday!!! At night from Thursday through Sunday (summers) the cruise ships pass by. When driving - watch for deer, they're everywhere. And finally, don't forget to look up - we see LOTS of bald eagles!

Leaving the house and within a few minutes' drive are a couple of parks namely Neck Point Park and Piper's Lagoon Park. The beaches at these parks are dark gray sand and stones. The entire island experiences very visible tidal activity, so at times much larger sandy areas are exposed. We often saw people out on the sand collecting items (clams, shells???).

Neck Point Park is close to the house and is a 33-acre park with lots of interior trails and a small beach area. When we were renting our car and asking the representative about local activities he noted that this is the park he takes his children to each weekend.

An alternative park is Piper's Lagoon Park. It is also near the house. This is a 22-acre park with trails.

If you're in town you'll notice two islands to the east (looking toward Vancouver). The larger of the two is Newcastle Island and the other is Protection Island. Both are accessed by ferry only (Newcastle Island - summers only). Newcastle island has a series of parks and trails. Protection Island has a pub (The Dinghy Dock Pub) which is accessed by a small ferry only.
Newcastle Island Ferry phone - 250-754-7893
Protection Island Ferry phone - 250-753-8244

Some other things to try (which we did not do, but that look interesting):

• Is the paranormal your thing?? Check out: www.naturepark.com/ghost - this is a different activity held each Friday and Saturday in the summers. Again, we didn't try it, but it might incorporate some interesting history of the Nanaimo area as well.
• Just FYI - I went to the basic address: www.naturepark.com and found a number of links for various guided tours in the area. This website is worth checking out.

Vancouver Island is a very large island - bigger than England, in fact. Following are the items we actually did, but again, this is just the tip of the iceberg!

To make the most of your visit, A Vancouver Island Visitor's Guide (or a visit to the official website www.islands.bc.ca) is a great place to start!! This provides comprehensive information about the island with search options available by region or activity type. I found this website extremely user friendly and packed with information. This is a "must-visit" website prior to visiting the island!!

Following is a description of our travels thus far on Vancouver Island. We'll add to it as we continue to visit and/or hear reviews and input from others.

Heading south:
A friend of ours in Nanaimo recommended we visit Chemainus. This is a cute, artsy town with small shops of all varieties. This is about 25 - 30 minutes from the house and we thought it was worth the trip. It is just after Ladysmith. Watch for signs advertising "Chemainus Murals" - you'll go left at the sign & then left at the "T" intersection at the end of the road. See www.chemainus.bc.ca for more info. This is a neat place to spend a ½ to a full day - especially if you appreciate art!

Of course, Victoria is south too. This is about a 1 hour 45 minute drive (according the Nanaimo Visitor's Guide) from Nanaimo. This is the capital of British Columbia and has lots of history. It also has much to offer in terms of things to do and great places to eat!

Heading west:
(See below for a great day trip from Nanaimo using a portion of this route)
Our ultimate goal was Tofino, which is about a 3 hour drive from Nanaimo. For some reason it felt longer because of the rain and winding roads. The entire area receives incredible amounts of rain - we read that Tofino averages 120 cm rainfall per year - so be sure to bring some sort of rain gear if you head that way. We saw more rain, more forests, and more waterfalls than we've ever seen in that expanse of time. Once you arrive at Tofino the pounding surf is beautiful (whether it's rainy or sunny). There are some excellent interpretive rainforest hikes here. Be sure to do the "Rainforest Loop" first as this is incredibly descriptive. The knowledge we gained during this first hike enhanced the rest of our hikes - it was great to know what we were looking at!

Because of the drive, we opted to stay over in Tofino for two nights. There are lots of lodging opportunities to choose from - from a 5 star resort* to a cozy campground. If you're visiting in the summer be sure to make your reservations before heading over.

*For a great experience and to feel as if the surf might come through your window, try the Wickaninnish Inn. This is definitely a 5 star resort where everything is first class!

While in Tofino, we chartered a float plane for an hour (cost - approx $400 CDN) from Atleo Air. The owner, Jason Bertin was our pilot and did an outstanding job! During our flight we saw a bald eagle, a group of sea lions sunning themselves on a rocky island, and a giant gray whale. This is well worth the cost for a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

If you go, be sure to order the Tofino Insider's Guide. They charge a small fee for their guide but it is more than worth it!!!

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1/2 Day trip from Nanaimo – includes rainforest viewing If you don’t feel like driving all the way to Tofino but still want a taste of what the island offers, try this trip. Head north from Nanaimo to exit 4A. Your first destination is Coombs. This is the home of the world-famous “goats on the roof” – aptly named because there are indeed goats on the roof of one of the buildings in this town! Be sure to stop here and go inside the building – it contains one of the widest varieties of items we have yet to see: foods, gifts, fresh-baked treats, a coffee shop, a gourmet deli, a restaurant and a huge selection of international foods. In back, there’s a treat for any botanist – a beautiful nursery containing a wide variety of native plants, trees and flowers. Finally, if it’s your thing, people watching is a great activity here. When we were there (late May) visitors from all over the world mingled together to shop and sightsee! Don’t miss this unique spot!

Once you’ve enjoyed Coombs, continue down the road to Cathedral Grove. This is approximately 20 minutes (give or take) from Coombs. As you’re driving you’ll pass Cameron Lake – Cathedral Grove is right after it. Cathedral Grove has trees over 800 years old and is breathtakingly beautiful. One of the trees in the sanctuary is over 76 meters tall. This area is not-to-be missed – how many opportunities does one have to view old-growth (sometimes called first-growth) rainforest?

Heading north:
Our travels north took us as far as Campbell River. We explored all the way up - taking 4 hours to drive there (including a 45 min lunch trip) using the island route, whereas the return trip on the highway took about 2 hours.

The only place we really stopped for any time at was Rathtrevor Beach Park - This is a very large beach with a paved trail running along the edge. There are a lot of interior hiking trails too. This is 15 - 20 minutes from the house & well worth the trip. There is a small parking fee. If you want to spend a "day at the beach" then I would recommend taking the time to drive here from the house.

We were told by locals of some other areas of interest north of Nanaimo. We did not try any of these, but they are on our "to do" list for another time:

• Spend a day on Hornby Island (halfway between Qualicum Beach and Comox)
• Check out Horne Lake Caves - just past Qualicum Beach - approximately a 50 min drive from Nanaimo. For more info call: Horne Lake Caves - 250-248-7829. (Check out "outdoor activities" then "caving")

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