Best Destinations on Vancouver Island

This last stint of our trip to Canada has been extremely busy that I haven’t even had a chance to write at all. I did manage to finish a book (Origin by Dan Brown—I recommend it!), so perhaps I was not efficient with my time. We have spent a big bulk of our time on Vancouver Island, which happens to be one of my favourite places in British Columbia. Why do I love Vancouver Island so much? Read more to find out what I think the best destinations are on Vancouver Island!

How to Get to Vancouver Island

Well, you have two option: you can fly there or take the ferry. I have never flown since the ferry is so easy to take. Since I went to UVic, I usually took the ferry from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay. Since our first destination was Campbell River, we took the ferry from Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay (Nanaimo).

The BC Ferries Schedules are all available online. You can book a reservation, which costs 21 CAD (143 SEK) on top of the fee for a regular car (57.50 CAD/191 SEK) and passenger fees (17.45 CAD/119 SEK per adult), but let’s face it, I am stingy. Even when I attended UVic, I only paid a reservation fee on long weekends where I knew you would have to wait for a few sailings to make the ferry. Without paying, you may get delayed (like we did), but it doesn’t happen that often on weekdays. Plan accordingly!

What We Did on Vancouver Island

Campbell River

After living 5 years in Victoria on Vancouver Island, I feel a bit ashamed how little of the island I have travelled. I had been up to Courtenay a few years back, but never as north as Campbell River. We drove up there to visit my old roommate from the University of Victoria, Maria, and her boyfriend, Jeff. We arrived late last Wednesday (September 12th) since we did some shopping during the day and ended up getting stuck in a huge delay by BC Ferries. Seriously, how can the ferries be so busy on a Wednesday afternoon? Who is even going to the island then?

We loved our visit there and just spent a lot of time catching up since we had not seen each other in ages!

Saratoga Beach

Maria recommended that we visit Saratoga Beach and it was one of my favourite places that I have been to on Vancouver Island.

Daniel and I packed up our Mavic Air drone and went for a run along the beach. We do not usually use it while running, but we thought it would be a good place to test it out.

We saw a ton of people walking their dogs or just taking a casual stroll along the beach. This would be a great place to pick up driftwood. All of the houses beside the beach were so pretty.

Of course, we had to play around with the drone and figure out how to use the different follow-me modes so we can use it while travelling next week.

Miki’s Sesame Sushi

Sushi is definitely in the top 5 things I miss while in Sweden. I love that know mamenori (soybean paper) is available at most restaurants in Vancouver and Vancouver Island since I am not a fan of seaweed. Don’t judge me!

After our run, and poor time management, we were absolutely starving, so eating great sushi at Miki’s Sesame Sushi was a warm welcome. My favourite roll was the Crunch go-go roll.

Coombs

Coombs Old Country Market (also known as Goats on the Roof) is a great detour near Nanaimo. We left Campbell River to drive to Duncan for our friends’ wedding but we couldn’t resist a quick coffee break here.

I am not sure why but I have always loved goats since I was a kid. I even have a vivid memory of me chasing a goat at the Okanogan Game Farm as a kid and I couldn’t understand why it didn’t want me to pet it. For a disclaimer, I promise to raise my children with better manners on how to behave around barn animals.

They also have a really cute market inside that is full of food and cool knick-knacks. The home decor you can find there is AH-MA-ZING. There is also a bakery and a restaurant inside which serves fresh and yummy. If you didn’t know this about me already, I am a foodie.

Goats on the Roof is just a quick detour off the highway, so definitely check it out! Daniel had his best Nanaimo Bar that he has ever had there.

Duncan

Our trip to Duncan fulfilled one purpose: to watch our good friends, Kels and Trev, got married. This is my first time actually visiting Duncan. When I lived on Vancouver Island, I would only pass by to get to another location. If you didn’t know, Duncan is world famous (okay, famous?) for having the world’s largest hockey stick.

And, uh, that was about all I knew about Duncan on Vancouver Island. However, since we attended a wedding there, I did find out about a beautiful wedding locale called Bird’s Eye Cove Farm.

I wish I took a million more photos of the farm since it was absolutely gorgeous and a great place for a wedding.

We had a great time at our friends’ wedding. Maybe a bit too much fun since they had a shot ski, which I ended up finding out that night, I cannot handle. Guess I am not a university student anymore?

I have never been to a wedding that was so PRETTY! It had such a good backdrop to take pictures and I was really feeling the rustic wedding vibe.

Victoria

I could write about Victoria for days since I lived there when I studied at the University of Victoria. Some of the best destinations on Vancouver Island are located right in Victoria. There is just so much to do there!

After the wedding in Duncan, we met the wedding party and their friends and family for brunch before driving to Victoria. One of my good friends, Andrew, is still living there so we visited him for one night. I was pretty, ahem, tired from the wedding so we had a chill night. We did up walking around the next day, which was good but we focused a lot of our visit on catching up with our friend.

I am going to cheat just a wee bit here and show you two cool things we did last year while we visited Andrew in Victoria. I know it is not from this year, but it was cool!

Paddle Boarding around the Victoria Harbour

First of all, I love to SUP. It is easy and quite a good work out. Second of all, I love getting to see a city from a different perspective. I lived in Victoria for 5 years but this was the first time I went out on the water in the Victoria Harbour. We headed down to SUP Victoria to rent paddle boards for a few hours.

Daniel forgot the GoPro on our last trip to Canada—a task which I am not responsible for. The owner, Hayley, ended up being a friend of Andrew’s, so she was lovely enough to loan us her new GoPro. I have the completely terrible philosophy that if you didn’t take pictures, it never happened.

SUP Victoria is super easy to find. You just walk down the dock and her shop is set up there. I would recommend calling in advance since she lives close by but can sometimes take breaks.

Mount Work

Daniel and I love hiking—especially short hikes with good views. Mount Work takes about 2 hours return and the elevation is just over 300 metres.

I love that Canada has so many day hikes just outside of the city! There are so many views to be seen and so many hikes we still need to do. I guess there is always next year.

What Else Have We Done in Canada

Daniel and I have also been really busy visiting friends and family. Every second of our day is spent either meeting someone for dinner or crashing at their place. We have been having games nights with friends, watching my friends’ kid’s soccer practices, and even helping my grandpa buy an iPad. Never a dull moment when you have to combine a whole year of hangouts in only 5 weeks.

We have really optimized our time here by seeing all my friends and family as often as possible, even if it is just to meet up for coffee. I never find that I have enough time with everyone—a thought that I am sure many people who live abroad deal with. Impossibly squeezing everyone into a tight schedule is effective, but I often feel sad when saying bye since I really want more time with them.

If you haven’t read everything else we have done, then feel free to read about what we have done in the Fraser Valley, Maple Ridge, or Whistler!

xx

Jasmine