A week on Vancouver Island

The highlight for me on my week on the island was definately Tofino. It has such a sleepy fishing village feel about it you feel right at home. And the secenary was breath taking. Look over to the islands covered in pinetrees and shrawed in mist was amazing. While is it only a small town there is a lot to do in the area. A must is Long Beach situated within the Pacific Rim National Park, about 15 mins out of town by car.

Quick Tips:

I would recomend that if you are planning on going to Victoria only stay a few days. While it is the capital it is a very small city and all the inner harbour sites can be done in half a day. But there are other places to go but they are a bit out of town i.e. Burchart Gardens and the potholes. If you plan to do what i did and stay in Victoria for four days you will probably die of boredom.

Best Way To Get Around:

To get to the island I found the PCL bus easier than having to deal with public transport from Vancouver. It's about more each way on PCL, but definately more convenient. In town, just walk - it's a small place. Or the bus services is also really good and the drivers are friendly. To head up the island we hired a car, but there are regular buses and shuttle buses to different destinations on the island, including Tofino.

The HI Victoria, is one of the nicest inner city hostels i have been too. It is large, modern and clean, and is in the middle of the city, just a few blocks from the inner harbour. I arrived in Victoria with the PCL Bus, and the hostel is a five blocks walk from the main bus depot, so not really that big of a walk. The staff there are really friendly, and are happy to help you with any of your questions about the place. They also give out change - which is really helpful for when you need to use the phone or internet. The main reception area is covered in tourist information, bus timetables, brochures etc etc, and there is also a mini 'tourist information centre', where during the day there's tourism representative you can go and talk to about stuff you want to see. Like i said this is a large hostel and the kitchen is no exception. It is huge!!! With lots of cooking space and there is a large dinning area too. Often throughout the day there is free food i.e. cinnamon rolls and donuts, provided by the hostel. There are also lot of thing to do organised by the hostel. On Thursdays (i think) they do a tour of the Embassy and the Museum which cost the same as entry into them normally - so you score a free guide. Also on Monday and Fridays, there is a native lady (her name escapes me at the moment) who for $10 will show you how to make your own dream catcher - its not as easy as it is seems but it is heaps of fun, and you get to keep it in the end. Upstairs, there is a common lounge area with some books and mags to look at, and there is also a large TV room, and you can borrow videos from reception. From what my guy friend said, the male dorm in huge compared to the female dorms. There is one large dorm with about 20 bunks (40 beds), then there are several smaller rooms with 3 bunks in each. There are also lockers for each person. The showers and toilets were also really clean. I don't remember seeing at laundry but that doesn't mean there isn't one. The one drawback is that it can get quite noisy at night as there are quite a few pubs and restaurants around the area. I am told that the front desk does sell earplugs if it gets that bad.

This is an amazing hostel. If you saw it you wouldn't think it was and go straight past, hence it's always packed out. Book at least two weeks in advance or you will miss out - backpacker tour groups also stay there regularly.

The dinning and lounge rooms are amazing - huge glass windows looking out over to the Pacific Ocean, where you can watch the boats come in at night. The kitchen facilities are also good and there is a BBQ outside. The dorms are four bed dorms and the rest of the hostel is clean.

Definitely the best place to stay in Tofino.

I have to acknowledge this at the start. I went to Tofino, and they were smart and booked ahead at the Whalers on the Point, HI Tofino. On the other hand was not, and was facing sleeping in the car. But then i found the C&N backpackers. If i had not gone to the Whalers, to hang out with my friends, i would not be so mean to the C&N. In any other circumstance, with would be a good hostel, but i am somewhat bias in the fact that i loved the Whalers and hung out there in stead. So you have been forewarned, there is some bias towards this hostel. From what I saw of this hostel it looks like it is only new or recently bought. Hence it is very very clean. The dorm room that i stayed in had two bunks (4 beds). There are not lockers, and you can't lock the door to the room either. There is a normal size residential kitchen and TV, with a deck out the back. One thing i can say is the bathrooms where really really nice. Don't get confused, but the name of the place - C&N B&B. To me this would imply breakfast is included, but i didn't get breakfast and everyone else I saw was having breakfast with what they bought at the supermarket - so don't get your hopes up. I also have a feeling that the owners live in the hostel, on the lower floor, so if that creeps you out don't stay. Like i said, in any other circumstance, this would be a nice place to stay, but i have my bias. So if you are like me and to late to book at the Whalers, this should be your next stop.

This trip is a nature/boat trip. It is actually a whale watching/hot springs/ bear watching trip to be exact of Kyuquot Sounds. It lasts for about 6 hours in total. We left around midday and went out on a zodiac boat. Kyuquot Sounds is a whole heap of little rocky islands, that are covered in old growth rainforests (the last in BC), and they look so magical with the clouds hovering over them - it was really spectacular.

So, first off you go through the inland bays and the tour guide looks for black bears (we saw one!!!) and you look at the scenery and it was absolubly amazing; then they take you to the hot springs. Well, not exactly to them. They drop you off at the jetty and it is about a 30-40min walk on a boardwalk through the rainforest to the hotsprings. A really cool thing is that people have engraved the names of their boats or their family names into the boardwalk and some of the engravings are really really creative.

The hotsprings themselves are amazing. They are a real hotsprings. It is a series of small rock pools - it starts with a waterfall, and the pool lead down to the ocean, so while you are sitting in this really, really hot pool the cold ocean waves are crashing on top of you - it was amazing. You are left there for about 3 hours - of which half your time is spent walking to and from the hotsprings - which is really a pleasent walk too, but there are quite a few stairs too.

On the way back, they take you out into the Pacific Ocean to go whale watching - we saw three - but it can get a bit rough, so if you get sick, you will be bettter in the back of the boat as the front is very rocky. We also saw a sea otter, sea lions and puffins. Then it is a nice trip back into the harbour around sun set.

It was the best trip, so see this area.

Two friends and I decided to hire a car for three days and drive up to Tofino and back. We hired our car from Budget for $300 for 3 days, all insurance extras included (considering we are under 25 I thought that was a good deal and we scored a really good car - named lucy after a seal we saw in Nanaimo).

So we started off one pleasant morning from Victoria. We stopped at a few look outs along the way (can't remember names, but there are places to just pull off onto the side of the road). We stopped at Cowichan for lunch and to do some grocery shopping. We then went to Chemainus which is this town that is famous for having about 20-30 murals around the village - we had a quick drive around and they where pretty nice, but because of our late start we didn't hang around that long unfortunately.

We stopped again in Nanaimo because I wanted to try a Nanaimo Chocolate Bar, but I refused to do so until I visited the actual Nanaimo. You would think every shop would have these sweets, but they were really hard to find. When we did find them, we were disappointed by the fact that they were the same chocolate slices that my nana had been making me all my life; she just didn't call them Nanaimo Bars.

We went for a walk along the jetty out to the harbour, and there were some people crabbing and a seal called Lucy which is who our car is named after. When then headed north, at this time we got a bit confused with which highway we were supposed to be on, but soon found our way. We stayed on the road now most of the time as it was getting late in the afternoon and we were still 100km or so from Tofino. The trip up to Tofino was gorgeous with mountains and lakes all around.

Our next stop was Long Beach in the Pacific Rim National Park - finally a beach that an Australian would call a beach. It was breath taking - big sandy beaches, huge waves and a sunset - gorgeous. We walked along there for a while, and then headed up to Tofino which was about 15-20mins more up the Road. We stayed at the Whalers Point HI (see other thread). The next day we spent looking around Tofino, there are some really nice art galleries partially one by Henry Roy Vickers, this stuff was really nice. We also went to the Tofino Botanical Garden, which where really cool, but unfortunately we couldn’t spend much time there are we where going on a Whale Trip (see other thread), but the guy we where with decided to go golfing instead. The next day we headed back, on the same route, but we stopped at different places, i think the first one is Golden Grove - not 100% sure, but there are some huge huge trees - possibly biggest and definitely oldest in Canada. We also stopped at Goldsteam PP, which is rainforesty too and there is a salmon river (but we didn't see any). We got back to Victoria around dusk. With all out stops it took about 5 hours each way - but it was really cool, and it is the route that most tours buses take, but this way was cheaper and we got see more things and stay longer at them.