Vancouver Island - anyone been?

[Kbear]

Any tips? Hotel recommendations or deals? We might be pushing the boat out for a holiday of a lifetime....

One last quick link before dd2 rally loses the plot: This is paradise: Carmanah Valley

thanks, I really appreciate your replies!

Now if you could just each send me about £500 we can kick this holiday off in fine style!

Savings so far - £1.38!!!!

Definately visit Seattle if your're over that way, Orcas Island in the Puget sound is absolutely beautiful. It was the best thing we did. You stay in log cabins but you'll need to book a long time ahead. I liked Vancouver but I preferred Seattle and the Puget Sound. Seemed to be more to do and the scenery was lovely. We were just spoilt for choice. Vancouver is great too though, we stayed in The Sylvia, was quite cheap.

At 12,079 square miles, Vancouver Island is bigger than Sicily and about 3 times the size of Jamaica. There should be plenty there to keep you busy.

Would you consider a caravan or camping? How old are your children?

would deffo consider a caravan or camping! We need to keep it at a reasonable cost, we are not posh hotel people and like the great outdoors (luckily as we can't afford posh hotels ha ha!).

Children are 5 and 8.

I need to get myself to the library and get some books on Canada!

I was thinking of maybe a stopover in Ontario. I have a friend there. Maybe a trip to Niagra Falls. In for a penny and all that!

I found a hostel in Tofino that looked amazing and said it could take families. I can't actually remember why we decided against it, think I wanted one of our stops to be semi luxury! Anyway it got great reviews on Tripadvisor - their own website is here: Whalers on the Point

In Whistler we're staying in a privately owned condo, and renting direct from the owners through a website called Allura. Can't find a link for it but they had a lot of properties, and many of them weren't too bad budget wise.

These people are brilliant for car/van/4x4 hire. a mnetter used them on my reccomendation and found them so cheap, we have used them 3 times.
alldrive

Some other links for you to check out (many apologies as I don't know how to accurately link a website):

Vancouver Aquarium www.vanaqua.org/home

Science World www.scienceworld.bc.ca/

Depending how much time and where you are going in Ontario, there are lots of sights to see there too:

Toronto CN Tower www.cntower.ca/portal/

Other museums of interest: secure.warplane.com/

www.uwo.ca/museum/volunteerInfo.html

and this one is great for kids of all ages:
www.ontariosciencecentre.ca/

Vancouver Island is fab - we stayed for a few nights at the Pacific Sands Motel in Tofino, which has cabins right on the beach. We went on a whale watching trip there with Jamie's Whaling Station which was ok and a bear watching trip (also from a boat) which was unmissable. Look out for all the sea otters playing in the harbour area.

Victoria was ok - but a bit touristy. We were there in the Jazz Festival so there was probably more going on than normal. The island is bigger than you think: try not to run out of gas half way up (at night, in bear country... Still a sore point.)

There's also a temperate rain forest near Tofino which is cool if your kids are into really big mossy trees.

Thanks for making me think about it again - that was a great holiday!

have you ever thought of doing a house swap kbear?
A cheap way of visiting Canada ,but you do have to clean your house first.
We did one and it was great.
Have a look here

wow

For pushing the boat out, you want the Wickaninnish Inn in Tofino, it's where I honeymooned and spent my first anniversary (only cause we're IN Vancouver already, otherwise it's pretty expensive). The restaurant has the best food, and it's hugely romantic - make sure you get the rooms with big soaker tubs for two. All rooms have views of the Pacific, and if there's a storm at night, it is incredibly romantic sitting in a candlelit bath looking out at it. There isn't much to do apart from walk on the beach. But what a beach.

I lived in Vancouver for 4 years and did lots of travel in the area. I highly recommend the MiddleBeach Lodge in Tofino (West side of Vancouver Island). It has single cabins you can book and is a bit cheaper than the Wickanninish Inn but the beach is nicer. I'd recommend the Wickanninish Inn's Aveda Spa and restaurant if you want some pampering. Give yourself at least a week to unwind & visit the Roy Vickers Art Gallery (in an Indian Longhouse) if you like Native Art. The boat tours of the area are great if you like whale watching.
Have fun!!

Sorry haven't been back for a while, been actually working whilst at work .

Thanks so much for all this info. I really really really hope we manage to go. I am thinking of money spinning ideas as we speak!

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! Canada... Vancouver...

We had a fantastic time there in 2004 (pre-DS). We only had around 3 nights in Vancouver area, but crammed a lot in. It was certainly the best part of our whistle-stop tour across Canada.

We only went on a day trip to Vancouver Island (by ferry), but enjoyed the day. We went to Butchart Gardens & Victora, then flew back to Vancouver by seaplane - incredible!

In Vancouver itself, we stayed in a wonderful hotel, 'Rosedale on Robson'. We had a suite (with a stunning view) for around the same price as a room in other hotels. They had free cakes & pastries in the mornings - very yummy! We loved Stanley Park (free hop-on hop-off bus round the park was good), Gas Town including Storyeum (amazing museum where you walk from scene to scene, learning about the history of the region - all acted out by costumed storytellers) and a restaurant where we were served by monks. Probably one of the main highlights was Grouse Mountain with cable cars, 'Grinder' & 'Coola' (Grizzly bear cubs), lumberjack display, falconery etc - definitely worth the trip. We were fortunate to be in Vancouver for one of their fireworks competition nights (don't remember the name of the event)- fireworks over the water set to music - stunning!

We don't normally like cities, and didn't enjoy Toronto at all, but LOVED Vancouver. For a big city it has a wonderful atmosphere. I think that Vancouver Island would be great for a few nights, but Vancouver itself well worth a few nights too, for the above reasons.

We thought that Niagara Falls were over-touristy, with tacky shops etc. but were still glad to have been there IYSWIM. The falls themselves were magnificent, and we enjoyed the 'Maid of the Mist' boat. Views from hotel-top restaurant were great. The area around Niagara was actually very pretty.

Sorry for such a long rambling post, I just wish I could go back... hmmmmm.....

We loved the island, having done the Inside Passage boat trip down from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy (it rained the whole journey, we couldn't see a thing and I was horribly sea sick...but I am told it is unmissable in fine weather).
We drove down the island stopping at an outdoorsy activity type place in Strathcona Park (amazing little lakeside chalets) and then at the Wick, which was luxurious and worth splashing out for. Our best excursion was bear watching from Tofino, it is done at low tide and a local chap takes you out, in the early morning it is amazing when the mist rises on the water.
We then continued down to Victoria stopping off at a couple of places en route for a few hours each (nothing much worth seeing).
Victoria was rather English and full of geriatrics but the museum of British Columbia (I think that's what it is called) is well worth a visit.
The seaplane back to Vancouver was superb (and I hate flying), it was only £50 when we did it (4 years ago) and the half hour city centre to city centre flight beats the long coach - boat journey anyday.
Hope you decide to go, and have a wonderful time.

GO GO GO its the best place EVER.

We stayed at Tofino at I think it was the Best Western Tin Wis. It was AMAZING our room was directly on the beach and we went running in to the sea. There was so much to see on the beach as well, amazing Star Fish.
We stayed about 4 days in Tofino, its a really laid back old hippy sort of place, we did a Wonderful sea plane trip to the hot springs island place and saw some Whales en route, and did a kayaking trip to an island to do a rainforest walk.

We didn't make it to Victoria so can't comment on that.

Vancouver was a good place but not as good as Tofino. We stayed at The Sylvia Hotel as well, very inexpensive and pleasant.

I'd fly with whoever was cheapest tbh. If you flew globespan they offer premium economy if you want a little pampering for not much extra.

Oh and I know its on the opposite side, but we flew to Calgary and stayed in the Fairmont Lake Louise , we got cheap rates through dropping in at the tourist office. If you want trip of a lifetime then Lake Louise has got to be on that list.Banff is a great place as well.

I'm SOOO jealous, I loved Canada to bits and we are going back as soon as DS is old enough to enjoy it with us.

I had my best ever holiday there. Think it's a good idea to hire a car so you can see a lot of the island. Another thing I recommend is doing the Inside Passage from Poer Hardy to Prince Rupert and then Training it back to Vancouver. There are Various journey options to this and the scenery is amazing.
I'd go back in a flash as have really happy memories. I also went up a little into Alaska which is nice.
Not far from Port Hardy is a wee place called Telegraph Cove, there's a Whale watching tour company there called Stubbs Island which I can't recommend enough. They tour the area near Johnstones bay/straight (???name) which is a scantuary so your not allowed in but the Orca come out. This is fundamentally the best thing I have ever done (apart from having my kids) and made my trip. The Staff were brillant too.
I say go I'm very jealous .
Think will have to start saving madly. What can I do without??? I know FOOD

Starting to plan our trip now so thought I would come back to this thread. I am also starting to realise that we have under-budgeted!!

Can anyone recommend a budget price cabin co on Vancouver Island? I keep finding luxury cabins on the net and I want basic, we're not going to be in it all day and this trip is going to cost enough without paying for fancy accommodation that we don't need!

We spent four or so nights in Telegraph Cove in the north of the island to go whale watching, except there were no whales.

We didn't go to Victoria, but where we did go had pretty stunning scenery.

We also spent a couple of days in Vancouver (loved it!), and a couple of days in Whistler.

We were there right at the end of the season (June) and luckily there was still heaps of snow.

Oh I want to go back to Canada now! We flew into Calgary and then drove up to Lake Louise (which in May was still frozen over), Banff, Jasper, then across to the west coast.

We got the ferry down to the north of the island, had a few days there, then went across to Vancouver and Whistler.

We had two weeks all up, did heaps of driving, but yep, we have great memories of a great trip (done pre-BC in 2002).

We want to go to Telegraph Cove mm22bys - there had better be whales there when we go, I've promised DS! ha ha

Don't know any budget accomodation there aswe were DINKIES when we went and had money to burn SIGHHH.

However all Canadians are super friendly and helpful so I would suggest emailing the tourist office to see what they suggest or check out tripadvisor.com for their recommendations.

Enjoy am still green with envy.

Vancouver is lovely. Sigh...