Vancouver Island itinerary help

[Taylorlovestravis]

We will potentially have five nights on Vancouver Island in summer months - would you stay in one place (Tofino? Elsewhere?) or move around? Bearing in mind this will be at the end of a trip through Rockies etc where we’ll be moving every two nights. We’ll have a car.
Thanks!

We stayed in an oceanfront cabin just outside of Sooke for a week just before lockdown. It was a perfect location for exploring the island. We did whale watching from Sooke, had a day in Victoria, a day in Tofino and just walked along the beach most other days. On previous visits we stayed in Ucluelet which was also beautiful but a bit isolated.
https://www.sooke.org/parks/

Agree you don't need too much time in Victoria itself.

I was going to offer advice but just realised it is 20 years since I last visited... I loved Victoria - a nice place to wander around and the RBCM was fantastic. I think I went to another museum too. I took a bus to see the seals at Oak Bay. Nanaimo was very quiet (and bad timing meant several attractions were closed that day), as was Duncan, although there was a good Museum there. May have changed a lot of course.... Rebar in Victoria was my favourite place to eat, and I've just discovered it is still there!

So not very helpful, but I've had a lovely reminisce.

We weren’t planning on any time in Victoria really @Katieweasel - I’ve been before but my family hasn’t but this trip isn’t really about towns, cities etc. @Soontobe60 good to know you were happy in one place - will look up Sooke!
Thanks both.

Boat trip round the islands! My friend did the trip by sea plane, but I think she started in Vancouver.

We found Vancouver Island very boring. Vancouver itself was much more interesting

@Latenightreader sorry - cross posted! Yes I liked Victoria when I went (also 20 years ago!) but apart from a couple of days in Vancouver and passing through Banff etc we want to mainly be wildlife spotting and walking etc rather than museums, restaurants etc.

@InNeedofAdvice1234 what was boring about it? And what do you enjoy doing on holiday? Vancouver is a cool city, I agree, but we’ve done a lot of city breaks with our teens and this time we’re not after that.

Are you planning on visiting Whistler? We spent 2 nights there - my 15yr old DD absolutely loved it, and the cable cars across the mountains are fab.

@Soontobe60 possibly on our long drive from rockies to Vancouver - probably not though as we’ll have spent a while in the mountains already.

Tofino is gorgeous and the hot springs were a fun day out as well

Our first night we stayed in Qualicum Beach, having stopped at Duncan and Nanaimo. Great beach, seals and different to the Pacific coast. Tofino is fab and we found plenty to fill four days. This hotel is in the most fantastic location just outside town. tinwis.ca/

We loved Tofino so much we went twice. Second time we stayed at Crystal Cove, pricey but such a cool place to stay.

We stayed on Vancouver Island for 4 nights and we really could have stayed for a lot longer . The island is huge 250 miles by 65 miles .
We visited Victoria for the day and it really was fabulous around the harbour,we then drove to Maple Bay close to Duncan ,which was our base . We visited salt spring island and went kayaking and visited Quadra Island the following day .
There was so much more to explore,really wanted to get to Tofino and up to the other end of the Island.
My son was living in Vancouver and has a video of a black bear crossing the road on Vancouver Island…have a fabulous time ,such a beautiful part of the world.

A whale watching boat trip is a must! It was over 20 years ago, but I went on one of the RIB trips out of Victoria for a morning and saw 89 killer whales in just a few hours. It was preferable to the bigger boats as they don't have the speed to go to where the whales are if spotted. Utterly amazing experience.

We went to Vancouver Island in September and loved it! Victoria was a bit too '1950s British seaside', but spent a couple of days there. City walking tour and the free tour of parliament were both very interesting. Drove up to Tofino, stayed at the Hotel Zed (great, chilled atmosphere with its own private spa & sauna overlooking the forest). I would recommend Tofino. We went bear watching whilst we were there, and hired beach bikes to cycle round all the beautiful deserted bays. Great walk around the headland at Ucluelet as well!

This is all very exciting and encouraging! Thanks!!