Family Travel to Vancouver Island

Things to do on Vancouver Island with Kids

 

• Go Hiking: There are so many wonderful hikes on Vancouver Island, just pick one
• Explore the Coast and Tidal Pools
• Smell the Flowers: Victoria Island has so many beautiful flowers.  Check out Butchart Gardens for one of the best gardens in the world
• Visit Victoria:  Enjoy this beautiful city and it’s wonderful people
• Explore a Harbor: Many of the cities and towns have harbors that are ideal for a relaxing stroll.
• Playgrounds:  There are playgrounds everywhere and they’re good ones.
• Be a Foodie: Take a chance of some delicious local cuisine
• Go Boating: So many harbor, you can even take a boat to a restaurant
• Find some Adventure: Zip-lining, bungee-jumping, and adventure tours
• Whale Watching: Several tours are available from different areas. 

Go Hiking

Victoria Island has so many hiking trails.  Much of the island is made up of temperate rainforest.  These trails have some of the most majestic and peaceful trees.  Enjoy the quiet and be surrounded by so much nature.  Take a deep breath!  Most of these hikes are easy and very family friendly.  Pack water and snacks and snacks.  Take breaks to learn something new.

If you’re more adventurous, there are mountain hikes more inland as well where you will get more of an alpine environment.

Some of our favorite Vancouver Island hikes for kids:

• Newcastle Island – a boat ride from Nanaimo
• Roberts Memorial Park – near our home base in Ladysmith
• Hole in the Wall in Port Alberni

List of other family friendly hikes on Vancouver Island

Explore the Coast and Tidal Pools

The coastline of Vancouver Island is just breathtaking.  If you are lucky enough to find a condo with a view overlooking the water, you could spend hours reading, drinking coffee and watching the view.  We really enjoyed watching our neighborhood otters battle for the king of the dock as well as watching sailboats gently float by.  

There are many access points to the coast line for family friendly tidal pool exploring.. We learned about and watched the tides and found numerous local critters like starfish.  Near our condo was a fabulous beach to explore.  We even got a little bit of swimming in (but that was a little chilly for September).

Smell the Flowers

Vancouver Island and Victoria have so many flowers.  They are everywhere.  Even the gas stations have amazing and ridiculously colorful arrangements.  Small towns have wonderful flower exhibits and just driving through towns, you’ll generally see impressive displays but the biggest and most extravagant collection is Butchart Gardens outside of Victoria.

Visit Victoria

Victoria Canada is a wonderfully charming city on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. Take some time to stroll the pedestrian downtown and the harbor.  The people of Victoria are so friendly and the town has a very relaxed vibe.  The Royal Museum of British Columbia makes a great stop as well. 

Explore a Harbor (or many)

Both the larger and smaller cities on Victoria have great waterfront.  The Nanaimo waterfront and Victoria waterfront are both fun to stroll and explore.  Smaller cities generally will have parks along the water with some marina’s as well.  In the larger cities many have great restaurants nearby.  The smaller cities enjoy a picnic lunch.  Most have some sort of really nice playground for the kids to run around and explore while parents enjoy the view.  

I absolutely love watching the ferries and seaplanes in Nanaimo Harbor.  I could spend hours watching all of the activity.  Nanaimo’s Harbor is really well done and stretches along most of the length of the city.  The area near the terminal can also be a nice place to hang out. 

Playgrounds

As a family with young kids, we love to hang out at playgrounds when traveling.  It’s probably one of our favorite things to do.  We don’t have to worry about the kids breaking anything, there are other families and kids to socialize with, the kids can run and exercise and we can relax.  Playgrounds are perfect for vacation stops.  

Thankfully Victoria Island does not disappoint with playgrounds.  There are high quality playgrounds everywhere.  In every small city we found a nice playground either downtown, at the waterfront of sometimes both.  We frequented the Nanaimo playground at the harbor, we loved Ladysmith’s waterfront playground and we had a small one in our condo complex that we visited daily.

There are indoor playgrounds too.  In Nanaimo we enjoyed a few hours at Jumping Jiminy’s – we love indoor playgrounds.  We make a point of finding them during our longer stays.  We can read and relax and the kids have a safe place to run and socialize.

Be a Foodie

I found Victoria Island’s restaurant selections to be affordable, low stress and delicious.  All of the restaurants that we visited had good food, food the kids enjoyed and were very kid friendly.  We especially enjoyed many of the local places.  Several of our favorites in Ladysmith were cozy with a family owned atmosphere.  

Go Boating

There are so many water activities and boating opportunities on Vancouver Island. Getting to the island by ferry is my favorite way to arrive – it’s so relaxing and the views are amazing.  Once you’re on the island you can rent kayaks, paddleboard, book a sailing trip or just many other boating trips.  We loved the small ferry rides to Newcastle Island and Dinghy Dock Pub.

Find Some Adventure

Victoria Island is not just about relaxing.  There are ATV tours, bungee-jumping businesses, rope courses, zip-lining and climbing.  We didn’t have the time (or the budget) to tackle many of these but the kids did enjoy the ropes course at Wild Play.   We watched some of the other crazy jumps and swings they offer. 

Whale Watching

Whale watching is generally top on the to-do list for most Pacific Northwest vacations.  Many of the cities offer tours.  We booked our whale watching adventure from Orcas Island in Washington State but I’m sure any of the tours would be a wonderful experience. 

Victoria Island Related Posts

We’re a family of 5 (Physician Assistant mom, IT project manager dad and 3 kids ages 3,6,10) taking a gap year from normal life to travel.  For blog posts, locations, and more information on how we did it and how you can to click here.