Vancouver Island: Rugged Shores and Rainforest Trails in British Columbia

Posted on July 14, 2024November 6, 2025 by jim

Vancouver Island is NOT Vancouver. It’s an entire world away, although it is only a 15 minute seaplane ride between the two.
Vancouver Island is HUGE.
If there wasn’t a chunk of water separating it from the mainland, it would get no love at all.
But the fact that it’s an island makes it a chic destination, and the landscape along the Pacific makes that understandable.
Vancouver Island was never on my radar, but somehow it made it onto Colette’s.
She tolerates a lot of weird stuff from me (visiting state high points, anyone?), so I didn’t blink an eye at adding this to our list.
Not sure where she found the beta, but this is definitely a pretty cool place to visit.
First
Nobody accidentally ends up here. You have to WANT to be here to be here. This is on the route to ummmmm nowhere.
Second
Don’t let Victoria be your Vancouver Island experience. This island is HUGE, and Victoria is just another (cool) city.
Third
If you’re going to hit highlights, skip the entire Northern half of the island. Again – it’s huge!
283 miles long and 63 miles wide with almost a million residents, it’s the 43rd largest island in the world.
The northern half is largely unpopulated, with most residents and tourists visiting the lower half and Victoria.
We had big eyes when envisioning this trip, until doing the math. Southern half it is.
Will we ever visit the northern half? As we often say – big world, small lifetime. Sadly, there’s a huge list of more interesting things to spend our lifetimes on.

Drive across the US-Canada border at the Peace Arch, then catch the ferry from Tsawwassen to Naniamo. If you were headed directly to Victoria, there’s a ferry that goes directly to Swartz Bay which is much closer to Victoria.

Ucluelet (Ukee to the locals) was our first stop, and makes a great launching pad for Tofino and the west coast.

From there, backtrack a bit to Port Alberni then down to Cowichan Lake.

Cowichan is hugely popular with the Victoria crowd – a massive freshwater lake in the middle of a huge island.
Book ahead to get any lodging here, and don’t expect much peace and quiet on and around the lake. A definite stop on a Vancouver Island visit though.

From Cowichan head back to coast and wander through the tiny hamlet of Port Renfrew to explore Botanical Beach and parts of the Juan de Fuca marine trail.

From here it’s a gorgeous coastal drive until you get into the suburbs of Victoria and then Victoria itself.

Will we return?

Probably not. We’ve seen the highlights, and the northern half of the island is low on the list due to how difficult it is to get here.

Would we recommend it?
Probably not, unless you have the go-see-do wanderlust. If you want craggy coastline, Maine is much more accessible. If you want secluded beaches, there’s also a million other options.