Vancouver Island Beaches Perfect for Summer

 Summer on Vancouver Island is generally warm, sunny and dry – perfect beach weather. This top 5 list is for beaches outside of Victoria that are perfect for summer relaxing.

·         Rathtrevor: This stretch of beach in Parksville is popular with tourists and locals alike, and big enough that there is room for everyone. At low tide the sandy beach stretches for miles. This is the site of one of the province’s most popular provincial parks, Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park, as well as home to numerous resorts. No dogs are allowed on the beach in the summer months, so don’t bring Fido.

          Chesterman Beach: Tofino and Long Beach on the west coast of the island have many beaches to choose from, but Chesterman is a favourite with the locals and for good reason. With two beach fronts it is easy to be protected from any wind and to choose what wave action to play in. Both sides are nice and sandy, and the large space where the two beaches join gives lots of room for play.

      Saratoga:  Just north of popular Miracle Beach, Saratoga Beach is home to small resorts and RV campgrounds, as well as the popular Pacific Playgrounds Resort and Campground. Another sandy stretch, Saratoga has stunning views of the mainland coastal mountains and is great for a swim when the tide is coming in over the warm sand.

·         San Josef Bay: At the top of the island in the Cape Scott Provincial Park, San Josef is a walk-in beach well worth the easy 40 minute walk on good trails. With an interesting forest environment through the trails leading down to the marshy tidal area of the San Josef River, the beach itself is a shock with its stretches of sand broken only by amazing rock formations. This is a remote area, so the beach is never busy (although locals from Port Hardy do like to come there on sunny days).

·         China Beach: West of Sooke at the bottom of the island, China Beach is another one that requires a short hike to reach. It is well worth it though, with a long stretch of sandy beach, amazing views, and even a waterfall at one end of the beach close to the day use trail. This is also the head of the Juan de Fuca multi-day hiking trail. There is a small campground at China Beach, separate from the day use area.

These are all sandy beaches great for summer fun. Do you have a summer favourite?

It’s a Coastal Lifestyle ... Live It!

Visiting BC's Marine Parks

A lot of people are exploring the more outdoor and open areas of the coast this summer, as a way to safely social distance and yet still enjoy summer. Marine parks are a great option for those who have boating access - whether power boats, sailboats or kayaks.

The coast of BC has over 40 designated marine parks. These are parks that include both water and land areas but are generally accessible by float plane or boat only (with some exceptions). Many of them allow wilderness camping but only a few offer even basic services (an outhouse, water, cleared campsites). 

Raft Cove Marine Park, northwest Vancouver Island

These marine parks run along the entire coast of BC and among the numerous islands that dot the coast. They are an attraction for boaters, kayakers, hikers and many others. The largest marine park on the coast is the Broughton Archipelago Marine Park, off the NE coast of Vancouver Island, which consists of dozens of small islands and the waters around them. This park is very popular with kayakers and for whale watching.



Marine parks often provide a welcome refuge for people traveling along the coast, and are common meet-up spots for boaters.  Desolation Sound Marine Park, along the central mainland coast, is very popular with boaters due to its protected waters, easy access to the Discovery Islands and beautiful beaches.

private properties within Desolation Sound Marine Park



Some of the remote and recreational properties we have listed through the BC Oceanfront office either border or are very near to marine parks. A select few are even lucky enough to be private property within a marine park - very rare.

flying over Surge Narrows Marine Park

It's a Coastal Lifestyle ... Live It!

Making Room for Your Coastal Lifestyle

Lots of people move to Campbell River, and the central/north Vancouver Island region, because of the wonderful outdoor lifestyle opportunities. Camping, boating, kayaking, hiking, atv-ing, mountain biking, skiing, hunting, fishing - the list goes on; as a home base, this region offers some of the most accessible outdoor activity area anywhere. Within 45 minutes of town one can be on a ski hill, at a beach, enjoying a lake, fishing a river, camping in a forest, or exploring the ocean and islands off shore.

With all that recreation, however, comes equipment. And if you are moving here to take advantage of the great outdoors, thinking about where you are going to keep your equipment is important.

Are you thinking of downsizing so you can spend time RVing? Then you need to have somewhere to store your RV. Coming here to fish on the ocean or lakes? Will you have a boat and if so, where will you keep it? Skis, ATVs, mountain bikes, kayaks - all need a place to sit when not in use.

Listings in this region should tell you if RV parking, extra outdoor space and good storage space is available. Most properties allow these types of outdoor items, although there are still some neighbourhoods that do not, so check if there are any covenants on the title restricting property use.

When you come to the area, come prepared to take advantage of all it offers and make sure your home allows you to easily access what you need. Whether that means a sturdy pair of walking shoes or a state-of-the-art RV beside the house is completely up to you!

It's a Coastal Lifestyle ... Live It!

Overnight Hikes on Vancouver Island

With most of us staying closer to home, we are looking for adventures to be had in our own backyard. Overnight hikes are a great way to be outside and be social distancing as well. So whether you are planning ahead for a visit to come or looking for something to do on the island this summer, here are some great options. Be sure to check the websites before heading out to see what special rules or regulations might be in place this year.

Vancouver Island is renowned for water-based recreation and exploration, but there is also a lot of land-based recreation available. The island has such a variety of ecosystems that someone looking for a multi-day hike adventure has many choices. 

You want mountains? Head to Strathcona Park where you will find a number of over-night or longer hikes that will take you to a number of iconic mountains in the park, such as Mt. Albert Edward.

Strathcona Park

Looking for southern rugged shores? Head to the Juan de Fuca Trail.

The West Coast Trail is a world-famous trail that requires signing up to a waiting list at least a year in advance to even get to hike it.

Looking for remote? Head over to Nookta Island and the multi-day trail there. Or drive to the northern tip of the island and hike the Cape Scott Trail, along boardwalks and mud, and then move onto the North Coast Trail which extends from the Cape Scott Trail.

Cape Scott

Want to add some canoeing into the hiking adventure? Della Falls, Canada’s highest waterfall, is the spot for you.

There are many more that can be done by pushing in one long day or split more comfortably into two days. The island is absolutely the place for outdoor adventuring of all kinds, including serious hiking.

It's a Coastal Lifestyle ... Live It!

BCO Coastal Gems: Malcolm Island and Sointula

Malcolm Island and the town of Sointula offer a picturesque west coast lifestyle, complete with colourful homes, historic buildings, pretty fishing boats and lots of walking trails.

Sointula was originally founded by Finnish immigrants in the early 1900s looking for a better way of life, and that history is still reflected in the town. It has also been an active fishing centre in the region.

Accessed by ferry from PortMcNeill on Vancouver Island, Sointula has shopping, fuel services, private and public docks, a library and a medical clinic among other amenities. There is a vibrant community of approx. 800, an eclectic mix of old-time families, artists, fishermen and those looking for a quieter life.

Whale watchers and outdoor enthusiasts favour Malcolm Island for its whale rubbing beaches and hiking trails, especially the Beautiful Bay Trail between Bere Point and Malcolm Point. There are a few campsites on the island, including Bere Point Regional Parkcampground as well as a number of B&Bs and guest houses. Pulteney Point lighthouse sits on the northeast point of the island and is accessible by a nice beach walk. The main roads along the eastern shore are paved, while the further out roads are gravel.

Malcolm Island sits at the junction of Queen Charlotte Strait, Broughton Strait and Johnstone Strait off the northern end of Vancouver Island.

Definitely worth a trip to explore!

It's a Coastal Lifestyle ... Live It!

BCO Coastal Gems: Cortes Island

Cortes Island is one of the Discovery Islands between the mainland of BC and the east coast of Vancouver Island. It has ferry service via Campbell River and Quadra Island, which makes it appealing to summer travellers as well as people looking for an island to call home.

Like many islands in this area, Cortes has an assortment of rugged rocky coastline, sandy white beaches and warm summer ocean water. With all amenities and services, including a school for up to Grade 9, Cortes really does offer the best of both worlds - services when needed but the charm and appeal of a small island.

There is a population of approx 1000 on the island, from hippies to retirees and from loggers to fishermen to back-to-the-land farmers. It is this mix of people that gives Cortes its charm.

Lakefront, farm land, residential, rural and spectacular oceanfront are all available on Cortes. There are parks to explore, beaches to walk and community events to participate in. The climate of Cortes is slightly milder and drier than Vancouver Island or the mainland coast, as it is in the rain shadow of Vancouver Island, although it still fosters lush rain forest with its winter rains.

Cortes is a great choice for a summer vacation home or for a year-round residence. Ed and Shelley are frequently on Cortes, with both sellers and buyers. They are always impressed with the beauty of the island!

It's a Coastal Lifestyle ... Live It!

It's a Coastal Lifestyle ... Live It!

At BC Oceanfront, we talk a lot about the coastal lifestyle. For us, a coastal lifestyle means finding the balance between life and work so that we can enjoy to the fullest this amazing place where we get to live.

Big Picture, this has meant Ed and Shelley finding a way to get some time away in the summer especially, but really all year round, for fishing/hunting/camping/road trips. This may mean one is out of town while the other is covering the office, or it may mean Ed is at his place in Quatsino fishing in the mornings and working remotely in the afternoons and evenings.

On a smaller scale, the coastal lifestyle means week-ends spent outdoors, and often evenings as well. It means stopping and looking out the windows when someone thinks they spot whales, or an interesting boat is going through the passage between Quadra Island and Campbell River.  It means talk about fishing can take up as much time as talk about properties during client meetings, and there are plenty of photo uploads of our week-end adventures to share on social media. It also means that when Shelley and Ed show clients a property they share in the delight a buyer feels upon seeing the wonder of the coast for the first time. After years of living and working on the coast, that feeling of awe and wonder hasn’t gone away.

The coastal lifestyle doesn’t mean you just live on the coast. It means every day you appreciate that coast and the lifestyle it allows you to enjoy. It means you relax a little more often than if you lived in the big city, and you get outside into the beautiful natural spaces around you.

We believe in it, we live it and we love to share it.

It’s a Coastal Lifestyle … Live It!

Campbell River Estuary and Tyee Spit

For decades the Campbell River was used as an exchange and holding area for many logging operations. In recent years efforts have been made to repair and restore the area, transforming the shoreline back to healthy, indigenous vegetation.

The Tyee Spit itself has been transformed into a wonderful park (Dick Murphy Park), complete with walking paths and beach access, a great place to look out over Discovery Passage and across to Quadra Island. It is popular with families as it is a convenient and safe place for bikes, scooters and kites and also popular with dog walkers. The centre lawn is perfect for playing on and the numerous benches provide comfortable spots to rest and look out at the water and marine traffic. The beach along the edge of the park is a nice place to sit and explore.

The park has also become a popular spot for photos!

The estuary and Baikie Island are quickly becoming naturalized once again thanks to hard work by a number of groups.

On both sides the estuary and spit are perfect places to take some time out of a day around town to reconnect with nature and recharge with a little break.

It's a Coastal Lifestyle ... Live It!

Top 5 Summer Beaches on Vancouver Island

Summer on Vancouver Island is generally warm, sunny and dry – perfect beach weather. This top 5 list is for beaches outside of Victoria that are perfect for summer relaxing.

·         Rathtrevor: This stretch of beach in Parksville is popular with tourists and locals alike, and big enough that there is room for everyone. At low tide the sandy beach stretches for miles. This is the site of one of the province’s most popular provincial parks, Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park, as well as home to numerous resorts. No dogs are allowed on the beach in the summer months, so don’t bring Fido.

          Chesterman Beach: Tofino and Long Beach on the west coast of the island have many beaches to choose from, but Chesterman is a favourite with the locals and for good reason. With two beach fronts it is easy to be protected from any wind and to choose what wave action to play in. Both sides are nice and sandy, and the large space where the two beaches join gives lots of room for play.

      Saratoga:  Just north of popular Miracle Beach, Saratoga Beach is home to small resorts and RV campgrounds, as well as the popular Pacific Playgrounds Resort and Campground. Another sandy stretch, Saratoga has stunning views of the mainland coastal mountains and is great for a swim when the tide is coming in over the warm sand.

·         San Josef Bay: At the top of the island in the Cape Scott Provincial Park, San Josef is a walk-in beach well worth the easy 40 minute walk on good trails. With an interesting forest environment through the trails leading down to the marshy tidal area of the San Josef River, the beach itself is a shock with its stretches of sand broken only by amazing rock formations. This is a remote area, so the beach is never busy (although locals from Port Hardy do like to come there on sunny days).

·         China Beach: West of Sooke at the bottom of the island, China Beach is another one that requires a short hike to reach. It is well worth it though, with a long stretch of sandy beach, amazing views, and even a waterfall at one end of the beach close to the day use trail. This is also the head of the Juan de Fuca multi-day hiking trail. There is a small campground at China Beach, separate from the day use area.

These are all sandy beaches great for summer fun. Do you have a summer favourite?

It’s a Coastal Lifestyle ... Live It!

Top 4 Northern Vancouver Island Provincial Parks

Provincial parks are plentiful on the northern end of Vancouver Island, and a travel itinerary could easily be compiled to do a road trip visiting a select number of them (or spend the whole time just visiting one of the bigger parks).

 1. At the top of the island is the famous Cape Scott. While people think of this as a serious hiker's park (for the well-known Cape Scott Trail) it has some easily accessible day-use areas, including the beautiful sandy San Josef Bay. Wilderness camping is allowed in this park, but there are no services. Just outside the San Josef entrance there is a private campground with cleared sites and picnic tables.

San Josef Trail

San Josef Bay, Cape Scott Park

2. Raft Cove is not far from Cape Scott, on the open west side of the top of the island. It is easier to access by boat however there is a short but sometimes challenging walking trail. Some people also choose to walk in from Cape Palmerston at low tide. The sweeping sand beach at Raft Cove is well worth the adventure to get there. This is a popular spot with intrepid surfers, who somehow manage to carry boards down the trail!

Raft Cove

3. There are a number of lake parks scattered around the north island - Woss Lake, Schoen Lake and Nimpkish Lake are all provincial parks. Schoen Lake Park is the largest and actually comprises several lakes. At Schoen Lake there is a small campground accessible by forest service roads. Woss and Nimpkish Parks are mainly boat access and have no established amenities. Wilderness camping is permitted. All three parks offer visitors a glimpse into the rugged and remote beauty that makes up the interior of northern Vancouver Island.

4. Marble River, at the edge of Quatsino Sound, is an easy river park to access (via logging roads) and there is a forestry campsite just outside the park boundary. Marble River offers hiking and biking trails as well as good angling.

the Marble River Park surrounds most of Varney Bay 

A number of the parks on the north island are much more difficult to access and in fact some are almost inaccessible. Much of the access into the northern portion of the island is dependent on logging roads, and once a road is deactivated it is no longer serviced and can quickly become impassible. This has happened with the Artlish Caves Provincial Park, where there is now a hike in to the park as the logging road access was deactivated several years ago. These parks have been established to protect sensitive habitats and ecosystems, so access is not a priority.

You can discover all the provincial parks (and ecological preserve areas) through the BC Parks website. A good place to start is the geographical locator page, which lets you zoom into the region you want to explore.

Vancouver Island north of Campbell River is a massive space that may seem empty as the communities are small and spread out, but for the intrepid explorer there are some beautiful areas to discover. Doing a circuit of Provincial Parks is just one way to get out there.

It's a Coastal Lifestyle ... Live It!

The Two Coasts of Vancouver Island

Most people don't think of islands as being very different from one side to the other. But Vancouver Island is a bigger island than many people realize and it differs greatly from one coast to the other.

Vancouver Island is approximately 460km long, 80km across at its widest, and has an area of just over 32,000km. It is the biggest island on the coast of North America. The defining feature of the island is the Vancouver Island Mountain Range which runs up the centre of the island. These mountains are home to Comox Glacier, Della Falls (Canada's largest waterfall) and the Golden Hinde, the highest peak on the island at 2,195 metres. These mountains effectively divide Vancouver Island into the east side and west side.

 Vancouver Island Mountains

The west coast of Vancouver Island is open to the Pacific Ocean. The constant wave action and storms of the open ocean have shaped this coast, which is famous for its deep bays with sandy beaches and windswept rocky coastline in between. There are fewer people living on the rugged west coast, and road access is limited to a few points of access from the east side of the island. The west coast constantly attracts outdoor enthusiasts for its rugged beauty, amazing open water fishing and stunning landscapes.

 

Rugged Point

Cox Bay

The east coast of the island, facing out to the Strait of Georgia (and Strait of Juan de Fuca on the south end) is a much calmer coast. Typified by sandstone, cobblestone and smooth rock shorelines with pockets of sand beaches (notably in Parksville and between Courtenay and Campbell River) the east coast is more protected for the most part and less rugged. While winter storms still hit on the east coast, they are not as aggressive in wave action as on the west coast of the island.

Campbell River

Saanich

The east coast also provides access to the mainland of BC through the ferry service from both Nanaimo and Victoria. The main highway system runs along the east side of the island, and most towns and cities have been built from the east coast inwards. While there are still more remote areas on the east coast of the island, most of them are north of Campbell River.

Discovery Passage, north of Campbell River

Thanks to its size and geography, Vancouver Island offers an array of outdoor experiences, from calm ocean kayaking among small islands in the Strait of Georgia to wild and wet storm watching on the west coast. Both sides of the island offer amazing beauty and incredible regions to explore, vacation in or call home.

West Coast Vancouver Island

It's a Coastal Lifestyle ... Live It!