Location, Location, Location

It must be a time/space continuum quantum physics type thing, but if you head directly west from the city of Vancouver and travel 57 kilometres across the Strait of Georgia, you get to Nanaimo, and time slows right down. Same mountains, same ocean, but now you can experience them at a much more relaxing pace.

 Location, location, location! Here in Nanaimo, you're close to everything but worlds away from the hustle and bustle (and real estate prices) of the big city. You can hop on a seaplane with Harbour Air or Seair and be at Vancouver International Airport (YVR) in 20 minutes, or fly Harbour Air to downtown Vancouver. For a more leisurely passage, or if you need your vehicle on the mainland, you can travel by BC Ferries

from Duke Point at the south end of Nanaimo to Tsawwassen south of Vancouver in 2 hours, or from Departure Bay in mid-Nanaimo to Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver in about an hour and a half.

Driving south from Nanaimo, Victoria is only about 100 kilometres away, but takes between an hour and a half to two hours depending on how you hit the traffic lights. Drive west to Tofino, Ucluelet and the amazing Pacific Rim National Park in just over two hours (packed with stunning scenery). Courtenay and Comox are just over an hour north of Nanaimo, and it takes about an hour and a half to drive to the nearby Mount Washington Ski Resort. Drive BC provides road information for planning your trip. Daily railroad service runs through Nanaimo up-Island to Courtenay Comox and down to Victoria.

The Nanaimo Airport is undergoing major improvements. The runway has been lengthened and the navigation system improved. Currently Air Canada flies into Nanaimo, and we're hoping that the recent upgrades will see WestJet flying into Nanaimo as well in the future. Air Canada and WestJet fly into both Victoria and Comox daily.