Ask anything on Vancouver Island
Fri, Sep 25 – Sun, Sep 27 · 143 events, each with a page of its own:
Stirring Up Ghosts: Songs and Stories of Pacific Canada
Sun, Sep 27, 4:00 PMParksville Museum, Parksville$28.07
The weekend window
Everything on the island this weekend
· 7:00 PM
Monsters of Rock Arena Tour
Cowichan Performing Arts Centre$58
Get Ready for the MONSTERS OF ROCK Arena Tour! 🤘🔥 Prepare for a full-throttle night of arena rock as four powerhouse tribute bands hit the stage to…
Tickets available
· 10:00 AM
Let’s Talk Live: Saturday Morning Conversation and Connection
Murchie's Tea & Coffee
murchies tea and coffee.
Free
· 11:00 AM
Comox ReStore Block Party
Comox Valley
Habitat For Humanity ReStore Comox Valley.
Free
· 7:00 PM
Swimming Upstream – Protecting the Lifeblood of BC
The Vic Theatre$10
Reel Causes x CPAWS-BC present: Swimming Upstream Join us for a special screening of The Rewilders, a visually spectacular short documentary that…
Tickets available
· 7:30 PM
Cowichan Symphony Society: Christian Kluxen and Blake Pouliot with Victoria Symphony
Cowichan Performing Arts Centre$75
Cowichan Symphony Society presents Single Student/Child: $20 Subscriptions available now: Adult $240 | Student/Child $60. Please call 250-746-2722 to…
Tickets available
· 8:00 PM
Garden City Improv with Dan Bakkedahl and Kevin Matviw
Encore by Paparazzi$25
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26! Live comedy that’s 100% made up, based on audience suggestions!
Tickets available
· 10:00 AM
Victoria Stamp and Postcard Fair
Sandman Hotel Victoria
· 1:00 PM
Vancouver Island Brewery & The Beast
Victoria$159.95
Starlight Stadium. Times: VIP 1:00 pm - 7:00 pm, Main event 2:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Tickets available
· 3:00 PM
Let’s Talk Live: Sunday Afternoon Conversation and Connection
Victoria
Every Sunday from 3-5pm at Heslaa Tea Room, 636 Johnson st, have meaningful conversations and create genuine connections, free of charge. Drop-in, 19+…
Free
· 1:00 PM
Emily Carr Inspired Art Class: MINI BOOKS OF NATURE (intergenerational)
Carr House National Historic Site$43.93
Tickets available
143 things to do fall inside this weekend's window, from Friday through Sunday night. The shortlist above leads with what the weekend digest picked out; the rest is in date order on this weekend, which is the complete calendar — civic meetings, job fairs and sold-out shows included. This rail is the shortlist, so it leaves those out.
Before you pick a weekend
What the island actually is
Rainforest on one coast, a rain shadow on the other, and a mountain range deciding which you get.
Two coasts, and they are not the same trip
The ranges running the length of the island take the weather out of the Pacific before it reaches the far side. The outside coast gets the rainforest, the open beach and the winter swell people now travel here in January to stand and watch; the inside coast gets the rain shadow, the sheltered bays and the only water warm enough to want to be in. Pick the coast before you pick the town.
You do not need a boat to see a whale
Orca can turn up in any month, grey whales move up the outer coast on the spring migration, and humpbacks are most reliable from midsummer into autumn. A boat gets you closer and no honest operator will promise you an animal. A headland, binoculars and an hour of patience costs nothing at all.
It is First Nations territory, and not as a footnote
The island is the territory of many First Nations, each with its own language, protocols and history — and the best way to learn any of it is from the people whose story it is. The cultural centres, galleries and Nation-led tours in this directory are listed ahead of anyone else telling it for them.
Everything takes longer than the map says
Two-lane roads, one main highway, and a ferry or a float plane at either end of the journey — there is no bridge. Distances here run about half again as long as they look. Plan fewer stops than you want to and you will enjoy all of them.
Worth planning for
Further out
· 6:45 PM
Monday Night Movie - Leviticus
Clayoquot Sound Theatre
· 7:00 PM
Reel Alternatives: I Swear
Cowichan Performing Arts Centre$17
The Cowichan Hospice Society presents Subscribe to all 5 shows for $70! Subscriptions can be purchased by phone or in-person only.
Canada's Great Kitchen Party - Victoria 2026
Oak Bay Beach Hotel
· 7:00 PM
CRFF Champions of the Golden Valley
Tidemark Theatre$20
Champions of the Golden Valley is an award-winning documentary that captures the emergence of a homegrown ski culture in the snow-capped mountains of…
· 7:00 PM
CR Festival of Film Fall 2026 Pass
Tidemark Theatre$60
Campbell River Festival of Film presents the Fall 2026 Festival!
· 7:00 PM
15FirstDates Victoria Speed Dating (Age 35-45)
Swans Pub
Tickets available
· 7:30 PM
Intrepid Theatre Presents Josephine - A Fringe Fundraiser
McPherson Playhouse$12+
Tickets available
Thursday, every week
The shortlist, before the weekend starts
One email on Thursday with what’s actually worth going to on the island — picked from the same listings as this page. No account, no password.
We send one confirmation email, then one digest a week. Unsubscribe from any of them.
One from each town
Places worth the drive
Tours & Activities
Eagle Wing Whale & Wildlife Tours
Victoria
4.9(3,093)Rated 4.9 out of 5 from 3093 reviewsBrett Soberg and Don Stewart started this whale-watching operation in Victoria in 2005; it bills itself as Canada's first carbon-neutral whale-watching company. Half-day…
Tours & Activities
The Whale Centre
Tofino
4.9(1,591)Rated 4.9 out of 5 from 1591 reviewsMore than forty years of tours out of Campbell Street in Tofino: whales, coastal black bears, sea otters, and the run up Clayoquot Sound to Hot Springs Cove, where the…
Brewery & Winery
Rusted Rake Brewing
Parksville
4.7(1,036)Rated 4.7 out of 5 from 1036 reviewsA farm brewery on Northwest Bay Road in Nanoose Bay that grows its own brewing barley alongside beehives, berries, garlic, rhubarb, herbs and flowers, and runs a…
Brewery & Winery
Merridale Cidery & Distillery
Duncan
4.4(1,033)Rated 4.4 out of 5 from 1033 reviewsA working farm at Cobble Hill that presses cider and distils spirits on the same site — Cowichan Dry and Scrumpy ciders, and gin, vodka and rum under the Cowichan label.
Brewery & Winery
Sea Cider Farm & Ciderhouse
Sidney
4.6(956)Rated 4.6 out of 5 from 956 reviewsAn organic cider orchard on Mt St Michael Road in Saanichton, with a tasting room and kitchen looking over the trees to the Salish Sea. The sparkling ciders — Kings &…
Tours & Activities
Prince of Whales - Whale & Marine Wildlife Adventures Telegraph Cove
Port McNeill
4.8(782)Rated 4.8 out of 5 from 782 reviewsTours & Activities
Tourism Nanaimo Visitor Centre
Nanaimo
4.3(417)Rated 4.3 out of 5 from 417 reviewsTours & Activities
Coastal Wilderness Adventures Sportfishing
Campbell River
5.0(357)Rated 5 out of 5 from 357 reviewsSalmon charters out of Campbell River on 25- to 28-foot covered and heated boats with marine heads, and freshwater trips that use 13-foot self-bailing rafts on rivers…
Brewery & Winery
Coastal Black Estate Winery
Comox Valley
4.5(185)Rated 4.5 out of 5 from 185 reviewsTours & Activities
Lady Rose Marine Services
Port Alberni
4.8(182)Rated 4.8 out of 5 from 182 reviewsThe MV Frances Barkley is a 36-metre ship built in Norway in 1958, still working as a packet freighter out of Argyle Street in Port Alberni with room for 144 passengers…
Brewery & Winery
Sea Star Vineyards and Winery
Salt Spring Island
4.7(105)Rated 4.7 out of 5 from 105 reviewsOne place per town, and chosen by how many people have actually been rather than by star rating — a perfect average is easiest to collect one customer at a time, which is how a rail promising a road trip filled up with day spas. Everything here is somewhere you set out for. The whole directory, day spas included, is on all places.
Where to point the car
Towns and communities
Each town page carries its own venues, its own events and the practical detail — where to eat, what is open, and what is on while you are there.
By the kind of day you want
Things to do
Whale watching
Three species, three seasons and a boat ride that is colder than you are expecting. Here is when to come, how to pick a trip, and where you can stand on land and still see a blow.
Whale watching on Vancouver IslandHiking
Boardwalks through rainforest, headlands above open water, and alpine that holds snow into July. The distance on the sign tells you almost nothing — the surface and the season tell you everything.
Hiking on Vancouver IslandWinter
Rain at sea level, snow a thousand metres up, and the single most underrated season here. Storm watching is a legitimate reason to travel, and everything is half price.
Winter on Vancouver IslandSurfing
A cold, consistent, thoroughly unglamorous coast that happens to produce some of the best beginner surf in the country — and some of the heaviest winter swell. The wetsuit is not optional.
Surfing on Vancouver IslandRoad trips
Two-lane roads, one main highway, and distances that take half again as long as the map claims. Plan fewer stops than you want and you will enjoy all of them.
Road trips on Vancouver IslandIndigenous culture
The island is the territory of many First Nations, each with its own language, protocols and history. The best way to learn any of it is from the people whose story it is — so this page points at Nation-run and Nation-led places first.
Indigenous culture on Vancouver Island2,349 places, 1,291 upcoming events, 16 towns — queried live, none of it invented. Where a fact is missing the page leaves the space empty instead of filling it.