7 Days on Vancouver Island: A Road Trip from Victoria to Tofino and the Comox Valley

Plan my Island road trip · What's on this weekend

Find a place to stay in Victoria

Seven days is enough to drive Vancouver Island from the capital to the open Pacific and back up the east coast. This route sleeps two nights in Victoria, one in Nanaimo, two in Tofino and one in Courtenay, and every stop on it works in any season. Arrive by ferry at Swartz Bay, north of Victoria, and leave from Departure Bay in Nanaimo.

Give the first morning to the Royal BC Museum on the Inner Harbour: three floors of natural and human history, with an IMAX theatre in the building. Tickets for its events are on its page. Outside, the totem poles of Thunderbird Park stand beside the museum.

Walk the shore to Fisherman's Wharf, where float homes and shops share the docks with the fishing boats.

Dinner is at Il Terrazzo, off Johnson Street: wood-fired pizza, handmade pasta and osso buco. Finish at Swans Pub at Store and Pandora, a pub with local beer in an old grain warehouse. Tickets for upcoming shows are on its page.

Find a place to stay in Victoria

Start in Rockland at Craigdarroch Castle, a coal baron's mansion and a National Historic Site that you tour at your own pace. Tickets sell online or at the door.

Spend the afternoon at The Butchart Gardens in Brentwood Bay, north of the city. Its 55 acres are planted for every season, from the Sunken Garden to the Japanese and Italian gardens, with the Magic of Christmas displays in winter. Tickets sell online.

Back in town, the evening is for beer. Phillips Brewing & Malting on Government Street malts its own barley and pours the results in its taproom. Then cross the Johnson Street Bridge to Spinnakers Gastro Brewpub for dinner.

Want a third day here? Follow our three days in Victoria. West along the coast, a weekend in Sooke adds a coast trail, a wood-fired sauna and a harbour dinner.

Drive north over the Malahat on Highway 1. The first stop is Shawnigan Lake and the Kinsol Trestle, a wooden railway trestle 187 metres long and 44 metres above the Koksilah River. Walk out onto it and look down.

In Cobble Hill, Merridale Cidery & Distillery grows, presses, ferments and distills on its own farm, and the farmhouse eatery takes reservations. Tickets for its events are on its page.

In Duncan, follow the poles of the Totem tour along Canada Avenue. With an evening to spare, the Chemainus Theatre Festival is a professional theatre with its own dining room. More stops are in a weekend in Duncan and the Cowichan Valley.

End the day in Nanaimo. Maffeo Sutton Park sits on the Harbour Front Walkway, with a lagoon and public art along the trail, and Longwood Brew Pub & Restaurant on Turner Road pours its own beers. Our Nanaimo guide has the rest.

Find a place to stay in Nanaimo

Highway 4 turns west toward the Pacific. Stop at Cathedral Grove in MacMillan Provincial Park, 16 km before Port Alberni, where trails on both sides of the highway pass Douglas firs more than 800 years old.

In Port Alberni, Stamp River Provincial Park has a 0.5 km trail to the fish ladder at Stamp Falls. Salmon climb the falls from summer into December: sockeye first, then coho and chinook. Lunch is at Dog Mountain Brewing on 3rd Avenue, which pours its own beer and makes a West Coast donair. To break the drive for longer, see a weekend in Port Alberni. Before the turn west, a weekend in Parksville and Qualicum Beach adds beaches, waterfalls and a cave tour.

Carry on west along Highway 4 to Tofino for two nights.

Find a place to stay in Tofino

Drive south into Pacific Rim National Park Reserve for the Rainforest Trail: two short boardwalk loops through moss-hung old growth, one on each side of the highway.

Back toward town, Tofino Brewing Co. pours from its tap room on Industrial Way. Try the Kelp Stout.

In the afternoon, walk Chesterman Beach, 2.7 km of white sand south of town. At low tide a sandspit rises and joins the beach to Frank Island.

For dinner, The Pointe Restaurant at the Wickaninnish Inn looks straight out at the Pacific and cooks from local farms and the water.

Before you leave, walk from town to Tonquin Park, where a boardwalk and a run of stairs drop to the beach. A third Tofino day is in our three days in Tofino.

Drive back along Highway 4, then north on Highway 19 to Courtenay. The Courtenay & District Museum on 4th Street is home to BC's Provincial Fossil. A few steps away, Gladstone Brewing Co. brews Belgian ales, European lagers and Pacific Northwest IPAs, and the Sid Williams Theatre is around the corner. Tickets for upcoming shows are on its page.

Find a place to stay in Courtenay

Start in Comox at Goose Spit Park, a sand spit that shelters a lagoon full of migratory waterfowl. 40 Knots Winery on Anderton Road pours wines from its own 24 acres of vines, and in Cumberland, Cumberland Brewing Co. brews on site and feeds its taproom. The full plan is in a weekend in the Comox Valley.

Then follow Highway 19 south to Nanaimo and the ferry at Departure Bay.

• BC Ferries sails from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay for Victoria and from Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay for Nanaimo. Reserve your sailings in summer.
• Highway 4 is the only road to Tofino. It runs through the middle of Cathedral Grove, so park and cross with care.
• The route works in reverse: land at Nanaimo and finish in Victoria.

Start from this plan, set your dates and swap any stop you like.

Make this my trip