Our Epic Canadian Adventure - Part 1

Vancouver: city scenes and an Olympic surprise

We started in Vancouver, easing into the time difference and getting our bearings. On our first full day we had breakfast at The Templeton 50’s Diner, then explored the city on foot: views from the Vancouver Lookout, the Gastown steam clock, the Canada Place sails and a seawall walk all the way to the totem poles in Stanley Park. Halfway along, by sheer luck, we were in exactly the right place at the right time to see the Olympic torch being lit for the summer Olympic opening ceremony. What started as a simple stroll turned into a really special family memory.

Day two was all about headline attractions. We wandered Granville Island, flew across the country (virtually) on FlyOver Canada and finished at Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. We all really enjoyed Capilano and thought Vancouver was a fantastic city to explore. We especially loved the seawall area and seeing all the seaplanes constantly landing and taking off in the harbour.

Victoria: gardens, eagles and movie magic

Next we picked up the car and decided to drive via White Rock, a seaside town that claims to have the longest pier in Canada, before heading on to Tsawwassen for the ferry to Vancouver Island. The crossing itself felt like part of the holiday: calm water, islands all around and gorgeous scenery.

In Victoria, Butchart Gardens was a huge highlight. We spent a morning there wandering through the different areas, constantly stopping to say “just look at this bit”. Afterwards we headed to Floyd’s Diner, where my husband bravely tackled the famous Mahoney, which the girls found highly entertaining. We also took a harbour cruise, which gave us a different view of the city and treated us to our first eagle of the trip.

Leaving Victoria, we made a quick detour to Hatley Castle, best known in our house as a filming location from the Descendants films. It was a short stop, but a fun one for the girls, before we drove on to Malahat SkyWalk for big views and a treetop stroll en route to the west coast.

Tofino: bears, otters And Hot Springs

By the time we reached Tofino, we were ready to slow down a little, and having four nights there was perfect. We stayed in a rainforest cottage with its own hot tub, which we all loved using in the daytime between outings. One of the major highlights of the whole trip was our bear watching tour by boat along the shoreline: quietly gliding past the rocks while black bears foraged, with eagles overhead and sea otters bobbing nearby. We squeezed in one lazy afternoon on the beach, but most of our time was happily split between exploring and enjoying our hot tub hideaway. Tofino was certainly one of the real standout chapters of the holiday.

On the way back towards Nanaimo we stopped at Cathedral Grove to walk among the giant trees. We then broke up the drive even more with two fun little detours: a short walk to the Hole in the Wall and a visit to the Old Country Market, famous for the goats that graze on its grass roof. Those quirky stops turned a long travel day into another really enjoyable part of the adventure. Knowing that a scene from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi was filmed among the giant trees at Cathedral Grove made that section feel even more magical.

At this point we said goodbye to Vancouver Island and started to turn our attention to the mountains. In Part 2, I’ll share how our trip continued along the Sea to Sky Highway to Whistler and Revelstoke, into the Canadian Rockies around Banff, and then on to Toronto and Niagara Falls.

If this coastal west‑coast route sounds like your kind of Canada, I’d love to help you create your own version, tailored around your family.