Nanaimo: The City I Didn’t Expect to Like as Much

Five reasons I keep coming back to the Harbour City where the forest meets the sea.

There are places you arrive in and immediately understand. Others take a little longer.

Nanaimo was the latter for me.

If you’re looking for things to do in Nanaimo, you could easily fill a day — or several — without going far. There are the obvious pleasures: the ocean, forests, mountains and, of course, the Nanaimo bar. But after living on Vancouver Island for three years, I’ve discovered that Nanaimo has more to offer than its postcard attractions. From whale watching and coastal hikes to its growing creative and wellness scene, this is a city that rewards a little curiosity.

When I first moved to Vancouver Island, I was still seeing it through the eyes of someone who had spent much of her life moving between cities and countries. I had lived in eight countries, travelled extensively and was used to places where there was always another restaurant, gallery, exhibition, neighbourhood or street to explore. Nanaimo felt quieter. More casual. More spread out. It took me a while to understand its rhythm.

Now, three years in, I find myself seeing it differently.

Part of the pleasure of living somewhere rather than simply visiting is that you stop looking for the obvious attractions and start noticing what keeps drawing you back. For me, Nanaimo has become one of those places where the combination of ocean, forest, food, outdoor life and an increasingly interesting creative and wellness scene makes it surprisingly easy to spend a day — or several — here.

It also helps that the journey from the mainland is half the experience.

The ferry pulls away from the city, the skyline disappears, and somewhere across the Salish Sea you can feel yourself beginning to slow down. By the time you arrive, you are already in a different rhythm.

Here are five reasons Nanaimo has grown on me.

1. You Can, Quite Literally, Eat Your Way Around the City

Let’s start with the obvious.

The Nanaimo bar.

One of Canada’s most recognisable desserts was born here, and the city has embraced it with a degree of enthusiasm that I rather admire. The Nanaimo Bar Trail takes the humble combination of chocolate, custard and coconut and turns it into a reason to explore the city.

Cafés, bakeries and restaurants have their own interpretations, from the traditional bar to cheesecakes, ice cream and other creative variations.

It is difficult to take the trail too seriously, which is part of its charm.

Sometimes travelling well means visiting the important historical sites. Sometimes it means eating several versions of the same dessert and deciding which one you prefer.

I know which kind of afternoon I’m choosing.

2. The Ocean Is Not Just Scenery

One of the things I love about living on Vancouver Island is that the ocean never feels entirely separate from everyday life.

In Nanaimo, it is part of the landscape, the recreation and the character of the city.

From the harbour you can head out onto the Salish Sea for whale watching and marine adventures, with the possibility of seeing orcas, humpbacks, sea lions, dolphins and bald eagles.

But even if you never get on a boat, the marine environment changes the way the city feels.

There is something about looking across the water towards the mountains that puts the scale of everyday problems into perspective.

I once learned, while watching whales, that they have bellybuttons.

I have no idea why that particular fact has stayed with me, but it has.

Perhaps that’s another thing about spending time in nature: you arrive expecting something profound and leave with a strange new piece of information that you will probably tell everyone you know.

3. You Don’t Have to Go Far to Get Into the Forest

Nanaimo is surrounded by the kind of landscape that makes it difficult to justify spending the entire day indoors.

There are trails for gentle walks and trails that will remind you that you are not, in fact, as fit as you thought you were.

Neck Point Park is an easy place to start, with coastal paths, rocky shoreline and beautiful views. For something more challenging, Mount Benson rises behind the city and offers a very different perspective.

This is one of the things I appreciate most about Nanaimo: nature isn’t an excursion.

It is woven into the city.

You can have coffee, walk along the waterfront, disappear into the forest, look out over the Strait of Georgia and be back in town without feeling that you have spent the day driving between attractions.

For someone who loves being outdoors, that changes the quality of everyday life.

4. Getting There Is Part of the Pleasure

Nanaimo is also unusually accessible.

From Vancouver, you can take BC Ferries or a seaplane, and from Victoria it makes an easy road trip north. That makes it a very manageable destination for anyone coming from the mainland or exploring more of Vancouver Island.

But I think the ferry deserves particular credit.

There is something psychologically useful about crossing water.

You leave one place behind and, for a while, there is nothing to do except look out at the sea.

The city recedes. The horizon opens up. The mountains appear.

Even before you arrive, you have already started to leave the pace of the mainland behind.

5. There Is More to Nanaimo Than the Outdoors

This is perhaps the part that took me longest to discover.

Nanaimo has a quieter creative and wellness culture that isn’t necessarily obvious if you are simply passing through. There are artists, makers, cafés, yoga studios, wellness practitioners, independent businesses and people experimenting with ways of creating a good life on the Island.

That interests me because Vancouver Island’s appeal isn’t simply its scenery.

It is the lifestyle that develops around the scenery.

People spend time outdoors. They gather around food. They build small businesses. They create communities. They make things. They find ways of living that feel slightly less frantic than the cities many of us have come from.

And perhaps that is what has changed for me.

When I first arrived, I was looking at Nanaimo as a place I needed to understand.

Now I simply enjoy being there.

I can walk along the harbour, stop for coffee, head into the forest, eat something I probably don’t need, look out towards the mountains and feel that familiar sense of being somewhere that gives more than it asks.

Nanaimo isn’t trying to be Vancouver.

It doesn’t need to be.

It has its own pace, its own landscape and its own personality. And perhaps the best way to experience it is not to arrive with a checklist, but to give yourself enough time to notice what makes the city itself.

For me, that has been the surprise.

I came to Vancouver Island looking for a different kind of life.

Somewhere along the way, Nanaimo became part of it.