Vancouver Island - General Information

  After exploring Vancouver Island for three weeks we realized that we hadn’t seen half what the island has to offer. So a bit of advice to future visitors – plan a long visit if possible! We drove Route 1 and Route 19 from Victoria to Port Hardy and made a loop starting on Route 1 in Victoria, going west and north on Route 14 and east on Route 18 and back on Route 1 at Duncan but didn’t take any of the paved roads to the west coast or any of the many gravel roads. We stopped at both small out-of-the-way museums and popular attractions, sought out short, easy trails, and enjoyed nature in the provincial parks but we missed many potentially interesting places. The next time we visit we’ll spend more time in Victoria, drive to western port cities, and look for camping spots along some of the gravel roads. We had a chance to spend time with our daughter and son-in-law who came for a few days and to see our rubber tramp friends who live on the island or were visiting. Great to see everyone! Thanks for sharing campsites, front yards, meals, and conversation.  : –)
  

  Getting to the Island

  If you want to take your RV the only way to get to the island is by ferry. From the US you can take  Washington State Ferries from Anacortes or Black Ball Ferries from Port Angeles. Both accept oversize vehicles. BC Ferries leave from Tsawwasen, south of Vancouver and Horseshoe Bay, north of Vancouver. BC Ferries have other routes from Vancouver Island to smaller islands if you want to explore more. I believe they all will accept oversize vehicles. Reservations are a good idea on any of the ferry lines. If you need room to deploy a wheelchair lift make sure that the ferry crew are aware of this when you are given a place in line.  We took the ferry from Port Angeles because it was the shortest, most convenient trip. The Black Ball Ferry line does not have an elevator to the passenger deck so anyone who uses a wheelchair or needs to borrow one is loaded first with help from the ferry crew.

          Roads
        
  Touring on Vancouver Island almost always involves driving to the end of a road, turning around, and driving back to your starting point unless you want to spend a lot of time on gravel roads. Route 1 is the main road at the south end of Vancouver Island. It becomes Route 19 at Nanaimo. Route 19A offers a parallel route through the coastal towns. Route 1 and Route 19 are limited access at times but have traffic signals when passing through towns and populated areas. Fortunately all of the traffic signals have warning lights a good distance ahead so that traffic can stop safely. Route1, 19, and 19A provide access to the east coast of the island. The only road on the west coast is Route 14 at the southern tip of the island. The rest of the coast is broken up by numerous inlets and channels. Four paved roads extend from the east coast roads to harbors on the west coast but for traveling anywhere else you’ll be on gravel roads, ferries, float planes, or private boats. All of the roads that we drove on were in very good condition but don’t expect to get anywhere as fast as you normally would.

  Weather

   We had excellent weather - between 65 and 75 and sunny most days. The island was experiencing a drought so it may not always be that nice.

  Camping
   We camped a five different provincial parks. All of the parks are very well maintained and all follow the same basic design standards. All have level, roomy sites with sturdy picnic tables, metal fire pits, and abundant vegetation. Some have sites that are spaced farther apart than others but none feel crowded. Amenities determine the prices which range from $20.00 to $35.00. The cheapest have pit toilets and drinking water. The most expensive have flush toilets, showers, drinking water and a dump station. Everyone, including campers, pays a $5.00 fee to use the dump station. Many of the campgrounds have an additional fee for an extra vehicle which I believe extends to towed vehicles. Reservations should be made well ahead of time for coastal campgrounds and campgrounds near the cities. Sites at other campgrounds can be reserved but are readily available first come/ first serve.

  None of the campgrounds have electric hookups. Generator hours are limited and solar panels don’t get enough sun to provide power. The sites seem like they’re large enough for class As but most of the other campers were in tents, pop ups, trailers or small RVs.

  We camped at two free campgrounds managed by Western Forest Products. One appeared to have been a provincial park at one time. It had standard sites with good tables but the sites in the other were randomly scattered and many were missing tables.

  This is a very good website that includes all of the public campgrounds including free ones - All US and Canada Public Campgrounds. I downloaded the campgrounds to my GPS as POIs. There's also a phone app.

  We stayed at one private campground, Thetis Lake, near Victoria. It’s small and the roads are narrow. It’s a good place to stay convenient to the city but not designed for large RVs.

  Boondocking and Overnighting
  The island is thickly forested and most of the dirt roads are logging roads. In the southern half of the island almost of the dirt roads are gated so it isn’t possible to scout for boondocking spots but we did find a few large pull offs that will work for a night.  Boondocking opportunities increase north of Campbell River but since we stayed at free Western Forest campsites we didn’t look for any boondocking spots. I believe that most of the island is crown land which is managed like US national forest land but I can not find a map that shows crown land.

  Few of the Walmarts allow overnight RV parking. Try other big box stores but keep in mind that they may prohibit parking overnight too. Many of the rest areas allow 8 hour parking, however, they may be very small and close to the highway. The rest areas north of Campbell River are larger and set back from the highway.

  Phone and Internet
  We did not switch our phone and internet plan to one that worked in Canada so we relied on free WiFi. All of the information centers have WiFi. Only one charged us a small fee. WiFi is also available at Walmart, other big box stores, and fast food restaurants. Our friends who had Canadian phone service could not get a signal whenever they traveled more than five miles from the main road.

  Border Crossings
   In both the US and Canada you’ll pass through customs as you leave the ferry. The process is very quick and we were asked few questions. We ate most of our fresh product before entering Canada just in case.

  Accessibility

  Victoria is very accessible. Access in smaller cities and in the country is not as good but still manageable. Most of the provincial parks have accessible sites. They may not be marked as such but they are listed as accessible on the online reservation site.

  If you have any questions I’d be happy to try to answer them!