Holidays to Vancouver Island offer outdoor pursuits both on land and sea. Choose from easy hiking trails along beaches and through forests, more challenging treks and cycling tracks that can include mountain biking. In winter you can ski on the mountains and enjoy ziplining, caving and rock climbing. Underwater escapades include surfing and scuba diving or you can chill out at the spas and wellness centres having rainforest baths, massages, Ayurvedic therapies and much more.

Some of the best food on Vancouver Island includes freshly caught local salmon and trout. In addition to the excellent seafood, the farms, markets, restaurants, hotels, wineries and breweries seem to conspire to ensure visitors have the most fantastic culinary experience they can collectively imagine. Produce is often organic, local and is always very fresh. Chefs are meticulous and innovative when it comes to designing menus and preparing food. You will not be disappointed.

The Butchart Gardens in the north of Victoria have themed planting areas – Japanese, Italian and Mediterranean to name a few – each with mesmerising displays. Elsewhere Craigdarroch Castle, completed in 1890, has classic Victorian interiors, ornately carved woodwork and superb stained glass windows. Dip into local culture at Tourism Nanaimo, with its rich mining history. It is home of the Nanaimo bar, a much loved Canadian confection and you absolutely cannot leave without the recipe.