Cowichan Bay is a one of a kind, historic seaside village on the southern part of Vancouver Island which faces the Gulf islands just north of Washington’s San Juan Islands. An assemblage of motorboats & fishing ships, piers, wharves along with float houses, this town has a population of 2,575. If you take pleasure in oceanside countryside landscapes with good wine and cuisine, this area is a beautiful place to visit.

Arts and Culture:

The town of Cowichan Bay and the adjoining region is home to artists, craftspeople and nearby food producers, which includes a few very good nearby wineries and restaurants. Quite a few of the area’s vineyards and farms have tours, wine tasting and food preparation classes. Fresh seafood abounds in the region as well.

A pair of interesting historic activities the area offers are the Cowichan Lawn Tennis Club, that features one of the oldest lawn tennis surfaces in the entire world (second only to Wimbledon) and the Wooden Boat Society, which features hands on exhibits at the Cowichan Bay Maritime Centre.

If you’re traveling to} the region in the 1st week of August, you may see the Cowichan Bay Regatta, a sailing race that is the 2nd biggest regatta on Canada’s West Coast.

Outdoor Adventure:

Cowichan Bay offers the adventure opportunities of the sea; sea kayaking, sailing, saltwater fishing and whale watching – along with the options of river adventure. Recognized as a ‘recreational corridor’, the Cowichan River Provincial Park is the area for swimming, canoeing, whitewater kayaking, tubing, camping, fishing, horseback riding, bicycling, walking, picnicing or relaxing!

This recreation area protects substantial stretches of the Cowichan River, a Provincial Heritage River internationally well known for its wild salmon and steelhead fishery. You can walk along the river on the park’s historic 20km-long footpath and explore the restored 66-Mile and Holt Creek Trestles on the Trans-Canada Trail.

Cowichan Bay is also a great spot to observe the birds! Over two hundred kinds of birds feed at the mouth of the Koksilah and Cowichan Rivers. In spring and fall hundreds of wild birds journey over the area, known as the Pacific Flyway. You can try to spot them at Hecate Regional Park, located on Cowichan Bay Road. While you are at the park, stroll up Mount Tzouhalem for a wonderful view of the area. You can also launch a kayak from Hecate Park.

Getting to Cowichan Bay

The Cowichan Valley is a beautiful thirty-minute drive from both Victoria (south) and Nanaimo (north).
• By Motor vehicle: Drive on the Island Highway and watch for the well-marked signs. As soon as you depart the highway there is about a 10-minute drive through countryside and farmland before you will reach the town.
• By Train: VIA Rail travels between Victoria and Courtenay. Stops within fifteen minutes of Cowichan Bay include: Cowichan Station, Duncan or Cobble Hill.
• By Airplane: You can charter float planes to Cowichan Bay from Vancouver or Seattle but there are no scheduled flights.

Quite simply people all over the world believe that Canada was an empty desolate land before the Europeans arrived and began colonization. There is a ridiculous amount of people that thought it was a barren place. Well in all actuality this is all wrong. There has been much speculation to all of this, but there are a few clear and residing facts.

The Aboriginal Canadian Traditions suggest that the indigenous people of Canada have been around since there was a beginning of time, although this is not very likely, and evidence to support this is practically non existent. When we really look at some of the evidence it is clear that the Canadian people have been around for a long time. In fact recent studies actually provide evidence that there was human life present over 20,000 years ago. This would make them some of the earliest Homo Sapiens in the world.

However this wasn’t to last, these people were separated into tribes and roughly 1000 years ago the Vikings made settlement here. Then the aborigines found themselves in a bit of trouble. Although the vikings killed many aborigines they were not the main cause of death. As things carried on the Europeans started to arrive in the late 1400’s which resulted in the imminent destruction of the Canadian Aborigines. They were subjected to many of the diseases that the Europeans brought over, not on purpose simply because the Canadians could not cope with these infections and diseases. The problem is that all of this disease and infection destroyed almost the entire population.

There is almost no chance what so ever that these people are here with us today, if they are we wouldn’t be able to tell? There were so few Canadian Aborigines left alive that if any had offspring, it would be so far down the line in ancestry, that telling someone apart from another Canadian would be close to impossible. So what are the Canadians, quite simply they are descendants of Europeans.

Canada holidays have become increasingly popular along with Vancouver holidays and Toronto holidays, all of which should be experienced by everyone!