About Nanaimo
Vancouver Island has been voted as the top North American island by readers of Condé Nast Traveler for eight years in a row.
Nanaimo is located on the east coast of Vancouver Island, 113 km north of Victoria, and 55 km across the Strait of Georgia from Vancouver.
This dynamic city projects out into the strait like a headland, affording waterfront on three sides, and spectacular ocean views at every turn. Nanaimo’s working harbour bustles with tugboats, cruise ships, float planes and ferries that can take you island hopping to Gabriola, Protection and Newcastle Island Provincial Park.
For both visitors and residents alike, any time spent in Nanaimo is time spent around the water - the beaches, lakes, and rivers that afford the extraordinary boating, marine and outdoor lifestyle that makes this region a magnet. Nanaimo is renowned as the temperate water diving capital of the world and as home of the World Championship Bathtub Races, which has garnered international spotlight since 1967.
A college city and haven for the arts Nanaimo's arts scene comes alive in the fall, when approximately 20,000 university students (nearly a quarter of the city's population) return to studies at Malaspina University-College. The fall semester ushers in a season of live music shows and theatre events in venues around town, and on campus. Nanaimo's largest arts venue, the 800-seat Port Theatre, also thrives during the fall season with regular performances by the Vancouver Island Symphony, and a long roster of stage plays and pop music concerts.
More claims to fame
Environment Canada recognizes Nanaimo as one of the mildest climate regions in the country boasting above-zero temperatures through fall and winter, and dependably warm weather in spring and summer.
- The only remaining original Hudson’s Bay Company Bastion in North America is located in downtown Nanaimo. Nanaimo’s Bastion dates back to 1853.
- Legend traces the sinfully delicious chocolate Nanaimo Bar back to the coal mining days of the city’s early history, but it was likely inspired by a 1952 local cookbook recipe.
- Nanaimo is a divers paradise. It is home to the largest artificial upright scuba diving reef in the world, the HMCS Cape Breton, a retired Canadian Supply Ship, sunk in 2001. The HMCS Saskatchewan, a 366-foot navy destroyer, was sunk off Nanaimo in 1997 and the Riv Tow Lion Tug sunk in Departure Bay 2005 to create an artificial diving reef.
- International jazz greats Diana Krall and Ingrid Jensen are products of the Nanaimo School District jazz program.
- Diana Krall’s iconic song “Departure Bay” is about Nanaimo’s own Departure Bay, location of a scenic local beach and the BC Ferries terminal.
- Canada’s only floating pub, The Dinghy Dock Pub, is in the Nanaimo Harbour on Protection Island and is connected to the city by foot passenger ferry.
