Spooky Season Has Entered the Chat

You feel it too, right? The air’s a little cooler, the leaves are changing, and mini chocolate bars have somehow taken over EVERY store.

Ah yes. Spooky season.

And this year, we’re making a whole weekend of it. Tourism Nanaimo and Nanaimo Pride Society are teaming up for Harbour City Halloweekend, bringing four days of haunts, history, tricks, treats, drag, dancing, creepy creativity, and plenty more spooky stuff to Nanaimo.

So grab a costume, pack a bag, and come spend Halloweekend in the Harbour City.

Transport

Lucky for you, getting to Nanaimo is pretty easy. And depending on how you do it, the trip over might just be part of the adventure.

Prefer your travel by boat? You’ve got options. Hop aboard Hullo from downtown Vancouver and you’ll be downtown Nanaimo in about 70 minutes. Keep an eye on the water along the way because yes, your ferry ride could accidentally turn into a whale-watching trip. No promises, but it happens.

Bringing the whip? BC Ferries is your move. Drive aboard, enjoy the crossing, and arrive with everything you need for the weekend. Just do yourself a favour and book ahead. Halloweekend is scary enough without gambling on ferry availability.

Want to make an entrance? Nanaimo has not one, not two, but three ways to arrive from the sky. Harbour Air and Seair will float-plane you over, while Helijet will literally bring you here by helicopter. Yes. A helicopter. And no, it’s probably not as wildly expensive as you’re imagining. You’ll get some pretty spectacular coastal views along the way and land in Nanaimo in around 30 minutes or less.

And for those coming from WAAAY out of town, Nanaimo Airport has you covered too, with connections making it easy to get here from Alberta, Interior BC, and beyond.

Basically, pick your transportation. We’ll see you on the other side.

Find Your Halloweekend Hideout

Looking for somewhere spooky to stay? Don’t worry, these ones aren’t haunted. Well... not that we know of.

After a full day of tricks, treats, haunts and Halloweekend happenings, you’re going to need somewhere to retreat. Luckily, Nanaimo’s stays are a bit of a treat themselves. Think ocean views, lakefront escapes, downtown digs and even a castle-esque stay or two.

Pick your Halloweekend hideout, drop the candy haul, and stay awhile. Read more here!

Friday, October 30th

Afternoon

Okay, travel sorted. Bags dropped. Now we get to the good stuff.

Once you’ve made your grand arrival in Nanaimo, there’s really only one thing to do first: find a little treat.

Make your way to Ironworks Cafe & Creperie, where seasonal coffee and tea flights and equally seasonal crêpes are ready to get you into the trick-or-treatin’ spirit. Consider it a little pre-Halloweekend fuel before things get spooky.

Take your time, get settled in, maybe explore downtown for a bit, because tonight, you’ve got decisions to make.

Evening

Alright, Halloweekend. Show us what you’ve got.

Friday night is officially where the spooky stuff begins, and depending on your preferred level of haunt, you’ve got a few ways to spend it.

Feeling artsy... but make it eerie? Head to Nanaimo Art Gallery from 7:00–9:00 PM for the opening reception of Haunting the Undermined Zone. The exhibition explores ghosts and environmental spectres left behind by colonial resource extraction. Admission is free and no RSVP is required.

Prefer your ghosts with a side of actual Nanaimo history? Grab a lantern and join Nanaimo Museum’s Haunted Nanaimo Lantern Tour from 6:30–8:00 PM. You’ll wander through downtown hearing tales of mysterious apparitions, spooky locations, local landmarks and a few objects that apparently have minds of their own. Totally normal stuff.

More tricks, treats and drag your thing? White Sails Brewing is getting into the spirit too, with a Pumpkin Carving Contest & Drag Show planned for Friday evening. More details are still crawling out of the shadows, so stay tuned.

Whichever you choose, congratulations: you’ve officially survived night one.

Saturday, October 31st

Morning

October 31. The main event. The reason we’re all here.

Ease into Halloween morning with a little mist, mystery and, more importantly, breakfast at Misty Pines Café & Bakery. Okay, we can’t actually guarantee a perfectly foggy Nanaimo morning, but with a name like Misty Pines, we had to try.

Grab a coffee, fuel up, and enjoy a slow start because the candy-fuelled chaos begins at 11. And lucky you, you’re already right where you need to be in the Old City Quarter.

From 11:00 AM–1:00 PM, costumes take over the city with Trick-or-Treating in the Old City Quarter and Downtown Nanaimo. Wander between local shops, fill those candy bags, admire some costumes and see just how much you can collect before someone inevitably says, “Okay, maybe save some for later.”

Kids? Obviously invited. Adults in costume? We’re certainly not stopping you.

Afternoon

Candy secured. Halloweekend continues.

Once the trick-or-treating winds down, make your way over to White Sails Brewing for a little Après Trick-or-Treat.

Settle in, grab something to eat, compare candy hauls and enjoy a family-friendly afternoon before heading back to your Halloweekend hideout to rest, regroup and figure out exactly how committed you are to tonight’s costume.

Because you’re going to need it.

Evening

Costumes back on. It’s HalloQueen time.

Halloween night means one thing in Nanaimo: Nanaimo Pride’s Annual HalloQueen Dance (19+).

From 7:30–11:30 PM, head to the Nanaimo Curling Club for costumes, dancing and one seriously good Halloween party. HalloQueen is a beloved Nanaimo Pride tradition and the perfect way to cap off the biggest night of Halloweekend.

So go big on the costume, bring your dancing shoes and prepare to stay out a little later than you told yourself you would.

You can sleep tomorrow. Probably.

Sunday, November 1st

Morning 

Still with us? Good. We’re not done yet.

After a very full Halloween night, Sunday morning calls for something a little slower. Grab a coffee and take a wander through Maffeo Sutton Park, soak up the fall colours, breathe in that crisp November air and enjoy the waterfront while you recover from whatever happened last night.

Feeling a little more ambitious? We’ve got one last themed adventure for you.

How about a pirate tour?

Make your way over to Protection Island and see how many pieces of Nanaimo’s pirate history you can spot along the way. Fun fact: when former Nanaimo Mayor Frank Ney developed Protection Island, he gave its parks a pirate theme, which is how the island ended up with names like Captain Hook Park, Blackbeard Park, Hidden Treasure Park and Long John Silver Park.

So take a wander, hunt down a few pirate-themed spots and make your way to Gallows Point Light Park for views back across the harbour toward Nanaimo and Mount Benson.

Spooky weekend. Pirate island. Honestly, we couldn’t have planned that better ourselves.

Afternoon

One last spooky stop before we call it a Halloweekend.

From 1:00–4:00 PM, head back downtown to the Nanaimo Art Gallery for a Halloween-themed Art Lab featuring Spooky Pinch Pots.

Spend the afternoon getting your hands a little dirty, making something appropriately spooky and squeezing one last bit of Halloween out of the weekend.

Because November 1 may technically mean spooky season is over… But we’re not taking the decorations down just yet.

That’s a Wrap on Halloweekend

Haunted history, pumpkin carving, trick-or-treating, HalloQueens, spooky art and an entire island of pirate-named parks? Yeah, Nanaimo understood the assignment.

Whether you followed this itinerary from start to finish or picked your own level of spooky along the way, we hope you found a few tricks, plenty of treats, and another reason to make a weekend of it in the Harbour City.

Now go home, sort through that candy haul, and start thinking about next year’s costume.

Same time next Halloweekend?