The City of Nanaimo
At the heart of Canada’s West Coast
Nanaimo, a small harbour city of 79,000, is blessed with beautiful scenery, a mild, temperate climate, a thriving arts and culture scene, a progressive, thriving university, and easy access to B.C.’s major metropolitan areas as well as all kinds of outdoor activities.
It has the island’s largest performing arts centre, The Port Theatre, a host of arts and culture groups, a vibrant, lively music scene, particularly in jazz (this is the home town of Diana Krall). The area is home to hundreds of writers, artists, musicians and crafts people.
Vancouver Island University offers both undergraduate university degrees as well as diplomas and certificates in technical, trades and career programs. It attracts students from all over the world, with more than a thousand of its 10,000 full and part-time students from foreign countries. Its 110-acre campus on the slopes of Mount Benson offers spectacular views of Georgia Strait and B.C.’s coastal mountains.
Every kind of outdoor sport is available to Nanaimo residents, from skiing on Mount Washington, an hour’s drive away, to scuba diving (Nanaimo has the world’s largest artificial reef), kayaking, mountain-climbing, caving, rock-climbing, fishing, golfing, cycling, and hiking. It also has two aquatic centres, a new ice arena, and 10 major parks.
If you want to visit Vancouver, Canada’s third-largest city, it’s just an hour and 20 minutes on the foot ferry from downtown Nanaimo to downtown Vancouver, or 20 minutes by seaplane. Victoria is an hour and forty minutes by car, or an hour and twenty-five minutes if you take the scenic shortcut of the Mill Bay ferry.
Nanaimo offers the relaxed pace and friendliness of a small town, with all the amenities of a big city. For those of us who are lucky enough to live here, we consider it to be the undiscovered jewel of Vancouver Island.
Do you want to find out what is happening in Nanaimo? Visit Nanaimo’s Events Website at www.harbourliving.ca
For more information about Nanaimo, visit these sites:
www.city.nanaimo.bc.ca
www.cityofnanaimo.com
www.tourismnanaimo.com
www.nanaimodowntown.com
www.gonanaimo.com