Are you planning to visit the picturesque town of Parksville on British Columbia's Vancouver Island? If you are there with kids, there is no end of fun adventures to be had. My family and I recently spent three days in the Parksville, B.C. area and ran out of time to explore of all the great things the town and surroundings had to offer.
To make planning your vacation to the region a little easier, I've made a handy-dandy list of exciting family outings to try during your stay. (And even if you don't have children with you, you should try these activities anyway!)
This isn't even a full list - I have additional activities posted on my blog and my YouTube channel as well. I will include links to all of these extra articles and videos at the bottom of this post to help you find what you need!
1. Rathtrevor Beach
This beach is located right beside Parksville on the way to Nanoose Bay and Nanaimo. It was the first beach we visited in Parksville, and we loved the wide swatch of soft sand that led out to the ocean. The parking lot was massive with lots of room for campers and trucks hauling trailers, if that is a concern for holidayers. |
| The sand at Rathtrevor Beach in Parksville was so soft! |
You walk down to the beach via a wooden boardwalk, which takes you from the parking lot to the high tide line. Driftwood, dried seaweed, seashells, and other ocean debris clearly mark the high tide line, and then it is only a few steps down into the soft sand of the beach.
 |
| Everyone had a blast playing in the sand and building castles. |
My kids spent an entire afternoon building sand castles, collecting shells, and playing in the little pools of standing ocean water left behind in low spots on the beach. They were so focused on the sand that we didn't even go into the ocean at this beach!
Rathtrevor Beach is also a provincial park where you can camp, with a reclaimed forest area dedicated to rejuvenating the natural vegetation. We did not look at the camp sites, so I can't comment on those. We mainly stuck around the relaxing beach area.
 |
| Of course, we had to sign our names! |
I can attest that there are no dogs allowed at the beach - although I saw a few people who disregarded the posted signs running their dogs along the water - and there a two main day-use areas located just up the beach and down the wooden boardwalk, where you can find flush toilet facilities. There are no food stands or ice cream shacks or anything like that. It is a lovely beach but not commercialized much at all.
2. Parksville Community Beach and Park
A local recommended this beach to us while we were dining out for breakfast one day. Because locals know their area best, we heeded her advice and headed down to the Parksville Community Beach and Park for an afternoon, and were so happy we did! |
| The massive playground at the Parksville Community Park and Beach. |
First of all, this place is designed to keep visitors and, in particular, families busy for the whole day. Therefore there are easily accessible modern washrooms (no pit in the floor here!), food trucks, a smooth and wide wooden boardwalk, a massive playground, and a splash park. The splash park was under construction but looked to be finished very soon, so I imagine by the summer of 2018 it will be up and running.
My kids spent about an hour playing on the giant playground, which was designed to be like 10 playgrounds all in one, with each playground set separated by stretches of sand where kids could ply and run. Joey and I even got into the spirit and enjoyed some of the playground equipment!
 |
| Getting into the spirit on things on the rope maze. |
Then we went down to the beach, which was even wider than the one at Rathtrevor. The water seemed to be about a mile away! We strolled down to the Pacific Ocean to dip our toes in the water, and when I looked back, I couldn't even see the mound of bags and beach towels we had set up back on the sand. It was a massive, massive beach.
 |
| Enjoying the wide stretch of sand at the Parksville Community Beach. |
Even better, this beach was a collector's heaven! I found hundreds of sand dollars deposited in the shallow puddles left behind from high tide, and might have snagged a few to take back home. My kids also found oyster and clam shells, along with a variety of other rocks and treasures.
3. Madrona Point
We decided to spend some time 'tide-pooling' on the rockier spots along the coast, as I have vibrant childhood memories of exploring tide pools with my parents on our family trips growing up. I wanted my children to have similar recollections. |
| The gorgeous view at Madrona Point in Nanoose Bay by Parksville. |
According to Google, Madrona Point came up as #1 in places to go tide-pooling. So we plugged in the address into our GPS and off we went. Madrona Point turned out to be accessible through a residential neighborhood, where we had to park in an inconspicuous pull-out area and walk through a tiny trial in the bushes. (We accidentally hiked down someone's private driveway at first, before we found the nature trail.) It is a little hard to find, but trust the GPS!
 |
| Beautiful blues and greens of the Pacific Ocean. |
Once out on Madrona Point, we encountered a beach comprised of small pebbles and sand, littered with beautiful pieces of driftwood. The beach was tiny, and then began the rocky sea wall. There were hundreds of little tide pools nestled within the dips and cracks of the sea wall, with a carpet of green and orange kelp draped across the rocks.
We showed the kids how to pop kelp, nature's bubble-wrap! Parker really enjoyed that activity, and preferred squatting and popping kelp to actually searching through the tide pools. What kid wouldn't?
 |
| Parker having a blast popping kelp. |
Avy explored the tide pools with us, where we found lots of crabs scuttling to shelter, green anemone clusters waving their bright pink fronds in the currents, and snails slogging through the sand. However, that was about all of the wildlife we saw within the tide pools. There were no starfish to be seen, sadly. I did stumble across one urchin, but the seagulls had found the poor guy first so there wasn't much left of him.
 |
| We found TONS of colourful anemones at Madrona Point. |
The view of the ocean from Madrona Point was exceptional, so even if you are a little disappointed in the tide pool results, you will most certainly enjoy the panorama of the Pacific Ocean while you are there!
4. Riptide Lagoon
Taking a break from the ocean, we decided to have a little family adventure doing some mini-golf. Riptide Lagoon was the perfect place for us. Located right beside the turn-off for Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park, Riptide Lagoon offers mini-golf, bumper cars, and ice cream! What more could we ask for? |
| Riptide Lagoon mini-golf was a fantastic way to spend an afternoon. |
The kids were too young to do the bumper cars, but they were more than excited to try mini-golf. They'd never gone to an actual mini-golf course before; Parker has a set of plastic golf clubs for goofing around in the backyard, but neither child had ever held a real mini golf club. It was a very exciting day!
 |
| The kids loved their first time ever mini-golfing. |
The Riptide Lagoon golf course was really pretty, too. There were tons of flowering bushes, garden pathways, and a fountain dyed the bluest of blues. Tall trees provided lots of shade right when you needed it. The theme of the golf course was, of course, of a long-lost lagoon combined with an oceanography quest. There were tons of great places to pose for fun photos.
 |
| For a mini-golf course, Riptide Lagoon was beautiful and relaxing! |
I was by far the worst player in our little group of 4. I think even Avy and Parker golfed better than me! Luckily it is hard to be competitive against a 2 year old and a 4 year old! Ha ha!
 |
| When your 4-year-old takes better pictures than you! |
5. Craig Bay
You might not find Craig Bay on a TripAdvisor list of things to see and do, but I'm adding it because we visited Craig Bay and had a crazy little adventure while there. Craig Bay was actually the bay where our hotel, Creekside Suites, was located. There is a wide beach there, but I'm not sure if it is a private beach because there were tons of houses built alongside it, and I didn't really see people out there sunbathing. |
| The fantastic view at Craig Bay. |
However, we really liked exploring the rocky point located on the Creekside Suites side. It wasn't big for tide pools, but we still found some great shells and lots of little crabs and anemones.
My favourite part of Craig Bay, however, was a little weird and unusual. Some might even say disgusting. But you have to agree it is interesting, if anything!
We went down to the Craig Bay beach by the tide pool rocks one morning to do a little exploring while my husband finished up some work in the hotel room. As we walked down the beach, we noticed some odd debris littering the beach near the high tide line. Upon closer inspection, the debris turned out to be GIANT marine worms!
 |
| Giant marine annelids at Craig Bay - so disgusting but fascinating! |
The worms looked like they had either been washed up in the tide, or had risen from the sand like earthworms during a rain storm. I quickly Googled them in sheer curiosity, and found photos labeling the worms as Marine Annelids, or basically ocean earthworms. But these were not typical earthworms - they were huge, thick, and had hundreds of either legs or cilia. As my daughter commented, they looked 'juicy'. Ew!
 |
| The worms were everywhere, so bring some water shoes with you! |
At first the kids freaked out, but as they got used to the worms (because they were literally everywhere) they began to just step over them. We searched for any that were still alive and only found one. The rest were dead, dried up in the mid-morning sun. But it was a very interesting experience.
More to do in Parksville
Of course, there are more than just five activities for families and travellers in the Parksville area. Check out these other posts and videos to add more ideas to your itinerary!Creekside Suites at Pacific Shores Resort - This is the hotel where we stayed while in the Parksville area. It offers a pool, three sets of hot tubs (two outside, and one of those on the edge of the ocean - it is amazing), as well as a restaurant, spa, and affordable yet comfortable suites. Click the title of this paragraph to watch the video and see what it is all about!
Englishman Falls - This double-waterfall hike is very easy for families to do. The pathway loops through the forest, bringing you back to the parking lot so it is impossible to get lost. As you stroll through the woods, you will pass the Upper and Lower Englishman River Falls and experience all the beauty the woods has to offer. POST AND VIDEO COMING SOON!
British Bobby's Restaurant - If you want a tasty family-friendly restaurant that offers a super fun and unique atmosphere, British Bobby's is the way to go! You feel like you left Canada and entered the UK as you walk inside the restaurant, and there's lots of famous movie memorabilia to boot!
No comments:
Post a Comment