It’s time for another rousing edition of Travel Around the Internet! Brace yourself.
Here are just a few of the items that have shuffled across our inbox lately:
Disney Cruise specials and kids sail free!
Marriott wants to Twitter, email and Facebook you to Hawai’i! By all means, let them!
Shadow Play
With school underway the extended weekend and multi-day trips will be harder and harder to come by. Unless you don’t have school-aged kids, then bite me. Read More »
Black Frank's bronze statue in Nanaimo Harbor, Canada
In the previous post on Nanaimo, I mentioned that I had seriously considered moving to Nanaimo. From that viewpoint, and if you don’t feel like enriching the cafe owners, then you need to find some things to keep you busy.
The Go Nanaimo Blog has created just such a guide, with 7 delightful and detailed self-guided tours, all inside a 50 km radius of the City. The tours are ostensibly meant for residents as a staycation guide, and include two walking tours within Nanaimo and five driving and bicycling tours to nearby mid-island destinations.
First, there’s the Waterfront walking tour. A healthy stroll along Nanaimo’s waterfront walkway with excellent views of Newcastle and Protection islands will take you past a lot of the city’s heritage including Maffeo-Sutton Park, the 123 year old Coast Bastion Inn and the bronze statue of former Mayor Frank Ney. Apparently Black Frank was the kind of stand-up pirate who wouldn’t have thought twice about selling his own grandma to real estate developers if it was worth an extra dime in his pocket.
The Downtown walking tour has the goods on all the visit-worthy attractions including the Vancouver Island Conference Center which houses Nanaimo Museum, a neo-gothic Church, and then there’s also the Old City Quarter with late 19th and early 20th century wooden buildings, and there’s also listings of the trendy cafes and boutiques along the way.
Gabriola Island
Moving further afield, we have the North Nanaimo driving/bicycling tour – a 37 km circular path starting and ending at the Departure Bay Ferry terminal, with lots of parks and other attractions in between.
The 64 km South Nanaimo driving tour takes you past Cedar, Yellow Point and Cassidy, with plenty of oppurtunies for hiking, flightseeing and bungy jumping.
The last three tours would more likely qualify as day trips. There’s a 79 km driving tour to Ladysmith, Chemainus and Thetis Island. Next is the spectacular and scenic 49 km Gabriola Island tour.
In fact, there’s different variations for tours of Gabriola Island, so you won’t be short of options any time soon. And lastly, there’s the 111 km Oceanside Route driving tour, which looks to me to be the most beautiful of them all.
Photos by Kam’s World and pentaboxes via flickr.
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