The Bastion (1853)
One of the last surviving Hudson's Bay Company blockhouses, built to protect the coal settlement. Open in summer with a noon cannon firing; a landmark year-round.
Destination day · park once and walk
Nanaimo — the Bastion and the harbour
- Drive
- 45 min north
- Park
- Port Place or Bastion St lots
- Walking
- Harbourfront walkway is flat; Old City Quarter is uphill
- Best day
- Any
A Hudson's Bay Company coal port from the 1850s that grew into the Island's second city. The old downtown rewards a slow afternoon: the Bastion, a good regional museum, a harbourfront walkway, the Old City Quarter's shops and a famous dessert.
Nanaimo Museum
Coal mining, Snuneymuxw history, the 1887 mine disaster and the Chinatown that burned in 1960. Compact and well done.
Harbourfront Walkway & Maffeo Sutton Park
A 4 km waterfront path from the seaplane terminal past the fishing boats to the park and Swy-a-Lana Lagoon. Float homes, seaplanes landing and the ferry to Newcastle Island.
Old City Quarter
Fitzwilliam and Wesley Streets: independent shops, cafés and heritage commercial buildings uphill from the harbour.
Nanaimo bar trail
The city's namesake dessert in dozens of variations; the Visitor Centre publishes a trail map. The Bastion's neighbourhood has several of the classic stops.
Newcastle Island (Saysutshun) Marine Park
A ten-minute foot-passenger ferry from Maffeo Sutton Park (seasonal) to an island of easy trails, sandstone quarries that supplied the San Francisco Mint, and a former Japanese herring saltery.