The rugged north region of Vancouver Island is a year-round outdoor adventure paradise offering a wealth of recreation opportunities and world-class sport fishing. Teeming with wildlife, the North Island provides plenty of rewarding opportunities for nature enthusiasts and photographers. Much of Vancouver Island once looked as the north island still does today.
Only 3 percent of the island population lives on the northern half of Vancouver Island, and North Island communities are known for their warm hospitality and friendliness. Many of the more remote resorts and hideaways are accessible only by chartered float plane or boat.
Port Hardy is the largest community on the North Island and serves as the gateway to the coastal wilderness of Cape Scott Provincial Park and the North Coast Trail, and the southern terminal for the BC Ferries’ Inside Passage and Discovery Coast voyages.
Included in the North Island region are the communities of Alert Bay on Cormorant Island, and Sointula on Malcolm Island, both situated just offshore and accessible by ferry from Port McNeill. Also included are the inlets and waterways on the mainland coast that are accessible from north island towns.
The following communities, sounds, inlets and passages are located in the North Island region. Click on each name to view more information on each location.
- Alert Bay
- Blackfish Sound
- Broughton Archipelago
- Coal Harbour
- Discovery Coast
- Discovery Passage
- Echo Bay
- Esperanza Inlet
- Fair Harbour
- Holberg
- Inside Passage
- Island Highway 19
- Johnstone Strait
- Kelsey Bay
- Kingcome Inlet
- Knight Inlet
- Kyuquot Sound
- Loughborough Inlet
- Malcolm Island
- Nimmo Bay
- Nootka Island
- Nootka Sound
- Nuchatlitz Inlet
- Port Alice
- Port Eliza Inlet
- Port Hardy
- Port McNeill
- Quatsino
- Quatsino Sound
- Queen Charlotte Strait
- Sayward
- Sointula
- Swanson Island
- Tahsis
- Telegraph Cove
- Thompson Sound
- Winter Harbour
- Woss
- Yuquot (Friendly Cove)
- Zeballos
Location: The top half of 450-km long Vancouver Island is served by a maze of logging roads and Highway 19 (North Island Highway), which links Campbell River in Central Island with Port Hardy, the southern terminus of BC Ferries’ Inside Passage and Discovery Coast Routes. BC Ferries links the north and central coasts (Prince Rupert and Bella Coola respectively) with Vancouver Island at Port Hardy.
Travel to ports in Nootka Sound and neighbouring Kyuquot Sound to the north is via MV Uchuck lll, a working freighter based in Gold River that provides a year-round passenger and freight service.
