Gabriola Island

Report by Simone R.

Gabriola Island is an island located pretty close to Nanaimo. It takes just 20 minutes to go there and it costs 11.50 CAD for round trip. You just have to pay in Nanaimo, so keep your ticket!
It was a lovely Sunday, so we decided to go to Gabriola Island. The plan was to rent some scooters to see the island which is approximately 30 km long and 15 km wide.  The ferry leaves at Nanaimo Harbor (be careful! It is not the ferry station to Vancouver!), it is close to the subway on the other side of the waterfront. The ferry leaves almost every hour. Check the BC-ferry website to get the latest times.

Rent a Scooter on Gabriola Island

Because it was Sunday, no scooter rental in downtown Nanaimo was open, so we had to use the one of Gabriola Island. There was just one twist. The rental station was on the other side of the island, so we had to cross the island (30 km) before we could rent our scooters. We were lucky and a very nice woman drove us. She told us, that you can always try to go there by asking other people, because everyone on the island is so nice. So thank to her we saved 26 CAD for the cab.
The woman at the scooter rental was super friendly and gave as a discount, so we could use the scooters one hour longer than we’ve paid for.  Just ask them and if you are lucky you get a discount too! So we paid 56 CAD for five hours and we did not have to fuel, so it included everything. You just have to be 18 or older and have a valid driver license.
She also gave us a map and marked the most beautiful points we should see. So we started: four people on four scooters. Just driving the scooters was so much fun! Gabriola Island is a little island with a very beautiful landscape! That is why we decided to make a loop to see everything.

Degnen Bay and Downtown Gabriola Island

Our first stop: an amazing bay called “Degnen Bay”, where we hiked a little bit along the shore and because it was our lucky day, we saw some otters playing in the sea:)
Going back to our scooters, we realized we can’t hike to every nice point, because it takes too much time. The destinations were the sunset beaches and we stopped at many different nice places. If you are planning to do this too, just keep your eyes open – it is a wonderful island!
We stopped to see “downtown”, but there are just a few shops and that is it. Hence we decided to have lunch at a recommended restaurant at the sunset beaches, it is called: “Surf Lodge”. It was very delicious, but it took a long time to get the burgers, that is why we had to hurry up on the way back.

We stopped at two other nice viewpoints and then we had to go back to the scooter rental. Unfortunately we were 20 minutes too late, but they were so friendly and we did not have to pay more. :)
The man called us a taxi, which drove us back to the harbor. 26 CAD for the nice taxi driver and let’s go to the ferry back to Nanaimo.
It was a really nice day and I can only recommend seeing Gabriola Island with scooters and not with bicycles, because it is very hilly and it just tons of fun with scooters! :)