Downtown Nanaimo

Nanaimo is a beautiful and unique city. It has the longest shorelines in Canada. Forest mountains are only minutes from downtown harbour centre. I was amazed by its nature environment, a harmony combination of ocean, mountains, clean air, wild animals and green open trails!

Downtown Nanaimo, along Commercial Street, Victoria Crescent, and Fitzwilliam Street is a thriving mix of restaurants, music venues, shops, galleries, and exciting nightspots. We stayed at the Vancouver Island Regional Library and visitor center for hours, we also went shopping. - We found a lot of free parking space in downtown, which was unbelievable for us, with our experiences from big cities such as Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal!

I liked it so much that I thought it could be an idea place for my retirement. Real estate market was down for the moment, and house price was much lower than Vancouver and Victoria.

The local people were very relaxing and friendly. At the downtown harbour, we met and chatted with some local "fishermen". They settled down in Nanaimo and enjoyed very much the West Coast community and island lifestyle. A gentleman originally from Ottawa told us he thought this city was too good to be true. It was a paradise for him and his family.