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Vancouver Island Visitor Centre (Comox Valley)

Vancouver Island Visitor Centre (Comox Valley)

Vancouver Island Visitor Centre (Comox Valley)
5
9:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Monday
9:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Tuesday
9:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Wednesday
9:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Thursday
9:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Friday
9:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Saturday
9:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Sunday
9:30 AM - 4:30 PM
About
Whether you are in the planning stages of your vacation or have arrived in the area and don't know where to begin, the Comox Valley's Vancouver Island Visitor Centre is your first stop to create an unforgettable vacation! The Centre also offers a fun and interactive introduction to Vancouver Island from ocean to alpine! Touch a live oyster, identify local trees or explore the region through a touch table of Vancouver Island images. Take a few fun photos of your own and enjoy free WI-Fi so you can catch up on the news at home. There are outdoor picnic tables, pet walking area and a children's play structure. There is even an e-vehicle charge point.
Duration: 1-2 hours
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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.

Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as waiting time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

Popular mentions

5.0
5.0 of 5 bubbles59 reviews
Excellent
47
Very good
10
Average
2
Poor
0
Terrible
0

jjhhcw
Campbell River, Canada109 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Feb 2024 • Couples
This is a great place to stop for more than information on the area.
The visitor center is like a mini-museum.
Both people we spoke with, Dino and Tanya, were very friendly and really knowledgeable on more than the Comox Valley.
We left with several "must sees/do" for the area, plus Nanaimo and Cowichan Valley.
Thank you.
Written February 19, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

JJawandering
Lethbridge, Canada338 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Sept 2021 • Solo
The person at the desk was very helpful with local knowledge and maps. He assisted me in making an accommodation booking for one night in the area. The centre has a lot of good information about this area. Worth a visit.
Written September 11, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Paulshappy
Courtenay, Canada4,144 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Apr 2018 • Couples
I've travelled to many visitor centres but never knew the best one was in my own backyard! This place is truly amazing; Large, Clean, Friendly and Entertaining.
The staff are wonderful, the building is stunning, the rest rooms are clean, and there's even a river running through the building!
Beautiful landscaped property including a real pedestal Snowbird Tutor aircraft, a BBQ area, picnic benches and a children's play structure. Inside are many visitor brochure racks, a large souvenir shop, and an incredible display area showing all you can do on Vancouver Island AND it's all kid-friendly, including climbing inside an 800 year old tree. Trust me when I say you and your family could easily spend an hour here.
THIS is now the #1 stop for all our visitors.
Safe travels
Paul
Written April 12, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Hello Paul, Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a positive and comprehensive review of the visitor centre! You made our day! We are very proud of our facility and really enjoy welcoming local families as well as our out of town visitors. As you say, there is a lot to enjoy here. Come up and see us again soon! Glenn
Written April 15, 2018
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

roamingreeds
rochester, ny26 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jan 2017 • Solo
i found myself with a 12 hr layover at the vancouver airport. Rather than sit around all day, I took a train to the last stop which was the water, to see what I could see. It just so happened that the tourism visitor center was nearby. I popped in, and said I had no knowledge of anything the city had to offer, but had a good 8hours to explore. They asked what I liked, and offered ideas specific to my preferences, including esitmated timeframes and modes of transportation. Made for an excellent spur of the moment trip! I took tons of photos during my day, and would love to return with friends/family in the new year as a result of such a positive experience, made possible by the tourism office.
Written January 4, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Thank you for writing a wonderful review but I just wanted to let you know that you posted it to the wrong Visitor Centre. It should be for the Tourism Vancouver Visitor Centre on Burrard Street in Down town Vancouver. They would be thrilled to receive this review. You can get Trip Advisor to move it for you to the correct Business.
Written January 6, 2017
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

chc9533
Hong Kong, China862 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Mar 2020
My wife and I were fortunate to have been many places in Canada and visited many visitor centers. They are literally all good. But we found VIVC-CV to be the best of the very best. We came here seeking info about the herring spawn. There wasn’t too much public info out there and the help, guidance and support given by Glen and Kazumi were simply unbelievable, well above and beyond our expectations!

The herring spawn was truly a nature’s spectacle. We want to share our experiences but TA doesn’t provide a good spot for posting this type of reviews which are not tied to one particular destination. As such, we decided to post it here. Hopefully people coming for herring spawn in future will also visit this site.

We stayed in Comox for 14-nights, Feb 29 – Mar 14. The very first thing we did upon arrival was visiting Vancouver Island Visitor Centre, Comox Valley. We collected tons of helpful info and great advice. Highly recommend that you make VIVC to be your first stop! We also read DFO’s Fishery Notice religiously. They gave updates at least daily and upto 2-3 times/day at the peak period, giving us good pointers on where to go.

Saw our first ever herring spawn on Mar 4. We were so glad to have arrived 4 days early and had the opportunity of exploring the potential spawning sites, getting ourselves familiar with the area, and doing some sight-seeing. Make sure you pick up a leaflet “Comox Valley Nature Viewing Guide”. We visited 14 of the 17 sites listed in the leaflet. Many of these later turned out to be spawning grounds and we had the benefits of knowing time needed to get there, where to park and the access trail to the beach, etc. We visited Denman Island on Mar 2 and leisurely checked out hotspots like Morning Beach, Fillongley and Boyle Point. Not only we enjoyed the discovery, such knowledge became invaluable assets afterwards.

Between Mar 4-14, we viewed spawning from the following sites. It seemed to move in a North to South direction (see our map).
- Kitty Coleman Beach
- Seal Bay
- Kye Bay
- Point Holmes/Cape Lazo
- Longbeak Point (Denman Island)
- Morning Beach (Denman Island)
- Fillongley (Denman Island)
- Fanny Bay
- Bowser
- Qualicum Bay
- Qualicum Beach
- French Creek
- Parksville Beach

Most of our viewing was done on land, but we also chartered a boat with Adam of All in Sportfishing as viewings from a boat was different. There were also places only accessible by boat. We went out 4 times from Comox marina:
- Mar 4: circumnavigated Denman Island, then returned north to Kitty Coleman and saw our first ever herring spawn ☺.
- Mar 8: spent most of our time in upper Lambert Channel along Komas Bluff.
- Mar 12: sailed south down Baynes Sound to Bowser.
- Mar 13: sailed along the east coast of Hornby to Flora Isle, then checked out Bowser before returning to Comox.

Our best viewings were:
- Mar 4 at Kitty Coleman: we viewed from the boat in the morning and went back again to the beach in the afternoon. Fishery was not yet opened. Seabirds and marine mammals were in their full strength. It was an unbelievable sight and truly a nature’s spectacle. Viewings from the boat and from the beach were very different and we were so glad doing both on this day!
- Mar 6 at Morning Beach: Fishery opened today. Over a hundred fishing boats were dotting the upper Lambert Channel. The spawning was more spread out, the feeding frenzy continued just not as concentrated as Mar 4 when the sky of Kitty Coleman was literally covered by birds.
- Mar 7 at Longbeak Point: Spent the whole afternoon here watching the bald eagles went fishing. We lost count but there must be over a hundred eagles. Unlike catching salmon when one fish can feed the family, herrings were much smaller and the eagles had to work harder. They seemed like bombers launched wave after wave. A couple of river otters were also there fishing and playing. We had a wonderful afternoon and so did the eagles!
- Mar 8 at Komas Bluff: There seemed to be less fish today and we didn’t see too many eagles around. Nonetheless, sea lions seemed to be working harder and we had some amazing photos taken from our boat which allowed us getting closer to the action.
- Mar 11 & 14 at Qualicum Bay and Parksville Beach: While we continued seeing the spawn zone in the water, there seemed to be less fish in our inexperienced eyes. The gulls were mostly working on the roe at the beach. Sighting of numerous species of seabirds was highlights of these 2 days.

According to DFO, seine fishery opened at 6:30am on Mar 6 and closed 26.5 hours later at 9am on Mar 7 after reaching a validated catch of 2,019 against the 2,025 ton quota. However, gillnet fishery took a much longer time. Gillnetters’ accumulated catches against their 7,215 ton quota were as follows:
- Mar 6: 850t (est.)
- Mar 7: 1,300t (est.)
- Mar 8: 3,500t (est.)
- Mar 9: 6,000t (est.)
- Mar 10: 6,800t (est.)
- Mar 11: 6,800t (est.)
- Mar 12: 6,800t (est.)
- Mar 13: 7,090t (est.)
- Mar 14: 7,090t (est.)
- Mar 15: 7,067t (validated)
- Mar 16: 7,067t (validated)
- Mar 17: 7,067t (validated, fishery closed)

We are no experts, our thoughts from a layman’s perspective:
- Gillnetters had the ability of catching more than 2,000t/day as seen on Mar 8 and 9.
- Yet they seemed to struggle since Mar 10 and their catches almost stagnated. When fishery closed on Mar 17, they didn’t even hit their quota. Maybe there were good technical reasons behind, otherwise we were tempted to think the herrings en mass weren’t there?!
- This almost coincided with our own observations. Since Mar 10, we have travelled up and down the coastline and found wildlife activities not as intense as before. Could it be that the predators were already full after days of feeding? We don’t know but it begs the questions on where were the herrings and more importantly, will they be coming back?
- Please forgive us for our ignorance. We were merely a one-time observer and lack the insights of the locals. But from people we met, including the good ladies at our motel, many dog walkers on the beaches, the passionate photographers, and the friendly islanders at Denman/Hornby were all telling us the spawning seemed to be getting smaller by year. Hope DFO will do the right thing to protect the well being of the herrings, a small but such an important species in our ecology.

The wildlife drawn by the herring spawn was spectacular. We are not birders, but we can still name the following birds: bald eagle, surf scoter, common goldeneye, great blue heron, bufflehead, long-tailed duck, mallard, greater scaup, common loon, red-necked grebe, brant goose, double-crested cormorant, brandt’s cormorant, dunlin, black oystercatcher, American wigeon, northern pintail, common merganser, hooded merganser, killdeer, snow goose, greater white-fronted geese, mew gull, glaucous-winged gull – thanks to the ebird app! There were birds that we couldn’t ID and surely we must have missed some others.

When we finally returned to Vancouver, the world has turned into a very different place. We both left YVR on Mar 17. My old friend flew home to Toronto and I departed for Auckland. Without prior knowledge, I took literally the last Air Canada flight that landed in Auckland 14 hours before NZ closed its border!

We counted our blessing of seeing what we saw, a special thanks again to Glenn for his guidance, much appreciated!
Written September 6, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

knitter88
Ontario, Canada83 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Sept 2019
We stopped here to get some information on activities in the area. The staff were very nice and very helpful - we ended up following some of their suggestions which helped us round out our visit to the island. Our grandson loved the Discovery Centre!
Written September 22, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Hi Knitter88, We thank you for taking the time to let us know you enjoyed your visit with us and on the island. Kids love our Discovery Centre and we always advise them they can make as much noise as they like in there....always appreciated it seems! We look forward to serving you again. Glenn
Written October 27, 2019
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

Peter S
Toronto, Canada47 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Jul 2018 • Couples
This centre is well laid out with an impressive variety of exhibits. Great collection of animal toys. Friendly staff.
Written July 2, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Hi Peter, Thanks for writing a review of your visit to the Visitor Centre. Our exhibit gallery always garners positive comments from visitors and we apparently have the largest selection of stuffed animals on the Island, so said a collector a few weeks ago. We hope to see you again on your travels. Cheers, Glenn
Written July 14, 2018
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

SES45
Nanaimo, Canada101 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Mar 2018
We have used this info centre for many of our excursions up Island and particularly for the Comox/ Courtney area. The Centre is always well staffed with very friendly, knowledgeable and courteous people. As well, the facility both inside the building and outside on the grounds is spotlessly maintained. The Centre has available all the maps and information brochures you could possibly need to help make your visit to the area easy to enjoy. Simply the best
Written March 11, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Hello SES45, So kind of you to take the time to let us know how we're doing! We pride ourselves on keeping the centre looking "New" and clean so I'm glad you were pleased with what you saw. Stop by anytime you are going by! Cheers, Glenn Visitor Information Counsellor
Written March 14, 2018
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.

FoodEnthusiastCV
Comox26 contributions
3.0 of 5 bubbles
Jul 2014 • Solo
The relocated visitor centre isn't that warm friendly place with the local feel that I used to enjoy when coming to the Comox Valley. Now it's awkward to access and has to much of a "we're here to make money" feel to it. Too bad so much money was spent to offer so little.
Written February 15, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

SM771
Vancouver, Canada22 contributions
3.0 of 5 bubbles
Dec 2012
The VI visitors centre was a bit of a disappointment. A beautiful building with an extraordinary rock fireplace, it's focused mostly on it's big sponsors (Mt. Washington) who could afford to pay. The smaller Comox Valley experiences that make the valley special get short shrift. There are brochures available, but again, focusing on commercial enterprises. Worth a stroll through, but there are better places to find out about the island and the Comox Valley.
Written May 1, 2013
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

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