About Vancouver Island Bucket List

Most travel sites give you ten options and leave you to figure it out. Vancouver Island Bucket List gives you the one worth doing, and tells you exactly what to expect when you get there. Every experience on this site comes from a real visit. You will find practical details that other sites skip: what the parking situation is actually like, what time of day to go, and whether a trail is genuinely worth the drive. The same advice a local friend would give you, without the noise.

The site is built to route visitors toward locally owned operators, restaurants, and experiences. The goal is to keep tourism dollars on the island, in the hands of people who live and invest here. VIBL promotes pack-in, pack-out behaviour, respect for natural spaces, and low-impact travel. That commitment shows up in the businesses featured on the site and in the way the content is written.

Meet the Founder

Working With Local Businesses

Vancouver Island Bucket List exists to put small, locally owned businesses in front of the people planning a trip here. Over 250,000 people research their Vancouver Island trip through this site each year, and the goal is to connect them with the businesses that make a visit worth it, not the big chains and booking engines that take their cut off the island. Businesses can partner with VIBL to get in front of that audience. Partnering buys visibility and promotion. It does not buy editorial inclusion and it does not buy a good write-up. I research every business before it goes on the site, and if it does not hold up, no partnership puts it there. That is the whole reason being featured here means something.

VIBL recommends one option per activity per area. One good one, not a ranked list, not five choices to scroll through. The site also carries affiliate links for hotels, tours, and car rentals. If you book through one, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. I would rather connect you with a local business directly than send you through a booking engine. Right now a lot of bookings still go through those engines, but the goal is to work with more businesses directly as the site grows. If you run a tourism business on Vancouver Island and want to be considered, work with VIBL.

Working with regional tourism organizations

Vancouver Island Bucket List partners with regional tourism organizations to put their regions in front of people who are already planning an island trip. The first of these is the Sooke Region Tourism Association, starting October 2026. The work is ongoing rather than a one-time build. Each year it covers new experience pages, itineraries and maps for the region, features to the VIBL audience and newsletter, campaigns timed to the shoulder seasons that regional tourism funding is actually measured on, and quarterly reporting on what moved. The part a single-region operator cannot do is route visitors between regions. Someone reading about beaches near Nanaimo is planning a trip, and a trip planner can be introduced to Sooke while they plan. I am not only reaching people already headed somewhere. I am reaching people planning a Vancouver Island trip and bringing them there. I served on the Sooke Region Tourism Association board from 2023 to 2026, President for one term and then Vice President. I stepped down so Vancouver Island Bucket List could take on this work. Sitting on the board that approves the budget and doing the work the budget pays for are not two jobs one person should hold at the same time. I am still a member of the association, just not on the board. If you’re a regional tourism association looking to reach people already planning a Vancouver Island trip, work with VIBL.