Getting to Nanaimo, BC from the US means crossing at Peace Arch, then taking BC Ferries (2 hours from Tsawwassen or 90 minutes from Horseshoe Bay), flying through Vancouver International first, or trying the new Hullo ferry from downtown Vancouver to downtown Nanaimo in about an hour.
I invited Americans to my small town in Canada. 2,000 of them say they're gonna show up. Here's how to get here. Fuck! This is Nanaimo, which is where you're gonna be going. Nanaimo is on Vancouver Island. Vancouver, the city, is not on Vancouver Island. I know it's kinda weird that way. But don't worry, Vancouver Island is not small. It is the size of Belgium. If you are driving up, you're gonna be coming mostly through the Peace Arch border crossing, and you're gonna be driving north into Canada. If you have your car, which you will if you're driving, you really only have one choice, and that is to go BC Ferries. BC Ferries leaves from two different terminals. Tsawwassen is going to be the closest to the border. That's right here. It's really close to the border. And the other one is Horseshoe Bay, and that's up here. They both will cross. They're big boats. They have like, they have like gift shops and restaurants on board. Think of them like a kind of a small cruise ship, basically. These are not small boats. The Tsawwassen sailing will take you to Duke Point, and this takes 2 hours. Again, beautiful sailing. Horseshoe Bay will take you to Departure Bay, and that's 90 minutes. Departure Bay to Nanaimo is like nothing. It's— Departure Bay is right in Nanaimo. Duke Point is like 10 minutes away from Nanaimo. Basically, whichever one you land here, you're gonna be fine. The other thing to worry about about Horseshoe Bay though is that you will be driving through downtown Vancouver to get to Horseshoe Bay. So if you're driving up, I personally would rather go to Watson. Yes, it's half an hour longer, but wouldn't you rather spend that half an hour looking at whales and scenery than traffic? Oh, I should say you don't have to have a car to use BC Ferries. You can walk on as a foot passenger too. Americans, you will not be able to fly directly to Nanaimo Airport because it's not an international airport, so you will be flying first to YVR or Vancouver Airport. And once you land there, you're going to clear customs, obviously, and then you're going to take either an Air Canada or WestJet flight from YVR to Nanaimo Airport. It's about 10 minutes south of Nanaimo, easy. Or a more scenic route— oh, by the way, that's like 20 minutes, it's like up and down, it's like nothing, it's like this is not a far distance, right? Well, so that's right out of YVR, out of the same terminal. Or if you want to You can go via the floatplane or the helijet. Helijet is a helicopter version. Harbour Air is the floatplane. They will both take you directly— is that the noise they make? That will take you directly into Nanaimo. The last option, apparently I haven't cut out yet. The last option is kind of brand new for us, and it is called the Hullo ferry, H-U-L-L-O, and it leaves from downtown Vancouver. And it goes directly to downtown Nanaimo. It's about an hour or so crossing, it's relatively inexpensive. You can't take your car on it, but you can take bikes on it, I think. Double-check that. It's hullo.com. And to answer your next question, no, there is no bridge. You cannot drive directly to Vancouver Island. You must either fly or take the ferry. We have more details in the Getting Here channel on our Discord, and you can also check out the frequently asked questions list. I think I've figured out now how to link them below, or or just tap the link in my bio and go to the Frequently Asked Questions page, and there'll be something there about how to get here. I hope this helps, and we will see all of you in late April. Thank you so much.
Ten times Canada helped the U.S. with its wildfires, instead of whining about the smoke. 
