RV RENTALS BRITISH COLUMBIA

“Beautiful British Columbia” is the slogan for Canada’s western-most province, bordered by Alberta to the east, Washington State, USA to the south, the Yukon and Northwest Territories to the North, and to the west by Alaska and the Pacific Ocean. In addition to Mainland BC, the province also includes Vancouver Island, Haidi Gwaii (formerly The Queen Charlotte Islands), and all the smaller islands in the Strait of Georgia. Access to Vancouver Island and several other larger islands is provided by ferry systems operating out of the Lower Mainland by the provincial government.

British Columbia’s major population centers are all within 100 miles of the southern border with the US, the largest of which is the Greater Vancouver network of cities collectively called the Lower Mainland, then the capital city of Victoria at the southern tip of Vancouver Island, and Kelowna in the southern interior.

The cities and towns on the mainland of British Columbia are nestled between several mountain ranges: Coastal Mountains in the west, the Rocky Mountains in the east, and between them the Central Plateau, Monashee, Selkirk and Purcell ranges. These geological features make BC an outdoor enthusiasts dream with alpine sports in the winter and some of the best hiking trails anywhere in the world year-round. There are 13 major ski resorts, including Whistler Blackcomb on the Coast, Mt Washington on Vancouver Island, Big White outside Kelowna, and Silver Star Provincial Park on the outskirts of Vernon.

With the majority of development occurring in the south of the province, the northern expanses are largely untouched wilderness areas accessed primarily using Hwy97, which extends from Osoyoos at the BC-USA border to Ft Nelson in the north on the BC-Yukon border.

A network of over 600 provincial parks throughout the province providing preserves of nature along with the facilities needed for travelers to visit them. In all, the provincial park system provides 10,700 vehicle-accessible campsites, 126 boat launches, and 6,000 kilometers of hiking trails.

The largest of these provincial parks is Tweedsmuir Provincial Park at 990,000 hectares west of Bella Coola. Just behind it at 947,000 hectares is Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park, which combines with adjacent parks in the Yukon and Alaska to form the largest world heritage site. Reservations at most campsites is recommended, through their central website hosted by the provincial government. Note: not all campsites are vehicle-accessible.

With six distinct regions, and fourteen different climatic zones, BC is certainly a diverse holiday destination. The six major regions are Vancouver Island, Vancouver Coast & Mountains, Thompson Okanagan, Kootenay Rockies, and Northern BC which includes Haida Gwaii, and the Caribou, Chilcotin and Coast region.

Vancouver Island sits just thirty miles off the west coast, separated from the mainland by the Strait of Georgia. Victoria in the south, and Nanaimo 110km north on Hwy1 are the oldest and largest cities on the Island. There are very few inland towns on the Island, and even those at the center of the Island such as Port Alberni have direct access to the sea via inlets. The largest provincial park on Vancouver Island is Strathcona Park, which sits just west of the Island’s largest ski hill, Mt Washington. The economy of the Island is driven by fisheries, forestry and eco-tourism.

The Vancouver Coast & Mountains region offers a mild, temperate zone suitable for long growing seasons on the fertile Fraser Delta. The zone extends far enough inland to the Coastal Mountain range to include majestic peaks that receive massive snowfalls every year, allowing quick trips to the mountains for a day of skiing before returning in the afternoon for a round of golf or a farm-to-table meal at a local farm.

Once known almost exclusively for its orchards, the Okanagan Valley and extended territory from Vernon to Osoyoos with Kelowna and Penticton between them now also produces some of the best wine grapes in the world, which local wineries transform into world-class, award-winning wines and spirits. Orchards in the area produce apples, cherries, plums, pears, peaches, with many of the orchardists offering pick-your-own options. The Okanagan Valley is also renowned for its system of lakes, sandy beaches, outdoor recreation and camping opportunities in the summer, and some of the best skiing in the world on hills such as Big White in Kelowna, Silver Star in Vernon, and Sun Peaks in Kamloops in the winter. Tourism and agriculture now outpace mining and forestry as the major economic drivers in the area, which has also become a major wedding destination. The largest international airport in the Interior is Kelowna (YLW), which sits roughly in the middle of the region.

The Kootenay Rockies is the least-developed of the southern zones, calling themselves “BC’s Mountain Playground”, with most towns having populations under 10,000, even 5,000. This area extends from Revelstoke in the north to the US border, and east through Golden to the BC-Alberta provincial borders, with Cranbrook and Nelson as the largest cities of this region, and the Purcell Wilderness Conservancy Provincial Park encompassing 200,000 hectares in the center of the region. Hot springs are common through this mountainous area, as are lakes and other provincial parks along the Crow’s Nest Hwy3 leading into Alberta. Most of the provincial parks here are day-use or tenting only, so look for municipal or private campgrounds to host overnight stays.

For travelers visiting British Columbia for the very first, they may not realise how large the province is, the diversity of landscape and climate, or the number of options available to even the most discerning visitor. Some great on-line resources for narrowing down potential vacation destinations in “Super, Natural British Columbia” include:

www.hellobc.com – sponsored by Destination BC and the regional Tourism Centers, this website allows visitors to navigate travel ideas, places to go, things to do, and trip planning with a wide net to cast on places and activities.

www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks – the provincial government website for travelers to navigate their provincial park map, park features, and reservation system.

www.britishcolumbia.com – a private website with listings that include private campgrounds, resorts, tourist-based businesses, and restaurants as well as golf courses, tour operators, and fishing information. The same company also operates www.vancouverisland.com for Island-specific inquiries.ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.