Comox Valley

Know the region

The Comox Valley guide

The Comox Valley might be the Island's best geography lesson: a ski resort, a glacier, a farm valley and a saltwater marina all visible from the same intersection. Courtenay, Comox and Cumberland — three distinct towns ten minutes apart — share the valley floor beneath the Comox Glacier, and locals genuinely do ski and paddle on the same spring day.

Landmarks & attractions

Mount Washington Alpine Resort holds some of BC's deepest snow and doubles as a summer hiking and biking hill with access to Strathcona Park's Paradise Meadows. Down at sea level, the Filberg Heritage Lodge & Park hosts its famous summer festival in seaside gardens, and Goose Spit curls into the bay for swimmers and paddlers. Cumberland, a coal town turned mountain-bike mecca, pairs a heritage main street with one of the Island's most celebrated trail networks. The Courtenay & District Museum displays the elasmosaur fossil that made the valley a paleontology destination — you can even join a fossil tour on the Puntledge River. Seal Bay Nature Park, the Courtenay Riverway and a year-round farm scene fill in the everyday beauty.

Towns & communities

Courtenay is the commercial centre; Comox wraps the harbour with its marina, air force base and wing of retirees who came for the flying weather and stayed; Cumberland is the valley's independent spirit. Royston, Merville and Black Creek scatter farms and beaches between them, and Denman and Hornby islands lie a short ferry hop off the coast.

Getting here & getting around

Highway 19 puts the valley about 45 minutes north of Nanaimo; the Comox Valley Airport flies direct to Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton, and a ferry crosses from Little River to Powell River on the mainland's Sunshine Coast.

Living here

The valley draws people who want all four of the Island's landscapes in one postal code — and a growing food, arts and trail culture to go with them. Below are its verified local businesses, from the slopes to the shore.