Jocelyn Hill Hike (Gowlland Tod)

Fifty-five kilometres of flat, car-free former railway where you can actually talk the whole way and the picnic is mandatory.

A Heritage Grove of Douglas fir around five centuries old, reached on a flat boardwalk that a wheelchair or a stroller can manage.

A lantern-lit guide leads you through the shadowy alleys of Canada's most haunted old town for an hour of murder, hauntings, and harbourside history.

85 trails and 46 km of singletrack on Mount Work, from gentle green runs to double-black drops, twenty minutes out.

A 5.3 km loop through 300-year-old Douglas fir and a Garry oak meadow to Pickles Bluff, looking over farmland to Haro Strait.

Earned by 2 km of dripping rainforest trail: a wild cove with a cliff waterfall, sea cave and rope swing.

A 1.2 km mossy stroll to a 30-metre waterfall and a sandy beach with the Olympic Mountains thrown in.

A warm little swimming lake with a sand beach 200 metres from the car, wrapped in a 3.9 km forest loop with water views most of the way.

A First Nation-owned outfit with two decades on the water, launching into the calm island maze where orca actually live.

Paddle the glassy freshwater lake where Canada's national rowers train, then reward yourselves at Hamsterly Beach with a swim and a snack.

Ocean River's guided paddle from Oak Bay to a wild marine-park island where seals shadow your hull and the city completely disappears.

The lesser-known flat rail trail where you can talk the whole way, ending at Sidney's bookshops and waterfront patios as your reward.

Paddle a sheltered tidal inlet past heritage homes to Western Canada's only reversing rapids, then sensibly turn around.

A wide Central Saanich beach where low tide uncovers enormous sand flats, with James Island offshore and Mount Baker on the horizon.