Exact kayaking routes may vary depending on possible wildlife sightings, currents, tides and weather.

Day 0: Plan to be in Port McNeill the night before the kayak tour departs, as there is an 8:00 pm pre-trip meeting with your guides at our office, located at 1790A Campbell Way, across the street from the Haida Way Inn and next to the Black Bear Resort. We’ll provide you with an overview for your trip, distribute dry-bags to pack your gear in, and answer any questions you may have.
Meals Included: None

Day 1:  We meet at 7:30am to load up our van and drive to Port Hardy where we load our water taxi. Port Hardy is about a 35 minute drive from Port McNeill. Vehicles and extra luggage can be left at your hotel while you are on your kayak tour. If you are not staying at a hotel or B&B with parking, we have limited free parking and luggage storage available at our office.

The hour long water taxi ride takes us to our first campsite, where we’ll settle in. The guides provide a site orientation and paddle briefing. We head out for a paddle before lunch giving you time to get used to the kayaks, the wilderness setting and each other.
Meals Included: Lunch – Dinner

Days 2 to 5: These days are spent exploring the area and wildlife viewing.  There are extensive islands and channels to explore amongst Gods Pocket Provincial Marine Park and at the western edge of Queen Charlotte Strait where we meet the open Pacific Ocean and this is where we often see the largest concentrations of sea otters.

The sea otters are abundant in this area and humpback whales are often a common sight as well. While less likely, other wildlife sightings could include orcas, black bears, and coastal wolves.

We will likely have three different camps during this trip, depending on weather, wildlife sightings, and group interests. 

Itineraries vary from trip to trip, but rest assured that wildlife viewing, exploration, and relaxing are always key factors in our trips.
Meals Included: Breakfast – Lunch – Dinner

Day 6: On the last day, we’ll enjoy a last breakfast and linger over a cup of coffee before breaking camp for the last time. We kayak back to Port Hardy where we the unload our kayaks and load our van for the drive back to Port McNeill to end the trip.

We arrive back in Port Hardy early afternoon and if you chose to stay in Port McNeill, we arrive back at around 4:00 pm giving you enough time to fly out of Port Hardy or catch a late ferry back to the mainland, but delays do happen. We strongly suggest that our guests spend the last night in Port McNeill, enjoy a hot shower, and slowly transition out of vacation mode. Most guests choose to do this, and guests and guides often get together for a no-host farewell dinner at a local restaurant.
Meals Included: Breakfast – Lunch

Our Guest Handbook (being updated for 2023) contains details on preparing for your kayak tour. Included in the handbook is travel and accommodation information, a list of what to bring, what you can expect while you are kayaking, wildlife viewing etiquette, participant detail form and release forms.

While the summer months in British Columbia are mostly warm and sunny, we still have a few cold and wet days. After all, the coast of British Columbia is the world’s largest temperate rainforest. For maximum enjoyment on your trip in all types of weather please bring the items listed in the guest handbook.

We provide high quality three season tents. For couples we provide three person tents, and for solo travelers a slightly smaller 2 person tent. Therm-a-rest sleeping pads, and warm mummy-style sleeping bags with liners are all provided to ensure a good night’s sleep. A small library of natural history books is on every trip.

On the water we use stable single and double fibreglass kayaks and lightweight carbon/vinyl paddles. Waterproof kayaking jackets and neoprene kayaking mitts are provided to keep you warm and dry while kayaking.

Includes: We provide you with all the necessary kayaking and camping equipment, including kayaks, paddling jackets, PFD (life jacket), group shelters, tents, sleeping pads, camp chairs and sleeping bags (you may bring your own). A comprehensive list of required personal items can be read by clicking on the “Preparation” tab above. All meals during the kayak trip are provided and prepared by your guides.  Transportation is all-inclusive from Port McNeill by our network of vans and water taxis.

What is not included: We do not provide transport from your home to Port McNeill, nor do we provide airport transfers. Accommodation in Port McNeill is not included. Any meals outside the kayak portion of the tour are your responsibility. Travel insurance for accidents or emergency evacuation is not provided; we recommend you purchase a policy before leaving home. The trip price does not include guide gratuities; should you feel that the service was exemplary, it is always appreciated.

When using our online booking from you can choose the below optional items to add to your kayak tour.

Black Bear Resort: (opens in a new tab) We can arrange your pre and/or post night accommodations in Port McNeill at the Black Bear Resort

Grizzly Bear Viewing Day Trips: (opens in a new tab) Many of our guests add a grizzly bear watching day trip before or after they join us kayaking.

This tour departs from Port McNeill on northern Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada. You can travel to Port McNeill by car or plane.

Driving – If driving from the Vancouver area on the Mainland of British Columbia to Port McNeill you need to sail on BC Ferries to either Nanaimo or Victoria on Vancouver Island. From Washington State, Coho Ferry sails between Port Angeles and Victoria. Drive time from Victoria to Port McNeill is approximately 5.5 hours, and from Nanaimo to Port McNeill is approximately 4 hours.

Driving to Port McNeill is quite straightforward. From Victoria drive north on highway 1 to Nanaimo. From Nanaimo head north on Highway 19 until you see the sign for Port McNeill. Port McNeill is 1 minute off the main highway. The only other option to this route is north of Nanaimo just before you reach Parksville you can take the seaside route on Highway 19A. This route rejoins the main Highway 19 at Campbell River. The seaside route may add an extra hour to your trip.

Flying – Flights to Port Hardy (YZT), the closest airport to Port McNeill, depart from the south terminal of Vancouver International Airport (YVR) and are approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes. These flights are operated by Pacific Coastal Airlines. Port Hardy airport is a 30 minute taxi ride from Port McNeill.

If you are planning on renting a car on Vancouver Island (and not stopping in Vancouver), you can also fly with Air Canada to either Nanaimo (YCD), Victoria (YYJ) or Campbell River (YBL) on Vancouver Island. Another option is to fly with WestJet Airlines via Calgary (YYC) or Edmonton (YEG) to Comox (YQQ) on Vancouver Island. Comox is about 2 1/2 hour drive south of Port McNeill.

Kenmore Air operates float plane service to Port McNeill from Seattle, Washington.

Recommended Port McNeill Accommodations

Black Bear Resort – Can be booked with your kayak tour.

Additional Port McNeill Accommodations

Humpback Inn
Haida Way Motor Inn
Dalewood Inn
Ocean Comfort B&B
Cluxewe Resort

Even with little or no kayaking experience, you can join our Base Camp tours. Our Vancouver Island Explorer tours are suitable for beginners with a sense of adventure.

Due to the length of our Haida Gwaii tours and their remote location they are also best suited to people with some previous kayaking experience.

Our Great Bear Rainforest expedition is designed for kayakers with a moderate amount of previous kayaking experience and is our most challenging trip.

While whales are often viewed on all of our kayak tours, the Base Camp and Whales and Wildlife Explorer kayak tours have by far the most reliable sightings of both orcas and humpback whales.

Please keep in mind that while these tours offer great viewing opportunities we are still dealing with wildlife and we cannot guarantee any particular sightings.

The northern resident (fish-eating) orcas are most reliably seen around northern Vancouver Island from mid-July through September. They may be seen in June and early July, along with the transient (mammal-eating) orcas, however, sightings become more consistent later in the summer. As they are wild, we cannot guarantee any particular sightings.

There is a lot of different wildlife along the British Columbia coast year round. However, we find that the greatest and most diverse wildlife is often found off northern Vancouver Island from mid-August through September.

The Base Camps feature roomy canvas tents raised off the ground on wooden platforms, are situated throughout the forest with views of the ocean. The tents provide ample room and are outfitted with wooden beds with the thickest and widest Therm-a-rest mattresses available. Sheets, fleece blankets, full-size pillows, warm barrel-style sleeping bags, and hot water bottles are all provided. A recharging station for digital cameras, an extensive library of natural history books, a safari style bucket shower, and a large covered kitchen and dining area made from locally milled red cedar make for a very comfortable camping experience.

For our base camp tours, the camps have two out-houses made from locally milled cedar. The outhouses incorporate a holding tank and cedar sawdust to cover the waste. The tank is replaced every few days. Guests often comment on the cleanliness of our system. We pack out all holding tanks to be properly disposed of at a sewage disposal station. When away from camp during the day we use the inter-tidal area for low impact toilet use.

We pride ourselves on small group sizes, allowing close personal attention and minimal impact on the environment and the wildlife we view from our kayaks. Our base camp tours have a maximum of ten guests and three guides, while our explorer tours have a maximum of eight guests with two guides.

In addition to minimizing our impact on the land we find the smaller group size allows us to better manage our groups around wildlife giving us better viewing opportunities.