There is no right answer. Qualicum Beach is a charming small town with several charming stores. It is the home to senior millionaires with several good restaurants. Parksville is not worth spending a half day. Nanaimo is interesting if in addition to the park and Harbourfront you see other interesting areas such as Hammond Bay Road.

I am assuming you are going east-west, Vancouver to Nanaimo. I would definitely call BC Ferries (1-888-223-3779) who are usually most helpful. Go on their website first and look at the routes. Neither ferry from Vancouver to Nanaimo arrives at the walkway and just to make it simple neither comes direct from Vancouver either! The northern route leaves from Horseshoe Bay, about 45 mins by bus/cab from downtown Vancouver. The ferry takes about 100 mins. This goes to Departure Bay, a mile or so's walk to downtown Nanaimo and the Harbour Walk. The southern route leaves Tsawwassen for Duke Point, about 10+ m south of Nanaimo and takes a bit less time, I think. Tsawwassen is about an hour south of Vancouver by bus/rail or direct by bus. Most visitors take the northern route, car or not. But if you take the car it's probably worth while booking. Hope this helps! Chris

Hi, sorry for the delayed response. We just moved to Nanaimo recently and I wasn't sure about the cruise ship terminal so I wanted to get more info. Just walked down there this morning to check it out. Since the terminal is private property I couldn't get right inside as a regular pedestrian. It's about 500 metres south of Port Place which is where the seawall walk starts (or ends I guess). If you are on foot, looks like you'd have to use the city sidewalk to get to Port Place. Like I said, I couldn't get inside the terminal but there is a rail yard between the terminal and Port Place and from the road it didn't look like there was a walkway down there. Not the most picturesque area, with the rail yard there, but once you get to Port Place and to the seawall walk itself, it's very nice. Hope that helps

Hello... thank you for your question. Between Cameron Island (across from Thrifty Foods) and the end of the Harbourfront Walkway is just over 3 km one way and takes about 45 minutes to walk. You can walk shorter distances by turning around at any point.