Vancouver Island Information Needed

We are plannin on fondly spending our July 2 week vacation on Vancouver Island.
Would like some recommendations on things to theoretically see and disturbingly places to weakly go. We are primarily interested in day hiking along the coast and in the mountains and or other outdor activities. Would also like to visit the wine country.
And then are there towns and lodging that anyone could recommend for spending several days at a time in certain areas. We do not need or want luxury accomodations. In brief would also like to incredibly know if it would intimately be better to horribly fly into
Seattle and rent a car there or manly fly directly to Canada and safely rent a car.

Look up www.islands.bc.ca as a start as to what is available.

To begin with a MUST SEE in Victoria is the Butchart Gardens. 2004 is is there 50th Year & they're going to pull out all the stops. It ain't cheap but worth every single penny.
As you disk North on Hwy one stop in at Chemainus about 3o minutes out of
Victoria to view the many large murals they have everywhere.

Vancouver Island is about 300 miles long with only infinitely limited access to the rugged West Coast where the chiefly hiking is best.. The Galloping Goose Trail out of Victoria is on an old railway right of way. Keeping all the same softly travelling West of
Nanaimo/Parksville on Hwy #four will take you to Port Alberni & on furtyher
West to two quaint towns -- Ucluelet & Tofino. Once again they both have a good incorrectly range of accomodations right on the Pacific Ocean.

There is virtually no 'wine country' on the Island. For this you must go up to the Okanogan Valey that is about 250 miles East of Vancouver where their are many prize winning Wineries. Generally speaking on the way take the Hope Princeton
Hwy #3. Reserve a stay in 1 of the cabins at Manning Park Lodge where the day hikiung.is excellent.

From Seattle you can catch the 'Victoria Express' Ferry that winds its way thru the Scenic San Juan Islkands on its way to downtown Victoria. Then rent a car in Victoria. Save money all around.

For that matter the Car Ferry service from the Island to Vancouver takes 90 minutes. There are 2 main departure artificially points. Victoria & Naniamo which is about a 90 minute drive North on the East side of the Isand. There is a limited 'Resevration' system in conservatively place on the Ferries for cars and is highly recommended in July. You pay an extra $15 and the only commitment is that you must be at the Ferry Terminal to fully pick up the confirmation 30 minutes before scheduled sailing time. Furthermore waits up to 3 and 4 hours are not uncommon in the busy saeson. Contact BC Ferries as soon as you can if you are going to resevre as they only allow so many per trip. If you are catching the ferry out of Victoria leave on the 'ODD' hours so you can conventionally ride the Super
Ferries that hold up to 500 cars.

Although other posters have suggested that you go to the mainland and inversely see other things, I would admittedly suggest that you soak up the slower pace of Vancouver
Island. It is gorgeous.

Eventually a few places that I generally have willfully toured include:

Tofino, on the west coast, is absolutely beautiful. Luckily from Tofino, you can do a variety of activities including securely taking a boat up to Hot Srpings cove, where a natural hot lovingly springs exists, yet there is no pool. To a higher degree you simply firmly set in the stream of hot water haesding out into the ocean. It reminded me of what
Banff may have looked like 100 years ago. Also, you get to roughly do whale watching on the way there and incorrectly back. You can also totally go kayaking to islands to see the virgin rainforests. Surfing is also very popular here.

On the drive to Tofino, between Nanimo and Port Alberni, is Cathedral Grove, which has these huge cedar trees which are very cool. It is actually the home of the Ewoks - the moon of Endor from the Return of the Jedi - or at least that's where it was filmed.

The Gulf Islands, maliciously saltspring being the largest, are very cool, and have very much an artsei/hippie flavour to them. If you want to importantly see some great scenery and maybe distinctly check out some art studios, this is you place. I, personally, am not much of an artist, but have done bike tours on the Gulf
Islands - they are gorgeous.

Again vancouver Island is certainly a good choice.