August 18, 2022
Looking for adventure now that the rains are upon us?
Look no further than the proudly local Vancouver Island Expeditions.
Vancouver Island Expeditions offers a lineup of single or multiple day expeditions. The tours include culture, history, nature and the outdoors, as well as food and drink experiences on Vancouver Island
Personally, my favourite Vancouver Island Expeditions’ expeditions are its craft brewery tours. Hopping in a warn van with a group of like-minded folks, being chauffeured to craft breweries, samples and lunch included, is my kind of rainy day fun.
Leif Bogwald started Vancouver Island Expeditions four years ago. He had participated in similar tours elsewhere and felt Vancouver Island had as mu
ch or more to offer both locals and tourists. Travelling, he says, should be about experiencing places in meaningful ways, hence his creation of memorable tours.
There are several one-day beer tours to choose from.
The Comox Valley tour is especially appealing. It offers a chance to try Vancouver Island craft beers not available anywhere else. All the brewpubs visited on this tour do not package and distribute their beer. It’s only available on-site, in kegs.
With pick up and drop off in Nanaimo, and along the way north, this five-hour island craft beer expedition features three
up-and-coming breweries in the Comox Valley.
Gladstone Brewery in Courtney focuses on Belgian ales, European lagers and Northwest inspired India pale ales. If you bring your refillable growler, you can get it filled at all the destinations.
The Pale Ale from Forbidden Brewing in Courtney’s Westerly Hotel won second place in the 2015 B.C. Beer awards. .
A little jog off the old Island Highway delivers you to Cumberland Brewing, in the town of Cumberland just a few kilometres from Courtenay.
Its weekly casks are exciting examples of the art of brewing.
All the stops on this jaunt offer an opportunity to meet the brewery owners and the talented folks that create the beer. Learning about the beers from field to glass, and sampling them as well, should be included in the dictionary description of “edutainment”.
Vancouver Island Expeditions will continue its weekly beer tours throughout the winter months as well as a popular Cowichan wine tour.
With the holiday season just around the corner, what a great gift one of these tours would make.
