Customer Reviews

Hiking Vancouver Island: A Guide to Vancouver Island's Greatest Hiking Adventures

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I highly recommend this hiking trail guide book and I've been hiking and leading guided nature hiking tours of Vancouver Island for the last 12 years. The trails are a selection of the best ones for each area and not just some boring logging road. The descriptions are detailed, clear and accurate and the maps are great.

It's true that most hiking guides are outdated shortly after publication, (due to the time it takes to research and put out a book), but the maps and descriptions are still a valuable starting point. Roads, trail heads, landmarks, signs, and even street names can change. Avalanches, rock slides, river erosion, wind storms, clear cutting, forest fires and trail maintenance committments also can change over time. At the time of this review, this book and Hiking Trails (Volume One, Victoria and area) by the Vancouver Island Hiking Trails Society, are still the most recent books for Vancouver Island trails. The book also recommends checking with local trail authories for any changes and picking up recent detailed area maps from local tourist centers or forestry companies and provides map names where available. Park trails tend to be more stable and trail reports can be found on park websites (also provided).

In August 2007, I bought this book for my honeymoon in Vancouver Island. We hiked two of the hikes listed. One was completely impossible to locate based on the details given: completely incorrect street names (three incorrect street names). We ended up asking at a gas station and were given new street names to locate trailhead and different directions. The other hike was badly misrepresented, with trail names marked differently than the book indicated. A guidebook should guide the hiker; I personally think the author and publisher should be embarrassed to sell this title.

I found this guide book really helpful and i definitely recommend it for anyone wanting to do multiple hikes on the island. Enjoy your trip!

We were based in Victoria for 4 days and were hoping to use this book to give ideas for day hikes. Not a great selection of interesting hikes within reasonable reach (less than a 2 hour drive) of Victoria (in my opinion). I also felt the publication was not as professional as other walking guides - the photos are very poor (in quality of print and shot) and did not help provide the reader with a sense of the natural beauty to be found on Vancouver Island - i.e. good photos help the reader to decide what walk to select. I was amused at the reference at one point to wonderful '365 degree views'.

All in we could have worked out these routes ourselves with a map and a trip to the tourist office.

Vancover Island is a magical place!!! Go there and take this book and explore it on your own.. You will always dream of going back and this book has many trails all over!