Port Alberni/West Coast

Zone 6 of the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board includes Port Alberni and the communities of Tofino, Ucluelet and Bamfield on the West Coast.

The City of Port Alberni (pop.18,490) is located at the head of the Alberni Inlet in the Alberni Valley, 47km (29 miles) west of Parksville.

Port Alberni’s main industries have been mining and logging but it is converting itself into a major tourist hub. It is also the Salmon Capital of the World (shared with Campbell River).

Heading west on Highway 4, Tofino (pop. 1,711), is located on the west coast of Vancouver Island 130 km (81 miles) west of Port Alberni.

The pretty fishing village is a rapidly growing tourist centre for Long Beach and other Pacific Rim destinations. Once a timber and fishing town, Tofino has become a favoured destination for over one million travelers annually, making it one of BC’s premier destinations.

It was first named in 1792 after a Spanish Hydrographer. It was connected to the rest of Vancouver Island in 1959, when a gravel road was built to Port Alberni.

Ucluelet (pop.1,847) is located 42 km (26 miles) south of Tofino on Highway 4.

Until the early 1870s, Ucluelet was a First Nation village. The Village of Ucluelet was incorporated in 1952, and then changed to the District of Ucluelet in 1997 because of population growth.

Ucluelet now a logging, fishing and tourist village at the south end of Pacific Rim National Park.

Bamfield (pop.400) is located on the edge of the Pacific Rim National Park and the Broken Group Island on the west-side of Vancouver Island.