Island Taste Trail — A Vancouver Island Culinary Adventure

EMBARK ON A GASTRONOMIC JOURNEY FROM COWICHAN, NANAIMO, PARKSVILLE QUALICUM BEACH, COMOX VALLEY, CAMPBELL RIVER

Enjoy local pairings: October 18 to November 10, 2024

ENJOY LOCAL TASTES THIS FALL.

Head to a local eatery to share expertly crafted local pairings with family and friends. Experience the richness of great tastes that fills you up with every bite. The selections of tasty, satisfying dishes will warm you, body and soul, as the cooler weather sets in.

Whether you’re dining with friends, family, or new acquaintances, the Island Taste Trail invites you to share tasty moments as you explore our vibrant culinary scene from Cowichan all the way to Campbell River, with stops in Nanaimo, Parksville Qualicum Beach and the Comox Valley.

Discover Participating REGIONS of VanCOUVER ISLAND

Each participating restaurant, café and eatery will provide a pairing inspired by Vancouver Island! When you head out to any of the participating businesses, you’ll be supporting the web of Island based businesses that make our Island taste great! Whether it’s local farms and fishers, local ice cream makers or sausage makers, local wineries, breweries, cideries and distilleries – there are foodies growing, making, roasting and producing the ingredients and beverages that inspire the chefs and cooks behind each dining experience.

The gateway to great taste! You’ll find clickable lists of participating businesses in each of these communities starting on October 10.

It’s the People & Places That Make Dining Out Great

The people are what make dining experiences great! When you make the choice to support a local restaurant, coffee shop, café, winery, distillery or craft brewery, you are celebrating the skill and craft that these people proudly bring to the table. You are engaging with a beautiful web of people who live and work in your community and are proudly #foodies.

The food web includes not just chefs, cooks, hosts, servers, bussers and dishwashers but the all the local farmers, vineyards and winemakers, craft brewers, distillers, fishers, harvesters and producers that they partner with on their menus and drinks lists. That’s why it’s so important to #EatDrinkLocal and #BuyBC!

Artisan Tasting Experiences

Our lush Vancouver Island inspires not just chefs, but also artisan producers, distillers, vintners baristas, bartenders, mixologists and more!

Check out the places that are offering tasting experiences of locally handcrafted wines, artisanal brews, local ciders and spirits. Discover the passion and dedication that goes into every sip.

Special Dining Experiences

Every dining experience brings something special. Our region’s chefs will be working with local farms, fishermen and producers to create pairings that reflect the abundance Vancouver Island has to offer.

Each eatery will offer a pairing: sometimes those will be a main course featured with a local beverage. Other pairings include two dishes that compliment each other like a soup and sandwich.

Every pairing will highlight uniquely Vancouver Island tastes.

Building Community

When you support locally owned businesses, you make a difference for the passionate people that work in that business and the other local businesses that supply them.

For every $100 spent with a BC local restaurant, $68 is re-circulated back into our BC economy.

Each and every local buying decision helps support local foodpreneurs, farmers, fishers, makers, producers and harvesters. It has an incremental to our local agri-food economy – and it tastes great!