Port Hardy

Port Hardy is a district municipality of about 4000 people (2016) in the North Vancouver Island region of British Columbia. Port Hardy is a transportation hub for air, ferry and marine networks, and serves as the gateway to the Central Coast, the Cape Scott and North Coast Trails, and BC Ferry’s northern terminus for the Discovery Coast run and Prince Rupert.

Understand
Beaver Cove, near the BC Ferries Terminal, is the oldest known site of human habitation on Vancouver Island (circa 5850 BCE). The first contact with Europeans occurred in 1836 when the steamship S.S. Beaver was sent on an exploratory trip by Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). To exploit coal deposits, the HBC to establish a fortified trading post at Beaver Harbour around 1848, and named it “Fort Rupert” after the company’s governor, Prince Rupert, Duke of Bavaria. Though little of the fort remains today, the Kwakiutl First Nations (Indigenous people) continue to reside adjacent to the former fort site. Port Hardy’s population grew to a little over 5,000 residents while the Island Copper Mine was operating from 1971-1995 about 16 km south of the town. The open-pit porphyry copper mine employed over 900 employees from Port Hardy and the surrounding communities. Today, the former mine is a wildlife habitat and pit lake biological treatment system.

Visitor information

 * Tourism website

By car
Take the Island Highway from ferries docking at Victoria (500 km, about 5½ hours driving) or Nanaimo (385 km, about 4 hours) from Vancouver, and follow it until the northern end.

By boat
Ferry terminal:


 * Served by two routes:
 * From Prince Rupert (16-22 hours) via Klemtu (7.75-11.5 hours) and/or Bella Bella (8-9.5 hours). The ferries travel through the beautiful Inside Passage that connect the North Coasts and Central with the Port Hardy. The number of sailings per week varies by season, and depart up to every other day in the summer.
 * From Bella Coola (10 hours). Operates several days per week in the summer only. Otherwise, travelers from Bella Coola can take a ferry to Bella Bella and transfer to reach Port Hardy.

Airport

 * . BC Transit bus route #4 operates a few trips to the airport from Monday to Friday.

Airlines

 * Flies to Port Hardy from Vancouver (3 times a day, 1 hour travel time, $195-245 one-way) and Bella Bella (twice a day $165-200).

By taxi
Water taxi services are also available at the dock for the North Coast Trail.

Do

 * North Island Calendar of Events Festivals, Concerts, Sporting events
 * Some of the best scuba diving on the planet, though the water is cold and conditions are tough (so significant prior experience is expected), is available offshore from Port Hardy. Try Browning Pass Hideaway or God's Pocket Resort.
 * Hike
 * Hike

Drink
Some of the hotels and inns listed below have pubs.

Go next

 * Cape Scott Provincial Park
 * Coal Harbour
 * Winter Harbour