Camping Review – Mountainaire Campground – May 20-23, 2022

Location: Nanaimo Regional District
Selling Feature: Proximity to Nanaimo River, campground activities
Price per night: $56 + GST
Hookups: 30 amp electrical and water.

I want to start off this blog with a request for readers to provide me some feedback, I want to make this into a meaningful travel review site for families looking to get out into the world and wanting some feedback from other families who have been there. If you have any suggestions to make this better, please leave it in the comments below. Thanks in advance!

Getting There

We started out camping season with the traditional May Long weekend at Mountainaire campground in beautiful Nanaimo. Booking was made online about 3 months in advance, by then, most sites had already been taken though and I could only find a partial service site, water and electricity. With our larger grey and black water holding tanks though, a long weekend isn’t a problem and there is free sani-dump for registered guests on site. The three night booking for this came out to $176.40 with taxes.

Access to the campground is fairly straightforward, but its important to note that the access road off of Spruston Rd is a right turn only off of Highway one, and comes up on your rather quickly. If heading northbound, you’ll have to do the quick U-Turn route at the Nanaimo River Road. The campground is gravel roads, so can get dusty, of course this helps encourage drivers to slow it down coming into and around the campground.

Campground

The campground itself is quite large, it sits on a 40-acre parcel, the sites are a mix of relatively private and some large double sites with a good mix for those camping with friends and family. Our site didn’t offer much in the way of privacy to the double site next to us, but we were at the end of the road with the rest of the sides protected by trees and bushes and on the awning side of the trailer did feel quite private.

Check-In and Site Access

Staff at check in were friendly, provided us a map and instructions on getting to our site and the WiFi access. Maneuvering was easy into our booked site and I was backed in and unhooked in about 10-minutes. We always use a surge protector plug and it showed the electrical was not a problem. It is always recommended to use some form of surge protection, I use a Camco Dogbone RV Circuit Analyzer as some campgrounds are known to haphazardly install more electrical sites without permit which can cause problems with the sensitive circuits in the trailers. We were in site # 1 which was just up the road from the playground and at 36’ x 45’ was a nice 1,620sq ft.

Activities and Amenities

Mountainaire offers a host of on and off site activities that are child-friendly. The campground is a short hike from the stunning Nanaimo River. It takes you to a swimming hole called Crystal Bowl. Closer in, the campground has a small general store with basic necessities for those of us who forget small items on their first camping trip of the year, like dish soap, for us. There is a very nice adventure playground, it is a plastic/wood playground that has been well kept and maintained. This is located next to a large field where soccer/Frisbee is being played by families (us too!). The highlight of the long weekend activities was their Saturday evening fireworks. I mean, you don’t expect a lot from a campground fireworks display, but I mean this was amazing, approximately 20-25 minutes long, it honestly was better and more intimate (campground only) then going to Downtown Vancouver for sure. I was thoroughly impressed a campground would spend what was likely thousands for this show so huge kudos to the staff and management.

Conclusion

Mountainaire campground offered good value for money. The campground was well laid out, staff were friendly, sites affordable, and the long weekend fireworks display was simply amazing. The kids enjoyed the playground greatly and would happily run back down there on their own to play. Less then 90 minutes from Victoria, the campground offers easy access from Mid-or-South Island, as well as the Duke Point or Departure Bay BC Ferry terminal. For the price we paid, I’d happily come back for another long weekend, even without the fireworks display, it offered fun and relaxation for the whole family.

Have you been to Mountainaire Campground? Share your thoughts in the comments below. Have questions? Please post them and I will do my best to answer.

Outbound Flight Segment: YYJ-YVR-CUN
Return Flight Segment: CUN-YYC-YYJ
Aircraft Flown: DHC-8-400, Boeing 737Max8, Boeing 737-800
Total Distance Travelled: 9,358 kilometers (5,815 miles)
Price per km: Not calculated as trip was purchased as a vacation package.

So, spring break comes along, and next thing we know we are on our way to Victoria International Airport (IATA Code YYJ) for our first post-pandemic trip. This was our first time flying out of Victoria International Airport, so I’ll talk about that experience briefly. YYJ is a lovely little airport located on the Saanich Peninsula, 25km north of Victoria, near the town of Sidney, BC (sometimes mistaken for Australia). The year before the pandemic, YYJ hit just under 2million passengers, dropping to half a million passengers in 2020 and a marginal increase to 673,000 passengers in 2021. Of note for how the airline industry is recovery, YYJ had 107,000 domestic passenger movements in April 2022 compared to 135,000 passenger movements in April 2019. Its likely that it’ll be 2024 before passenger volumes recover or possibly surpass 2019, but things are looking good.

YYJ has 10 gates, 4 have jet bridges while the rest you load from the tarmac. Personally, ramp/stair on and off boarding to the tarmac is pretty cool and, in this day, and age it’s not often you get to do that at major airports here in Canada. In 2008, YYJ developed a 20-year master plan with plans to increase its capacity.

We boarded our first WestJet flight of the day, a short hop to Vancouver on a WestJet Encore De Havilland Canada Dash 8-Q400. This lane seats 78 passengers in a 2-2 configuration. WestJet Encore states it has 68 economy and 10 premium economy seats, but there is no difference between the two aside from being seated in the first 2.5 rows and getting a bottle of water upon boarding. The flight was 30 minutes delayed due to “heavy traffic” coming into Vancouver International. Funny enough, this is one of Canada’s shortest routes, and our airtime for the flight is only about 20 minutes, so spending more time on the plane on the ground was a little ironic.

We made it to Vancouver without any further issues though and easily transited through to international departures. Now, after 2 years without and travel, I had a couple companion vouchers that were not going to be used, so I exchanged them both for lounge vouchers. This got us into the plaza premium lounge which was quite lovely, and we all enjoyed a nice breakfast and some coffee.

Our flight down to Cancun today was on a Boeing 737 Max 8, the first time being on one, so I was pretty excited! The latest generation 737 has Boeing’s new Sky Interior. The overhead bins are reshaped so you end up with a more airy, open cabin that feels less like you’re riding a pop can to your destination. Of note, the Max 8 is also significantly quieter than the previous “Next Generation” aircraft.

We were seated in economy standard seats, just behind the wings, this is laid out in a standard 3-3 configuration. Standard economy on WestJet’s 737 Max 8 offers 30 inches of pitch and 17 inches width, an industry standard. Economy preferred seats offer about 34 inches of legroom for a nominal charge. There was no buy on board food service at the time, but they did come around several times with snack and drink service, luckily we had brought along lots of snacks, but for a 5 hour flight, I wish we had known there’d be no on board meals to buy ahead of time. The flight continued on uneventfully and we landed in Cancun on time to start our vacation.

For our first pandemic-era flight, we felt totally safe and satisfied with safety measures on board. For the trip, I did purchase N95 masks, including child-sized N95 masks for the extra layer of safety. They’re also more comfortable as the straps don’t go around your ears.

Overall, WestJet service was okay, it wasn’t bad and did certainly didn’t stand out as anything amazing or “wow”. It was a bit annoying to have no buy on board service on a 6-hour flight. I hope that changes soon as the world opens back up. The crew were helpful and friendly though, and as usual, they were great with the kids. We definitely will fly them again in the future, ticket price dependent. We flew with the WestJet World Elite MasterCard which entitled us to free checked baggage.

Join us as we head out on our first trip since COVID began!

Well, I don’t know what to say. It sure has been a long time since I’ve done a blog, and I do apologize for that. In the spring of 2020, who would have thought the world would have spun the way it did have the events that occurred. Politics aside, COVID was a time and opportunity for me and the family to rethink who we are and the direction in which we wanted to go. With that, I announced in my December 2020 blog that we had relocated to Southern Vancouver Island. We have loved the beautiful tranquility of living in a much smaller community in the South Island, but close enough to work in nice-sized Victoria. Moving into Spring 2021, we bought a beautiful home in the Westshore, and it’s within a 15 minute walk to the beach, this has been a complete lifestyle change for us. If you want me to write about our experience of a mid-pandemic move, have a breeze through my last blog in December 2020.

Well now, let’s fast forward to Spring 2022. So much has changed! The world is reopening, travel is starting up again, vaccines are in arms (mostly), and we are slowly beating COVID to an endemic disease. So what exciting things has 2022 brought us! Well, this is technically from 2021, but we’ve been hosting a grade 11 student in our home from Germany who has just been an amazing experience for Alyssa and I, and the kids. As I type this and realize there’s only 4 weeks of school left, I can’t help but think how hard the good-byes will be at the end of June and she heads home to Germany. It has been such an amazing experience for us and the kids, and hopefully Amelie as well, to have her living with us and join our family for the year. The kids will truly miss her when she returns home.

So in January 2022, Alyssa and I decided to book our first COVID trip, planning 7 days at the all-inclusive Sandos Playacar Resort in Cancun, Mexico! 2 adults and 3 kids were going to fly south-east across the continent and finally enjoy some R&R for the first time in two-and-a-half years. Of course, we booked the trip with trip protection in case we HAD to cancel, but we were intent on doing this trip almost no matter what. Mexico had long ago relaxed its pre-entry requirements, so long as you’re fully vaccinated. Not a problem for us, or most Canadians as the requirement still exists to be fully vaccinated in order to board a plane to, well, anywhere.

The next hurdle we had was staying healthy, or catching COVID long enough before travel that we could be considered clear of isolation to travel. Once in country, the next concern would be “what happens if we contract COVID in Mexico?” Well, that’s where researching proper travel insurance and booking at the right resort comes in.

You see, Sandos, to promote travel, had a COVID plan in place, and for those who tested positive and had to isolate for x days prior to flying home, they would cover your first 2 days of in-room isolation at no cost, including all your nutrition and non-alcoholic fluids. From there, we had COVID-specific travel insurance that would cover accommodations about to $450/day for the family including meals which would take us to the flight home.

However, in mid-March 2022, the Public Health Agency of Canada and CBSA announced that as of April 1, 2022, no pre-entry testing would be required for fully vaccinated travellers and those not eligible to receive it (ie. Those under 5). Well, we were flying home on April 2, 2022. Talk about perfect timing! Not to mention this announcement was quite the surprise, as our much more COVID weary neighbours to the south still require pre-entry testing if you’re flying into the United States.

So how was Mexico during the Omicron-era of COVID? Pretty awesome. For starters, they really take to heart that preventing spread is important to keeping tourism dollars flowing. That being said, masks were required indoors and at the buffet, only to be removed in open air spaces. So going anywhere, masks were close at hand. Staff were diligently watching and informing guests to don their masks in areas where it is still required. Aside from the mask requirement, there were hand cleaning and washing stations available all over the resort, otherwise, it was such a relief to get back to some normalacy.

The resort itself was awe-inspiring in terms of its size, we’ve never stayed at a resort so large! The staff were amazing and for the most part quite attentive. They staff were also great with the kids which is so important to us. The frustrating part of this resort though was its size. Sandos Playacar is long and narrow; the family suites and zones are closer to the check in building. The next zone are the Haciendas, an upgraded suite that come in small blocks of 8 suites, and each block has its own pool and hot tub. Interestingly however, we had considered booking a Hacienda, but the suites are smaller than the family suites, not as ideal when travelling with 5 of us. The Sandos name also allowed us access to Sandos Caracol Eco Resort about a 20-minute taxi away, but we opted to stay within Playacar. Within the resort itself, you could walk anywhere in about 15-minutes, there was also a shuttle that ran every 10-15 minutes, but its capacity was often inadequate and many didn’t understand the idea of allowing those who couldn’t walk the distance or had young kids onto the shuttle first.

Typical of an all-inclusive resort that has upgraded zones, we had to wear a wristband for the week, with a separate one for the kids. What I found really cool about this though was that our keycard was located within the wristband inside a little chip. This meant no stressing about where our keycard was and it went everywhere we were!

The room was comfortable overall. We had a king-sized bed and a twin-over-double bunk for sleeping arrangement. Maddy had top bunk, Amelie below her, and Jacob slept in the king with us. We had a jacuzzi tub in the bathroom which wasn’t used once, and apparently wasn’t used by anyone as we turned it on one day to rinse off a beach toy and brown water emerged for the first 30-seconds or so. The bathroom also had a separated toilet and double sink which allowed us to more efficiently use the bathroom. The mini-fridge was well stocked, we had coffee and a coffee maker as well. These were all restocked as we consumed them. The pillows however were quite thick and rock solid. Housekeeping also had a tendency to replace towels even if we had them hung up, this despite Sandos own message that they would replace only towels left in a pile on the floor to indicate our desire to swap. The amount of towels we had also varied day-to-day. Finally, the WiFi was good when working as well, there were sometimes some difficulties with how connecting to it works, but when connected was fast enough for high-def video streaming.

The food was nothing to scream about, it was far from bad, but didn’t scream amazing either. The nearest place to eat lunch and supper is actually quite far, about a 15 minute-walk away at the main buffet restaurant. For breakfast, one of the specialty restaurants is closer, located on the bottom floor of where you check in. We felt that this breakfast experience wasn’t nearly as good as the main buffet though. Speaking of specialty restaurants, they book up fast, and if you’re there for a week, go to the guest services desk and book your desired restaurant on day 1 for during your stay or you likely won’t get a spot. We had really wanted to try Asiana but could not get a reservation, alas, we did get one at the steakhouse one evening though.

There was definitely no problem getting us through our days. Swimming options galore including a family pool located almost outside our room. This pool was large, never crowded, and offered us a swim up bar. While the resort was steady, it didn’t seem anywhere near capacity for guests, or staff. Waits could be long as there was often only one bartender, but they always did their best to keep up. There were two waterparks available to guests, yes, two! Both were relatively new, one was all the way down by the beach, this main waterpark was quite big and offered the kids a huge variety of slides and apparatus.  The second waterpark was right by our family pool, this was much newer and it was nice to have a much quieter option for our kids so close to our room. The kids club was an instant hit with our kids, located roughly mid-resort by the main buffet, it offered drop in fun for the kids, and after the first visit there, the kids kept asking to return.

Next is the mini-golf, this 10, or was it 12-hole mini course was loads of fun. However, we did have to skip a couple holes due to infrastructure not being intact, it definitely would benefit from some TLC from maintenance crews. The beach was pretty decent, one thing we loved about this trip was we were never, not once, struggling to find lounge chairs. The amount of seaweed that washed ashore would make any sushi-lover envious though. The water otherwise was clean and warm and safe for swimming.

There was also nightly concerts in the outdoor theatre as well, and Sandos put on some pretty amazing show! The first night we got there, a nod to Led Zeppelin was on stage. However, the two we really wanted to see, well, actually, the one Amelie really wanted to see was Shakira and the kids really wanted to see Cocoa. Both were great shows and it was so satisfying to see their faces light up during the performances and dancing and singing along.

A couple evenings that we were there, there was also a night market setup just outside the main buffet. There were also free bikes to sign out and go for a ride through the secure resort area that the Sandos was located in, the main road took you around past many other resorts such as several Riu brands and the Hard Rock Café. Not surprisingly, one of the markets you ride past has the same products and merchants that go into the resort and sell items for easily double the pesos. While the market in the resort area is by no means cheap, it does support local merchants and I do like the feeling and game of haggling what I feel is an okay deal. Yes! I know I’m often still ripped off, but it does support local owners who have otherwise been decimated by COVID lately as well.

All-in-all it was an amazing first post-COVID trip. We relaxed, drank, had fun, and most importantly, the kids had fun and were occupied the whole time. We enjoyed all the foods and desserts we wanted, forgot about work, and enjoyed our first experience in Cancun. The one thing I personally would prefer in Puerto Vallarta is the ability to enjoy and watch the sunset over the ocean. Being in the family zone, we were no where near ocean view so watching a sunrise was out of the question unless I wanted to get up really early and go for a walk. I think overall we’d give Sandos Playacar a 4 star rating. Everything was good, but nothing had a wow factor to it. Alyssa and I agreed we all enjoyed the trip but will likely not return to this resort if we came back to Cancun for a resort trip.

Thank you for reading about our latest trip! Travelled during COVID? Please share your experience in the comments.

Exciting news! Well, for us anyways. As of Nov 15, 2020, we’ve moved over to Vancouver Island! Yes, you read that right!

Alyssa and I both accepted jobs with Island Health. Alyssa is based out of Royal Jubilee Hospital and I’m hitting the streets with Substance Use Outreach and COVID Outreach and Assessment in Duncan. We’ve decided to locate ourselves in Langford for now, and will be starting our hunt for our permanent home in the spring.

Moving during a pandemic really wasn’t that bad! We found amazing movers with a company called BC Moving and Storage based in Victoria. The finalized plan was they’d cross over early in the morning, load our stuff, and park it in their yard for the night. They then offloaded the next morning. Alyssa actually went to the island a week ahead of us, so I had the entire last week with the kids at school/daycare to pack to my hearts content. For the most part, we’ve found what we’ve needed, minus a few things that have disappeared for the time being! Oops!

Overall though, given the ferry/distance involved, it was a stress-free move. For the humans anyways. Sammy had a stress reaction which resulted in some diarrhea, but cleared after a day and he has since settled in very nicely. Maddy settled into her new elementary school really nicely and Jacob is enjoying his new daycare. One benefit to moving during the pandemic, we found childcare much easier then we likely would have if the pandemic hadn’t caused care centres to drop in attendants.

We are loving the island lifestyle so far! Settling into our new roles, and exploring the area. We live 10 minutes from the ocean, minutes from numerous parks, lakes, and trails; and have joined a welcoming and friendly community. We look forward to sharing new adventures from the Island!!