Goldstream takes the first night out of Victoria, close enough to town that you can leave late and still be set up in daylight. Sites come through camping.bcparks.ca, where new inventory drops at 7 am Pacific up to three months ahead of your arrival date. Book the site first and the van second.
The coast night is China Beach, 35 km west of Sooke on Highway 14, forest sites a short trail up from the water. It takes reservations in spring and summer, then runs first-come until it closes for winter. Botanical Beach, at the end of the road in Port Renfrew, only works at low tide, and the pools vanish as the water comes up.
Sombrio sits between the two, and the Olympic Mountains are across the water for most of the drive. Highway 14 is narrow two-lane with sharp bends and long empty stretches, so check DriveBC before you commit to it. A campervan handles that road more easily than a big motorhome does. If you'd rather have the room and stay closer to Goldstream and town, size up to an RV.
Goldstream Provincial Park
The park is 16 km northwest of Victoria on the Trans-Canada, open year-round with no sani-station in winter. Vehicle sites sit under 600-year-old Douglas fir and red cedar, and a short walk reaches Goldstream's Niagara Falls, 47.5 metres down into a canyon pool. Late October into November the chum salmon spawn in the river, worth the stop if you don't mind the crowds it draws to the day-use side.
Sooke, the Potholes, and French Beach
Stock up in Sooke, the last real groceries and fuel before services thin out toward Port Renfrew. Just north of town, the Sooke Potholes are a chain of green sandstone pools carved into the Sooke River, the swim locals do on a hot day; paid parking runs in Lots 1 to 3 from May through September. At the north end of that park, Spring Salmon Place is a first-come, cash-only campground open from mid-May, with no hookups or showers.
French Beach is the closer year-round beach camp, 20 km west of Sooke, its lawn running down to sand and pebble with the Olympic Mountains across the strait. Gray whales pass in spring and fall. East Sooke Regional Park nearby is a day-hike, not an overnight.
Farther up the island
Rathtrevor and the Parksville beaches are a north-island beach week of their own; if that's the plan, start from the Parksville campervan page. Close the Pacific Marine loop inland through the Cowichan Valley and Lake Cowichan and you're onto the Duncan campervan page. Tofino and Pacific Rim are farther still, a long haul over the Malahat and across Highway 4, a rental of their own and not a night out of Victoria.
