Port Alberni

Port Alberni sits at the head of the Alberni Inlet, Vancouver Island's longest and deepest, a forestry and fishing town that serves as the practical midpoint between the Island's east and west coasts.

The Alberni Inlet has long supported both a working sawmill economy and a serious sport fishing culture, and the MV Frances Barkley still carries passengers and freight down the inlet to Bamfield and Ucluelet, a working coastal ferry route rare anywhere in BC.

Harbour Quay's waterfront shops and the restored McLean Mill National Historic Site, a steam powered sawmill now open to visitors, both trace the forestry heritage that built the city, and Highway 4 continues west from here to Tofino and Ucluelet.

As the largest community between Nanaimo and the West Coast, Port Alberni offers fuller services than the smaller communities further west, and housing costs remain among the most affordable on Vancouver Island for buyers wanting inlet or forest access.