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Salty Express: Spring Break 2027

Surf, hike, and camp your way through Spring Break with the best experiences Vancouver Island has to offer

For Spring Break (March Break Week) 2027, we are excited to offer a spectacular 6-day teen outdoor leadership and camping journey visiting three of our favourite spots on Vancouver Island: Parksville, Tofino, and Ucluelet. It’s an epic overnight teen surf-camp-road trip adventure!

While others are staying home or running away to warmer climates, we’ll be heading out into our beautiful BC coastal temperate rainforest backyard on an experience that proves that Tofino has so much to offer no matter the season. In this unique youth overnight experience, youth will partake in activities such as surfing, outdoor skill-building lessons, and visits to the Roy Henry Vickers Museum, Tofino Botanical Gardens, and so many other hidden gems!

Like most of our camps, the Salty Express is also Duke of Edinburgh’s Award certified. Earn your Bronze, Silver, or Gold Award with us! Click here to learn more.

DETAILS
This camp needs a minimum of 8 participants to run
Ages: 13–17
Duration: 6 days / 5 nights
Group size: 10–12 with 2 instructors
Drop-off: Horseshoe Bay Ferry Terminal at 10:00 AM
Pick-up: Horseshoe Bay Ferry Terminal at 5:45 PM. We plan to take the 4 p.m. return ferry from Nanaimo; final travel instructions will be shared before departure.
Locations: Rathtrevor Park, Tofino

View dates & prices

Includes:
– Pre-course video check-in and 24-7 supervision by 2 experienced outdoor instructors
– Outdoor and leadership skills instruction
– Ferry and land transportation
– Meals and snacks throughout the six-day trip, except your packed first-day lunch and participant-purchased ferry meals. Bring at least $20 for ferry meals, including dinner on the return ferry.
– Group cooking equipment (stoves, coolers, kitchenware)
– Accommodation: five camping nights: Rathtrevor on nights 1 and 5, and Tofino on nights 2, 3 and 4. Surf Grove is our planned Tofino campground.
– 2 Surfing lessons and gear rentals
– Entrance to Roy Henry Vickers Art Gallery and Tofino Botanical Gardens and first aid and safety gear

Does not include: Anything not mentioned. Sleeping bags and therma-rest pads are available for an additional fee.

Outdoor skills and leadership

While fun is always a big part of what we do, Salty Express is designed to be an educational, transformational, and challenging experience that creates independent, self-motivated, and confident youths. Here are a few of the ways we do this:

• Duke of Edinburgh’s Award: earn your Bronze, Silver, or Gold with us. Here’s how.

• Outdoor skills: Challenge yourself with camping, surfing, outdoor skills training, and more. These experiences develop universal life skills like perseverance and problem-solving, not to mention a love for nature.

• Social-emotional learning & resilience: Spending time in nature brings challenges but also opportunities for peace, reflection, and connection. This is the unbroken space and time you need to build relationships, trust, and personal transformation through a mix of one-on-one coaching, daily journaling, and group dialogues.

• Increase self-knowledge: Over six days, become introduced to some of our personal values, strengthen your decision-making skills, and learn how to set and achieve short-term goals.

• Introductory leadership training: Guided by our pillars (Independence, Community, Knowledge, Experience, and Vision), define what leadership means to you and hold yourself accountable.

“There exists within everyone a grand passion, an outlandish thirst for adventure, a desire to live boldly and vividly through the journey of life.”

— Kurt Hahn, outdoor education pioneer

You won’t want to miss these experiences:

• Reconnect with yourself and nature during a digital detox with no technology or external distractions. During the experience, our focus is on the youth we are sharing the journey with.

• Bond with experienced and inspiring instructors who will be there for you 24-7. They’ll teach you plant identification, camp management, and so much more!

• Take to the waves in Tofino, Canada’s #1 surfing destination. No prior experience, no problem! We can arrange surfing lessons for all who need them.

• Enjoy the finest of Vancouver Island art at the Roy Henry Vickers Art Gallery.

• After a long day of exploration, there’s nothing better than S’MORES around the campfire with your new friends. Enjoy fresh, nutritious meals that you made yourself!

An exclusive Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Experience

Fireside is proud to be one of two Duke of Edinburgh ‘Trained Activity Providers’ in Canada. The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is an internationally recognized award that accelerates youths’ journeys into post-secondary education, careers, self-confidence and independence. This expedition is compatible with achieving your Bronze, Silver, or Gold Adventurous Journey (both practice and qualifying), or your Gold Project and beyond. Click here to learn how to earn the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.