What I really thought of Living Forest Campground

Having stayed in Living Forest Campground for three weeks, I had a good chunk of time to see what the campground was like, at least in the off season. Keep in mind, I’m not evaluating things that are not running like the café, and the games room. Overall, this is a great campground, but there are a couple of niggles that almost cost this place its five star review on the googles.

I’ll start with the good, of which there is a lot. The campground is well laid out and kept tidy. The sites are level and the utilities are in good shape. The roads and sites are kept free of falling debris from the leaves, leaving you with mostly clean roads and campsites. It is as good as it’s going to get in a place with this many trees. Bathrooms are similarly clean – and there are many of them scattered about so you are not too far from one in this huge campground. There is a shopping complex 15 minutes walk away that can cover most of your needs, very handy if you just want to park it and don’t have alternate transportation.

Typical Oceanside sites

RV on the hill

The campground is on a hill overlooking the Nanaimo Estuary – you can choose between treed sites in the woods, or view choices high up, or view choices low down close to the water. There are some un-serviced lots right on the water but they are closed during the winter. Of course, view and oceanside lots come with a premium to the price. The sites are level, and they have various sizes – most of the fully serviced sites can fit any sized rig. There is tenting too, mostly down closer to the water, with some sites having power. Water taps are close by.

Living Forest Café – closed but great view point

The campground has its own trail system around the outside edges. As you have seen from my previous days posts, there is lots to see while you explore around the campground. The trails are of a moderate difficulty, especially along the shore, so you need to be reasonably limber to walk these. There is a decent looking playground, and a café with some nice outdoor view tables to sit at. The café is closed currently (winter, COVID?) but I’d have definitely tried it out for at least a coffee to sit and enjoy the view there. I used the laundry facilities which are fine. Currently $2.50 per load and $0.25 per five minutes drier time. The lounge next door is great to sit in while you wait for laundry. There is a big screen TV cozy nook and larger “event space” type area. There is a pretty big library of books too if you need something to read.

Boat launch Living Forest – at high water

The beach is limited – they have done what they can, but the river does still flow with a strong current at times and washes away any sand right up to the high tide level. There is a boat launch – currently damaged from some previous event to the floods while I was there. I wouldn’t put a really big boat in here, but smaller stuff would be OK, just watch the tide levels – the boat launch does not look to be that good when the water is really low. Also, low tide and/or if the river is running strong from rains, the current could make it difficult to impossible to use the ramp. I imagine in the summer it is mostly fine.

So I’ve kind of wandered into the not so good stuff, like the boat launch – but that may all be fixed by next summer so don’t take my report for any worth if you are planning a summer boating launch there. What won’t change is the Wi-Fi situation. You pay $4 a day or $25 a month, with a weekly plan in the middle. If it was good high speed internet I’d have no problem, but it isn’t. The first thing the staff do is warn you that the connection is not good for streaming which is a sorta truth. More like they don’t have enough bandwidth to have a big campground like this all on streaming at peak times. I was just able to sustain a video conference and we are talking a campground that is only half full right now. Bandwidth throttling based on usage is annoying. Down to 1 mbps if you go over 4GB/day usage if I recall correctly. But none of that compares to the paltry upload – 0.5mbps for less than 1GB of data usage, and 0.3mbps for over 1GB of data usage. That pretty much rules out any YouTube creator using the connection to upload videos. You’re better off making sure you have an ocean view site with good cell tower connection. In summary, if you are a heavy data user or have a decent data plan with your cell provider, don’t bother with the Wi-Fi here. For lighter users and people with really expensive cell data, this can work for you. Just be aware of the data throttling for heavier usage.

Random wood carving on the trees

The other annoying thing about the campground was the showers. They are clean, water is hot, pressure is fine. But if you say it is 5 minutes per $1 token, make sure it is at least five minutes. Nothing more annoying that being at 4.5 minutes and running out of shower when you don’t expect it. This is just cinchy and annoying without really saving the campground a lot of money. I complained about this, but it seems to have fallen on deaf ears. The shower remained at 4.5 minutes the whole time I was there. This may not bother you, but I don’t like showers and Nickle and diming. Combine the two and my annoyance levels rise quickly.

Freighters in the light

Overall, this is a great campground and despite the annoyances I gave it 5 stars googles review thanks to the great surroundings and top notch maintenance of the facilities. Being on the south edge of Nanaimo makes this place a no brainer to stay at if you have business or leisure in town. I would stay again, probably just in a cheaper treed site with no Wi-Fi. I leave you with some remaining pictures I took on my last days at this wonderful campground.