Fat Salmon Backpackers, Vancouver Island

Don't stumble upon your next great hostel by accident, we want to tell you know that Fat Salmon Backpackers is a great place to stop off before hitting the more touristy areas of Nainamo and the West Coast Trail. Here you'll be greeted by the wonderful Chris and Char who met while working together in a hostel in Edinburgh. You'll love their humour and their enthusiasm too. You may even plan to stay only one night but end up staying a week instead! Port Alberni itself is great - extremely welcoming and a short top from Cathedral Grove where you'll find some of the biggest trees in Canada. If you are into surfing it's also one of the best places to catch a wave in Canada. Come if you have the time as you WILL end up staying for longer! Dorms start from $25 (tax included) 

Here are just a few other reasons to stay at Fat Salmon Backpackers:

• Easy day trips to West Coast Trail, Strathcona Park, Della Falls, Cathedral Grove, Mount Washington
• A BBQ and weekend salmon dinners
• Two common rooms!
• Free parking
• Free coffee and wifi
• Free maps and travel booking

You can find out more and start planning your trip here: http://www.fatsalmonbackpackers.com/

Hostel of the Week, August 5th to August 12th 2014

Backpackers Hostels Canada

Fat Salmon Backpackers, Port Alberni

We, at the Fat Salmon, have spent the better part of a decade exploring the global village and its crazy, shiny corners for the most relaxed, quirky and pragmatic ways to accommodate the creative and adventurous budget traveller (you). Let your journey begin, pause or stay in breath-taking Port Alberni, British Columbia, where ours continues every lucky day.
El Gordo, the groovy Fat Salmon, is waiting for you (and so are the rest of us!).
Come on, come and eat up our fantastic backpacker's hostel and shoe-string budget accommodations in Port Alberni, Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

Call us at: (250) 723-6924

Hostel of the week July 1st to July 8th, 2007

submitted by Kennedy Jones

Backpackers Hostels Canada

Fat Salmon Backpackers in Port Alberni is for sale!

The Fat Salmon is a seasonal backpacker's mecca, offering 38 beds in dormitory-styled rooms. There are four bathrooms, two lounges, a kitchen, a BBQ outside and both front and back decks. There is laundry and workshop downstairs, as well as a drying room for wet hiking, cycling and kayaking gear. The back of the hostel sits two streets up from the beautiful Harbour Quay in rugged Port Alberni.

The 90 year-old building, sitting on two city lots, comprises two floors ­ the main street-level is the hostel, and the lower floor houses the manager's suite (complete one-bedroom apartment), as well as a second one-bedroom apartment, currently used as a rental unit (but perfect for expansion of the upstairs hostel, too). There is an unfinished attic that could easily be renovated to expand the hostel or to finish as another rental unit. All plumbing, electrical and alarm systems were updated in 2005 to meet code.

The Fat Salmon has earned a reputable name for itself as a business and a hostel. The Fat Salmon works closely with local kayaking outfitter, Batstar Adventure Tours, local tubing outfitter, Stamp River Tubing, as well as Rendezvous Dive Adventures in the Barkley Sound.

The Fat Salmon is a member of several networks, has been acclaimed in many travel guidebooks, newspapers, and television shows, as well as national and international magazines.

Contact Chris and Char directly at: 250.723.6924. Email us at charmead@mac.com .

Just keep swimming.

Hostel of the week Jan. 18th to Jan. 26th, 2009
submitted by Ken Jones,
Backpackers Hostels Canada