My partner and I have a month long holiday early in this coming northern hemisphere summer - flying into Vancouver from Australia May 26th to June 24th this year.

Back in 2017 we completed our third epic road trip of the Pacific North West (incl. 10 days in Banff / Jasper National Parks) with a week on the southern end of Vancouver Island. We rented a holiday cottage in East Sooke and drove our rental car to a few places on the southern coast as far west as Port Renfrew.

My current loose itinerary is to stay a night in Vancouver (again) then take week or so heading north incl. Garibaldi Provincial Park and taking highway 97 and highway 16 to Prince Rupert. We would then catch the inside passage ferry down to the top of Vancouver Island (Port Hardy) and take 3 or so weeks to explore the island.

We are keen botanists and love the northern hemisphere spring & summer. We also enjoy paddling either canoe / kayak both fresh and salt water experience and we also enjoy day hiking. Alas my partner is not into cycling so we want to paddle and walk together. We would prefer to compromise on mod cons and stay away from crowds.

I'm looking for more info on where to paddle and where to day hike in south western B.C. I am a keen photographer and will take my camera gear with me as usual and maybe also our drone. We have no idea whether to rent a car or rent a 4WD and stay at guest accom. or rent a campervan and stay at camping grounds. We have plenty of campervan experience from prev. trips to New Zealand and have driven tens of thousands of miles on north American road trips before so we are wide open to suggestions. My partner is keen to stay in maybe 5 or 6 locations max. and stay a few nights or more at each location.

Any tips, clues, suggestions or straight out orders would be most appreciated.