Having Fun with Almost no Money!

Sunset at Neck Point Park last Thursday

This post is to our readers who are like us: students with no car who are sticking around here for the holidays and who have a few bucks to spend with leisure. We prepared some tips about what to do in Nanaimo with no huge spendings.

First and foremost, this city has amazing parks that should not be visited only in the summer. Last week, on Thursday, the weather was awesome: a nice sun in the sky and it was not so cold.  So, we took the bus number 2 (at downtown) to Pipers Lagoon & Neck Point Parks.  And who said that we would not go to the beach in December? We heard the sound of the waves and felt the sea breeze at both parks. Pipers Lagoon is an 8 hectare hiking recreation park for sightseeing, the waterfront park trail follows a rocky coastline. The Neck Point Park is a lighter version of Pipers Lagoon to the south. A developed trail runs through most of the park, with boardwalks and lookouts. Better than describe the parks is to invite you to see how the scenery was sensational last week: http://tinyurl.com/2bperuq.

After a long hike the hunger comes, so we took the bus 2 again in front of Neck Point Park to Woodgrove Centre. In front of the shopping mall, there is an Italian restaurant named Milano's. They have a great promotion. For CAD 17.77 (HST already included) you can dine and win a ticket to watch some movie at Avalon Cinema. It is necessary to choose the dinner from a specific menu, but there are several choices of pastas, pizzas and sandwiches. A good deal, especially considering the good movies playing now. We watched “Conviction”, with Hillary Swank. The movie is based on an interesting true story. A good choice. 

About the restaurants, another tip is to pay attention to the coupons. Nanaimo News Bulletin always brings a coupon from MGM, a restaurant located at Nicol St, downtown. The December special is “Dinner for 2 only $12.95”. We did not use our coupon yet but we should use it soon. It is a great deal, is not it?

About other attractions, we also loved the Westwood Lake. We lived near there when we arrived here. We shall visit the lake this week to check if the edges of the lake have already begun to freeze. Well, those are our tips for this week. We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas. And enjoy Nanaimo, our Harbour City.