• Canada Guide

  • Introduction to Canada
  • Weather
  • Things not to miss
  • Getting around
  • Entry requirements
  • Money
  • Public holidays

• Explore Canada

  • Ontario
  • Southwest Québec
  • Québec City
  • Northern Québec
  • The Maritime Provinces
  • Newfoundland and Labrador
  • Manitoba and Saskatchewan
  • Alberta and the Rockies
  • Vancouver Island
  • Southern British Columbia
  • The North

• Cities

  • Calgary
    
  • Edmonton
    
  • Fredericton
    
  • Halifax
    
  • Kelowna
    
  • Kingston
    
  • Montréal
    
  • Nanaimo
    
  • Ottawa
    
  • Québec City
    
  • Regina
    
  • Rimouski
    
  • Saint John
    
  • Saskatoon
    
  • Sault Ste Marie
    
  • St John's
    
  • Thunder Bay
    
  • Toronto
    
  • Vancouver
    
  • Victoria
    
  • Winnipeg
    

Canada Guide

Southern British Columbia

Nelson

• Accommodation
• Shopping
• Eating
• Drinking and nightlife

NELSON – reachable on Hwy 6 south of Slocan and Hwy 3A 34km west of Balfour – is one of British Columbia's best towns, and one of the few interior settlements in which you could happily spend two or three days; longer, if you use it as a base for touring the Kootenays by car. The elegant town (pop.10,000) is home to more than its share of baby-boomers, the dreadlocked, and refugees from the 1960s and later mainstream, a hangover that's nurtured a friendly, civilized and close-knit community, a healthy cultural scene and a liveliness – manifest in alternative cafés, nightlife and secondhand-clothes shops – that you'll be hard pushed to find elsewhere in the province outside Vancouver.