With summer just around the corner, it’s time for a family pow-wow to decide on a warm-up-to-summer getaway for next weekend or the Victoria Day long weekend (May 17 to 19).

We have many hotels that are perfect jumping off spots for pretty much every outdoor sport around from hiking and riding to golf that any family could want. Little kids? Visits to the Greater Vancouver Zoo, Maplewood Farm, or Grouse Mountain’s Refuge for Endangered Wildlife to see orphaned grizzly bears, Grinder and Coola, are must-dos. Ditto the Aquarium in Stanley Park. The Vancouver International Children’s Festival goes May 12 to 19 (www.childrensfestival.ca); Vancouver Island International Children’s Festival hits Nanaimo May 11 to 13, and Victoria May 15 to 16 (www.childrensfestival.com). If you’re in Victoria, exploring the Sooke Potholes and whale watching are fun excursions. Try one of Sooke’s cool café’s for a kid-casual lunch. In Vancouver or Victoria, take the kids on a tour of Chinatown. Food markets with their sidewalk displays are colourful and intriguing. Shops are filled with wickedly inventive and inexpensive novelty items and toys.

Lunch at any the many Chinese restaurants, using chopsticks of course. In Nanaimo, a stroll along the Harbourside Walkway is a good way to get acquainted with this bustling city. Next, hop a ferry to Newcastle Island Provincial Marine Park, traditional territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation. Your lunch/snack stop is the just-opened Delicious Bites restaurant for West Coast and Jamaican goodies. Take the entire family for a short road trip up Island to Coombs and the Old Country Market. This spot is equally famous for the goats on the roof, and ice cream. More? Visit our website at Rezvia.com and click on Itineraries.