With the increased popularity of Pacific Rim National Park, Barkley Sound and Clayoquot Sound, many visitors are basing their vacations in Port Alberni, and taking trips to a variety of surrounding regions.

Port Alberni is beyond doubt the Salmon Capital of the World - adjacent waters boast all five species of Pacific salmon. Port Alberni's harbor district is thick with tackle shops, boat rentals, and fishing charters. This is without a doubt one of the major centers for fishing on Vancouver Island and is the best resource centre for information on fishing locally in both saltwater and freshwater.

Visitors come to Port Alberni year-round to sport fish in Alberni Inlet and Barkley Sound for Chinook, Coho, and Sockeye salmon. Timing is essential if you wish to take advantage of their presence. One day they're here; the next, they're gone, so plan ahead. In general, the Alberni Inlet and Barkley Sound offer year-round fishing. Salmon is the prize catch in these waters but so too are halibut.

Visits to active logging and mill operations are available; museums feature heavy equipment as well as First Nations art; and the rejuvenated Harbor Quay is home to regularly-scheduled cargo and passenger ships serving the scattered communities of Barkley Sound. The Alberni Harbor Quay is a peoples place, with stores and restaurants, art galleries, charter outlets, and a forestry visitor centre.

Step back in time and experience the heritage of British Columbia's forest industry at McLean Mill National Historic Site, a restored sawmill with houses, out buildings, a dam, and a mill pond. A troupe of professional actors breathes life into the very people who built this province. Through daily interpretive drama, songs, stories, and dance, the period characters show how it was for the pioneers of the logging industry. While the site is accessible to the public year round, mill demonstrations, theatre presentations, and tours operate from May to September.