WildPlay is an outdoor adventure park with ropes courses, ziplines and axe-throwing activities. Its Nanaimo location also has bungy jumping and rope swings.
TIPS: There are WildPlay locations in Victoria, Nanaimo and in Maple Ridge in the Lower Mainland. Use the promo code VBP15 and you’ll save 15% off the regular price of adventures at all three locations! Also, if you get an annual pass, you can do the ropes courses at all three places as many times as you want for free! That’s a great deal!
For the attraction’s official website, visit wildplay.com.
WildPlay Element Park in Nanaimo
There are two WildPlay Element Parks on Vancouver Island. One is in Victoria and the other is in Nanaimo. The Nanaimo location is actually the company’s original park and its largest location in British Columbia.
Even for those who live in Victoria, the Nanaimo location is still a great place to go! WildPlay in Victoria is awesome! WildPlay Nanaimo s even bigger and better! It has a couple of serious experiences that you can’t get at the Victoria park (which is still fantastic on its own).
Location and Operating Hours
WildPlay Nanaimo is located at 35 Nanaimo River Road which is south of the city about halfway between downtown Nanaimo and Ladysmith. The adventure park is less than a 15-minute drive from the Duke Point Ferry Terminal for people travelling from the Lower Mainland. It’s about a 90-minute drive from downtown Victoria.
The attraction is open from mid-February to mid-December. Last year’s season began on February 17th. Below were the operating dates and hours in 2024. Future years should be similar.
- February 17th to 29th – open Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
- March 1st to May 31st – open Thursday to Monday from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm
- June 1st to 30th – open Monday to Friday from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm, and from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm on Saturday and Sunday
- July 1st to September 4th – open daily from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm
- September 5th to 30th – open Thursday to Monday from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm
- October 1st to 31st – open Friday to Monday from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm
- November 1st to December 15th – open Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
For full details and to book your adventures on Vancouver Island, click WildPlay Nanaimo or WildPlay Victoria.
WildPlay Nanaimo Experiences
There are plenty of fun experiences to enjoy at WildPlay Nanaimo. Each activity at the park can be purchased on its own or as part of a bundle, meaning you can try out as much or as little as you want when visiting.
There are plenty of different combo packs with discounts on offer. For full details on those, click WildPlay Nanaimo. To learn more about each of the experiences at the park, keep reading.
Note: Prices for all experiences were accurate as of the summer of 2024.
Adventure Ropes Courses
The most popular part of WildPlay is its adventure ropes courses. There are two designed for adults and one designed for children. To learn about the various options, see below or visit the WildPlay website.
The Classic Course
The Classic Course comprises three different sections, and participants can come back to the ground at the end of each of them. There are ziplines, tightropes, things to swing from and plenty of other obstacles to get through.
The Classic Course takes between 90 minutes and two hours to complete. You have to have some endurance to do it. It’s challenging, but not too difficult for most people! It’s accessible for people of all ages, however, and as long as you have some decent strength and balance then you should be perfectly fine.
The course costs around $50 to $60 depending on when in the day you book. (It’s less expensive to go either early in the morning or close to the end of the day.)
The Extreme Course
The Extreme Course can be added on to the Classic Course for an extra $15, or you can do just it on its own.
As the name implies, the Extreme Course is a bit more difficult than the Classic Course, and higher up in the air. The Extreme Course takes less than an hour to complete and is just one section of obstacles.
The Kids Course
There’s also the Kids Course which is lower to the ground and designed for children aged 5 to 12. This course costs around $25 to $30. It’s a lot of fun for those who are a bit too young to be able to enjoy the bigger courses.
WildPlay offers season passes which include unlimited access to the adventure courses for that year. Last year they cost around $200 for adults and $140 for children. If you plan on going multiple times throughout the year, then this is a great deal!
To book your adventures, visit the WildPlay Element Park website.
Bungy Jumping at WildPlay Nanaimo
The Bungy Jump is one of the two experiences at WildPlay Nanaimo that you can’t try at the Victoria or Maple Ridge locations. For adrenaline junkies, it’s the ultimate thrill! It involves a straight drop of 150 feet down while attached to an elastic rope!
The Bungy Jump is safe, but definitely scary! Over a quarter of a million people have done it! Most people aren’t brave enough to do it. Those who do, however, tend to love it! In our opinion, it’s our number one favourite activity, along with the Primary Swing. Everything at WildPlay is tons of fun!
During the summer last year, the jump cost $140 to $170 to do for the first time. For those wild enough to want to do multiple jumps in a day, each jump after the first cost just $65.
TIP: Each March there’s a special event: the Naked Bungy Jump! Done in support of Mental Health Recovery Partners, participants strip down to the buff right before taking the jump. The event has raised over half a million dollars since its inception in 2006. It took place on March 2nd and 3rd in 2024.
To learn more about bungy jumping opportunities (with your clothes on), see the WildPlay Nanaimo website.
Primal Swing at WildPlay Nanaimo
The Primal Swing is similar to the Bungy Jump in a number of ways. It takes place over the same Nanaimo River canyon. Both activities are also phenomenally thrilling and travel at terrific speeds. The difference is that the 150-foot Primal Swing drop is done in a harnessed swing rather than with a bungee cord. Participants still plunge down at a rapid rate, faster actually than the Bungy Jump.
The swing can be done either solo or with another person strapped in next to you. A solo swing costs around $110 or $120, depending on when you go, and a tandem ride costs about $20 less per person. If you bundle the experience with other activities at the park, it’s even less expensive.
Note: To do the Primal Swing alone you have to be a minimum of 170 lbs in weight. If you are lighter, you’ll have to go strapped in with a friend (or maybe one of the WildPlay workers). The reason for this is that with lighter weights the swinging won’t be as smooth, and can actually be a bit bumpy.
For full details about the Primal Swing, see the wildplay.com website.
WildPlay Zipline Tour
For those who want to take a bit of a slower ride over the river, the Zipline Tour is the way to go. Participants go on a couple of ziplines that are hundreds of feet long at a more controlled (but still fairly quick) pace.
The ride is feet-first and done solo. From the initial launching point you fly through the air until you reach a large tree with a platform around it. There, you’re unclipped by an attendant waiting for you and then get clipped onto the next zipline.
Last summer, the Zipline Tour cost about $30 or $35. Participants must be at least 7 years old and weigh at least 100 pounds.
To learn more about the Zipline Tour and to book your trip, see the WildPlay Nanaimo website.
Other Activities
There are a couple of other experiences to try at WildPlay Nanaimo. The first is axe throwing which costs around $25. The throwers are contained in their own pod to prevent any axes flying around. The goal is to try and hit a target from about 15 feet away.
There’s also the What’s To Fear Jump (or WTF Jump), which costs $20 on its own or $15 when added on to any other activity. The WTF Jump platform is 40 feet in the air. With it, participants are securely strapped into a harness. Guests then jump off the platform and land on the ground below, with their descent starting off fast before the rope they’re attached to slows them down to a slower, controlled fall.
WildPlay Ropes Course Video
To give you a good idea of what to expect at WildPlay in Nanaimo, check out the following video. It shows scenes of the ropes courses.
Tips & Advice
Below are some suggestions and extra information to help you make the most of your experience-of-a-lifetime adventures at WildPlay in Maple Ridge.
TIP #1: Go to any of WildPlay’s locations if you get the opportunity! They are so much fun!
TIP #2: If it’s early in the season, get an annual pass. Do that and you can do the ropes courses at all three of BC’s WildPlay locations, and at the WildPlay location in Niagara Falls, Ontario, too. (Note: You won’t get unlimited bungy jumping, primal swings and WTF jumps with your membership. However, you will get discounts on things as well as unlimited thrills and exercise on the ropes courses.)
TIP #3: You have to meet certain age, height and weight restrictions to participate in the various activities. Make sure you meet all these requirements before booking your adventures.
TIP #4: If you want to do a number of the different activities, book a combo package and you’ll save a fair bit compared to paying for everything separately.
TIP #5: If doing a number of activities, we recommend you do the classic ropes course first followed by the extreme course and then the Primal Swing before finishing with the Bungy Jump. When we went, our favourite activity was the extreme ropes course, but only up until we did the Primal Swing, and then only until we did the Bungy Jump. Go in that order and the thrills get increasingly more extreme. We did the axe throwing and ziplining after the ropes courses but before the Primal Swing, which was a good order to do them in too.
TIP #6: Take a break between some of the activities (but don’t wait until the end of the day to do the bungy jump). You want to make sure to leave enough time to do the most exciting activity of them all! If you wait until the last minute, you might find everyone else had the same idea (which means not everyone will be able to do it before the end of the day).
Other Information
For more information about the attraction, visit the WildPlay Nanaimo website. You can also check out our articles about WildPlay Victoria and WildPlay Maple Ridge.
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