Corporate Retreats

A corporate retreat on Vancouver Island that earns the flight.

Exclusive lakefront property, 45 minutes from YYJ. No shared lobbies, no hotel hallways, no other guests. Your team and the lake.

Why teams fly to Vancouver Island for offsites

Most corporate retreats on Vancouver Island happen at resort hotels. Your team books a conference room, shares the lobby with vacationers, and scatters to separate floors at night. The offsite feels like a workday with better views.

Shawnigan Retreats is different by design. We rent the entire property to one group at a time. Two houses on two private acres of lakefront, sleeping up to 18 people across eight bedrooms. Your team eats together, works together, and walks from the boardroom to the dock without passing another soul. The property sits on Shawnigan Lake in the Cowichan Valley, 45 minutes south of Nanaimo and 45 minutes north of Victoria. Teams flying into Victoria International Airport (YYJ) can land at nine in the morning and be seated around the dining table with coffee by ten-thirty.

We built this place to work from. The WiFi runs at 300 Mbps over fibre because we use it ourselves. The 85-inch screen in the great room has HDMI and AirPlay because we got tired of dongles. The dining table seats twelve because that is the size of a team that can still make decisions in one room.

The entire 2-acre private property from above

Getting here from YYJ, Vancouver, and Seattle

From Victoria International Airport (YYJ). The airport sits in Sidney on the Saanich Peninsula. Take Highway 17 south to Highway 1, then north toward Duncan. Exit at Shawnigan Lake Road. The drive is 45 minutes, entirely on paved highway. No secondary ferries, no gravel roads. Teams with an early-morning landing can be in a working session before lunch.

From Vancouver. Drive to Tsawwassen and take the BC Ferries sailing to Swartz Bay (90 minutes). From Swartz Bay, follow Highway 17 south to Highway 1 north. Total door-to-door time is roughly two and a half hours including the ferry crossing. For teams flying into YVR, the Tsawwassen terminal is 30 minutes from the airport.

From Seattle. Teams from Seattle can fly direct to YYJ (a 45-minute hop on Alaska Airlines or Harbour Air seaplanes) or drive to Anacortes and take the Washington State Ferry to Sidney. The ferry route adds scenery and avoids the border crossing at Peace Arch.

Ground transport on arrival. A 14-passenger Sprinter through Wilson's Group meets flights at YYJ. We arrange the booking; you just tell Brianna the flight number. For smaller groups, the drive from the airport is straightforward enough that a rental car works well.

The route crosses the Malahat, where Highway 1 climbs the coastal range above the Saanich Inlet. On a clear day the views stretch across the water to the Gulf Islands. In winter the summit occasionally sees snow, but the highway is plowed and salted within hours.

Vs. Tigh-Na-Mara, Brentwood Bay, and Bear Mountain

Vancouver Island has a handful of venues that host corporate retreats. Each comes with trade-offs worth understanding before you book.

Tigh-Na-Mara Seaside Spa Resort sits on 22 acres in Parksville, about two hours north of YYJ. It is a full-service resort with conference rooms, a spa, and oceanfront cabins. The facilities are professional and the staff handles large groups well. The trade-off is that you share the property with other hotel guests, conference rooms are shared facilities, and the two-hour drive from YYJ burns half a travel day. For teams that want resort service and do not mind the distance, Tigh-Na-Mara is a solid choice.

Brentwood Bay Resort and Spa is a boutique hotel on the Saanich Inlet, about 30 minutes from downtown Victoria. Oceanfront rooms, a marina, and a small meeting room. The location is convenient and the property is attractive. The constraint is scale: it is a hotel, so your team sleeps on separate floors, shares the dining room with other guests, and rents meeting space by the hour. Good for a two-day retreat where the team does not need to live together.

Westin Bear Mountain is a golf resort on the outskirts of Langford, 20 minutes from downtown Victoria. Conference facilities, a golf course, and standard hotel rooms. It feels like a conference hotel because it is one. The advantage is capacity; the disadvantage is that your offsite will feel like every other hotel offsite your team has attended.

Shawnigan Retreats is the opposite model. You rent the entire property. No other guests, no shared conference rooms, no hotel hallways. Twelve people sleep in one house. The boardroom is the dining table. The breakout space is the dock. The meeting ends when someone suggests the sauna, not when the room booking expires. For teams of eight to eighteen who want three or four uninterrupted days together, this format produces different conversations than a hotel does.

The honest limitation: we do not have a front desk, a concierge, or room service. We have a house, a lake, and Brianna's phone number. If your team wants turndown service, book Brentwood Bay. If your team wants to argue about strategy until midnight and then jump in the lake, book us.

A team gathered around the long dining table on the deck at sunset, lake in the background

Sample four-day executive offsite agenda

The schedule we have watched work for leadership teams of eight to fourteen running annual planning or quarterly strategy. Adjust freely; the agenda is yours.

Day 1 — Monday: Arrival and context-setting

  • 9:00am — Team lands at YYJ. Sprinter meets the flight curbside.
  • 10:15am — Arrive at the property. Coffee in the great room, room assignments, twenty-minute walk around the grounds.
  • 11:00am — Kickoff session. Set the week's outcomes on the whiteboard. Hard stop at 12:30.
  • 12:30pm — Working lunch on the deck. Chef-prepared, served family style.
  • 2:00pm — Context dump. Each team lead presents a ten-minute state-of-the-world. No slides, just the whiteboard. Two hours with breaks.
  • 4:30pm — Free time. Sauna heats up in 40 minutes from cold. The dock faces west and catches the afternoon light.
  • 7:00pm — Welcome dinner. No work talk. Halibut from Cowichan Bay or duck from a Cowichan Valley farm, depending on the season.
  • 9:00pm — Firepit on the beach. Optional. Some teams stay until midnight.

Day 2 — Tuesday: Strategy and hard decisions

  • 7:00am — Coffee on the dock. Yoga on the deck if you have booked the Cobble Hill instructor (two days notice).
  • 9:00am — Strategy session in the great room. Full team around the dining table. 85-inch screen for data, whiteboards for frameworks. Three hours, two short breaks.
  • 12:00pm — Lunch. Walk afterward. The lake trail is flat and takes twenty minutes.
  • 1:30pm — Breakouts in two or three groups. Cottage living room, games room, and the master suite balcony each hold four to six people comfortably.
  • 4:00pm — Team activity: pickleball bracket, paddleboard relay, or a winery run to Unsworth or Blue Grouse (both under fifteen minutes by car).
  • 6:30pm — Working dinner. One prompt on the table: where do we want this company in three years.
  • 9:00pm — Hot tub seats six. Or sleep. Both are valid.

Day 3 — Wednesday: Decisions and ownership

  • 8:00am — Breakfast on the deck.
  • 9:00am — Decisions session. What did we agree on yesterday, who owns each commitment, and what is the timeline. Two hours, hard stop.
  • 11:00am — Deep-work block. Pairs and small groups draft the plans that came out of the morning session. No scheduled meetings until dinner.
  • 2:00pm — Optional: hike the Kinsol Trestle (15 minutes south, 90-minute round trip), swim in the lake (24 degrees Celsius in late August), or catch up on email using the 300 Mbps fibre.
  • 5:00pm — Sauna and dock. This is the session where people say the things they did not say in the meeting room.
  • 7:00pm — Final group dinner. Chef cooks the best of whatever is local this week.

Day 4 — Thursday: Wrap and depart

  • 8:00am — Breakfast.
  • 9:00am — Wrap-up session. Review the commitments board. Assign follow-up dates. Photograph the whiteboards. One hour.
  • 10:00am — Pack, walk-through, group photo on the dock.
  • 10:30am — Sprinter departs for YYJ. Early-afternoon flights home.

What not to schedule: meetings before 9am (people travel tired); parallel tracks with more than twelve people (you stop being one team); fewer than two unscheduled hours per day (resentment builds). Leave slack in the agenda. The best conversations happen in the slack.

Technology and meeting infrastructure

We built this property to work from, so the infrastructure is not an afterthought. Here is what your team gets without asking.

Internet. 300 Mbps fibre WiFi across the entire property. We tested it with eight simultaneous video calls running from different rooms. It held. There is a backup 5G hotspot in the kitchen drawer if your CFO wants to see a redundancy plan in the proposal.

Presentation. An 85-inch screen in the great room with HDMI and AirPlay. Plug in or cast wirelessly. We keep a USB-C-to-HDMI adapter in the TV cabinet because someone always forgets theirs.

Meeting spaces. The dining table seats twelve in boardroom configuration. The great room holds sixteen in theater seating. The games room, cottage living room, and master suite balcony each work as breakout rooms for four to six people. Whiteboards and markers are in the closet by the front door. A flip-chart easel is behind the coats.

Video conferencing. A conference camera and a Yeti microphone are available for hybrid sessions. Brianna sets them up before your arrival if you need them. Cell signal is strong across the property, reliable enough for calls from the deck or the dock.

Quiet zones. Individual calls work well from the master suite balcony (lake view, door closes), the lake bedroom (ground floor, quiet), and the cottage living room (separate building entirely). Nobody has to take a call from their car.

Group serving themselves at a chef-prepared buffet outdoors with the lake behind them

Corporate retreat pricing

Lakeside House only (sleeps 14, 6 bedrooms): from $4,500/night plus $450 cleaning fee. Three-night minimum.

Whole property (sleeps 18, 8 bedrooms): from $5,500/night plus $650 cleaning fee. Three-night minimum.

Catering, facilitation, and activities are priced separately. A private chef runs roughly $900/day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for twelve. Facilitators, yoga instructors, and guided activities are arranged through our network and invoiced directly.

The math your CFO will ask about

A three-night offsite for twelve people at a downtown Victoria hotel costs more than most teams expect. Twelve rooms at the Fairmont Empress or Magnolia run $400 to $500 per night in shoulder season ($14,400 to $18,000 in rooms alone). Add a private meeting room at $1,200/day ($3,600), catered breakfast and lunch at $90 per person per day ($3,240), and you are at $21,000 to $25,000 before dinners. Dinners out for twelve add another $3,000 to $5,000. Total: $24,000 to $30,000, and the team scatters to separate hotel floors every night.

Downtown Vancouver is steeper. Rooms at the Fairmont Pacific Rim run $450 to $650 per night ($16,200 to $23,400), meeting rooms at $1,500/day ($4,500), and catering at $100 per person per day ($3,600). Subtotal: $24,300 to $31,500, plus flights for any team members outside Vancouver.

A three-night Shawnigan Retreats offsite for twelve, whole property: $5,500/night ($16,500) plus $650 cleaning, plus a private chef at $900/day ($2,700). Total: approximately $19,850 all-in. The team sleeps in one house. The boardroom is the dining table. The breakout space is the dock. You get an extra working day because nobody commutes.

50% deposit confirms the booking. Balance due 30 days before arrival. Fully refundable up to 30 days out; cancellations inside 30 days are non-refundable. We invoice however your finance team prefers. GST receipts provided.

Request a corporate proposal

What your team does between sessions

The property sits on two acres of lakefront with enough to fill downtime without leaving. Nothing is mandatory. Almost everything happens anyway.

On the water. Two paddleboards and two kayaks are included. The lake is swimmable from late June through September, reaching 24 degrees Celsius by late August. Wakesurfing and e-foiling are available through a local charter from June to September. The dock is sixty feet long and faces west, which means sunset from the water every evening.

On the property. A regulation pickleball court with paddles and balls in the bin. A Finnish sauna that seats six and reaches 90 degrees Celsius in forty minutes. A six-person hot tub. A gym with treadmill, rower, and dumbbells to fifty pounds. Gas firepits lakeside with Adirondack chairs.

Nearby. The Kinsol Trestle is a fifteen-minute drive south and the hike takes ninety minutes round trip. Mt. Baldy is twenty minutes and rewards with a view of the whole lake. Cowichan Valley wineries (Unsworth, Blue Grouse, Merridale, Averill Creek) are all within a thirty-minute drive. Duncan is fifteen minutes north for supplies.

After dark. The home theater seats eight with a projector and surround sound. Ping-pong table in the games room. Board games (Catan, Codenames) and three decks of cards in the cabinet. The firepit on the beach runs on gas and lights with a switch.

Regulation pickleball court for team activities

Optional add-ons

Tell Brianna what you want and she will line it up. Everything below is arranged through our local network and invoiced separately.

Private chef

Victoria-based chefs cook out of our kitchen. Local ingredients: Cowichan Bay halibut in summer, duck and root vegetables in winter. Roughly $900/day for three meals for twelve.

Strategy facilitators

Two facilitators we have used a dozen times each. Both specialize in leadership offsite design and strategy sessions. References available.

Yoga and breathwork

Instructors from Cobble Hill, two days notice. Morning sessions on the deck overlooking the lake. Mats provided.

Winery transport

Afternoon wine tour to Unsworth, Blue Grouse, Merridale, or Averill Creek. All under thirty minutes. Driver arranged.

Water sports

Wakesurfing, waterskiing, and e-foiling through a local charter. Two e-foil boards on site. Most beginners ride by hour two.

Guided hikes

For Mt. Baldy, Kinsol Trestle, or longer Cowichan Valley routes. Half-day or full-day options.

Who books corporate retreats here

Most of our corporate guests come from Victoria, Vancouver, and Seattle. The common thread is teams of eight to sixteen people who have tried the hotel conference room format and found it lacking.

Leadership teams running annual planning. Three or four days, Monday through Thursday. The agenda is strategy sessions in the morning, deep work in the afternoon, and long dinners where the real conversations happen. The three-night minimum exists because one-night offsites do not produce lasting decisions.

Boards of directors. The dining table seats twelve, which is the right size for a board. Privacy is absolute. No other guests on the property, no hotel staff walking through. Confidential conversations stay in the room.

Engineering and product teams. Teams that need to build something together, not just talk about it. 300 Mbps fibre, quiet breakout spaces for pairing, and a property remote enough that nobody drifts back to their regular work. The sauna at five resets the day.

Founder retreats and investor meetings. Small groups of four to eight who want a quiet, private setting for high-stakes conversations. The cottage works as a secondary meeting space when conversations need to be separated.

Group meditation session on the lakefront dock at golden hour

Frequently asked questions about corporate retreats on Vancouver Island

How far is Shawnigan Retreats from Victoria International Airport (YYJ)?

Forty-five minutes by car, entirely on paved highway. Teams landing at 9am can be in a working session by 10:30am. The route crosses the Malahat summit over the Saanich Inlet, which is one of the better drives on Vancouver Island.

What is the best corporate retreat venue on Vancouver Island for executive teams under 16?

For executive teams of eight to sixteen, Shawnigan Retreats offers exclusive use of a six-bedroom lakeside house with 300 Mbps fibre WiFi, an 85-inch presentation screen, boardroom seating for twelve, sauna, hot tub, pickleball court, and a private 60-foot dock. The property is 45 minutes from YYJ. Pricing starts at $4,500/night with a three-night minimum.

How does Shawnigan Retreats compare to Tigh-Na-Mara and Brentwood Bay for corporate retreats?

Tigh-Na-Mara is a 22-acre resort in Parksville, two hours from YYJ, with shared conference rooms and other guests on property. Brentwood Bay is a boutique hotel near Victoria with meeting rooms but standard hotel hallways and shared facilities. Shawnigan Retreats offers exclusive use of the entire property. No other guests, no shared spaces. Your team has the house, the dock, and the lake to themselves.

What does a corporate retreat at Shawnigan Retreats cost?

Corporate pricing starts at $4,500/night for the Lakeside House (sleeps 14, plus $450 cleaning) or $5,500/night for the whole property (sleeps 18, plus $650 cleaning). Three-night minimum. A private chef adds roughly $900/day for three meals. A typical three-night offsite for twelve runs approximately $19,850 all-in with chef service.

Does the property have reliable WiFi for video calls and presentations?

Yes. The property runs on 300 Mbps fibre internet, fast enough for eight simultaneous video calls from different rooms. A backup 5G hotspot provides redundancy. The great room has an 85-inch screen with HDMI and AirPlay for presentations.

Can we bring a facilitator or run our own agenda?

Both. The property provides whiteboards, an 85-inch screen, and multiple breakout spaces. We can also connect you with two facilitators we have used repeatedly who specialize in strategy offsites and leadership retreats. Most teams bring their own agenda and we handle logistics.

Hold a weekday block

Tell Brianna the headcount and the week you are aiming at. She will come back within four hours with rates, a sample agenda, and a hold for forty-eight hours so you can poll the team.

Request a corporate proposal Call (236) 638-1478