For those who love to shop, a visit to downtown Nelson B.C. is like stepping into paradise: a concentrated collection of boutiques and stores that encapsulate Nelson’s shop-local mentality. If you’re not a shopper though (or if you’re right ready for a change) you might be asking what else there is to do within a few minutes of downtown.
In this article we’re aiming to showcase a variety of activities, sports, and entertainment that will keep you busy without leaving downtown Nelson. Let us know your go-to activity in the comments below and we’ll add them to the list!
Games & Sports Downtown Nelson
Get your body moving with these activities – all without leaving downtown Nelson.
Squash
Nelson’s only squash facility is right downtown, and it’s well worth a stop. It features two newer courts with clear acrylic back walls, and two classic style fully enclosed courts that are actually pretty cool thanks to the inclusion of a top viewing platform that looks down on the courts.
You’ll need a membership (or to be accompanied by a member) to enter, except on drop in nights (Thursday and Friday evenings, and Ladies Night on Mondays). You can check the program schedule here to find drop in times.
The clubhouse is also a blast, with ping pong and pool tables as well as a licensed bar. It’s a great sport, and a really fun place to hang out.
Rent a Bike
Biking is basically Nelson’s official sport. The town is a worldwide destination for mountain biking enthusiasts, thanks to the easily accessible trail network that honeycombs the mountains in and around Nelson.
If you’re in town for a few days and want to try it out without committing to an expensive biking setup, you can rent a bike for the day. You can rent a mountain bike from Gerrick’s Cycle & Ski or from Sacred Ride, both of which are on Baker Street. If you’re looking for the best trails for experts, or the easiest ones for beginners, these are the people to talk to. You can even purchase a map of biking trails at these shops put together by the local mountain biking community!
Electric Larry Land is another option for bike rentals. You won’t find pro level downhill bikes here, but what you will find are E-bikes! There’s two models: a light trail model ideal you can take to the hills, and a cruiser that’s more for exploring the town.
Pool
Sport? Game? Whatever you call pool, it’s a great way to spend an hour with friends. There’s a couple places you can play a game of pool while you’re downtown Nelson.
Mike’s Place has several pool tables, darts, fooseball, and shuffleboard. It’s one of Nelson’s most iconic pubs, and has a unique atmosphere that’s not just classic or retro, but antique! Just sitting in there is an experience, but hanging out playing games at Mike’s is a downtown Nelson activity that’s hard to beat. Plus it’s one of the places in Nelson that’s open late!
Finley’s Bar & Grill also has you covered here, with multiple pool tables to keep you busy, along with their incredible patio, live music nights, and karaoke! It’s a happening place to be most nights of the week, and even if there’s no specific event happening earlier in the day, you’ll still have a blast playing a game of pool here.
Rec Centre
Nelson’s main recreation complex is just a few blocks off of Baker Street, and offers plenty of options for sports and recreation including swimming, skating, weightlifting, and fitness classes.
Summer, winter, rain, or shine, there’s something here for everyone, whether you’re looking to work up a sweat or just reset after a day of shopping and entertainment in downtown Nelson.
Boxing
While boxing in the movies is most often portrayed as a backboard for a story about fighting, as a sport it’s one heck of a workout. In fact, it’s one of the most high intensity calorie burning activities there are, far outpacing other classic fitness activities such as weightlifting or running.
No experience is necessary to drop in on a boxing class, although if you’ve been boxing for years you’ll meet your match here as well. Classes and open gym times are available for anyone looking to learn the sport – either for self defence, to compete, or just for a fun and challenging workout.
Nelson Boxing and Athletics Club is right on Baker Street, making it a convenient way to fit in a workout before visiting one of Nelson’s many restaurants or grabbing a drink with a friend – maybe even a new boxing pal!
Martial Arts
While boxing could also fall under this category, most people would place martial arts in a category all of its own. Downtown Nelson is home to two martial arts practices: Yom Chi Martial Arts and North Kootenay Martial Arts.
Yom Chi Martial Arts
Yom Chi is a WTF Tae Kwon Do dojang offering classes for children, teens, and adults. This traditional Korean martial art focuses on techniques, forms, and sparring with an emphasis on powerful controlled kicks and strikes, similar to its Japanese counterpart Karate. Yom Chi is led by Master Bain Jordhal, who has been practicing Tae Kwon Do for over 15 years. His talent for the sport and approachable nature has led to a natural transition into teaching, which he’s been doing consistently since 2009.
Tae Kwon Do emphasizes leadership and self-growth, teaching students not only techniques and self defence skills, but also provides students with opportunities to lead others and form strong bonds with the group as they train together and challenge one another to excel.
North Kootenay Martial Arts
North Kootenay Martial Arts (NKMA) is a Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu school, located on the same block as Yom Chi Martial Arts and Nelson Boxing Club, right on Baker Street. The instructors at North Kootenay Martial Arts come from a highly diverse background of martial arts, providing students with the opportunity to learn a foundation on which mixed martial arts (MMA) is built. While NKMA’s classes aren’t MMA classes, Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu are some of the most popular fighting styles within MMA, and getting a firm foundation in both of these disciplines is a popular path into mixed martial arts.
As standalone disciplines, Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai couldn’t be any different! The former is a grappling martial art similar to wrestling, where students learn how to trap an opponent and escape from various holds, while Muay Thai is an up-close-and-personal martial art that adds elbow and knee strikes into the mix, along with the kicks and hand strikes.
Downtown Nelson Activities
Have some fun, alone or with friends!
Escape Room
The best part of escape rooms is you can play them with people of all ages, backgrounds, personalities, and social situations, and you’ll have a great time. Looking for a family activity that dad will enjoy just as much as the kids? Escape room. A perfect work-social event? Escape room. A fun bonding experience for a group of friends? Bachelor party? Birthday party? You guessed it, escape room.
When you place a group of 2-6 individuals in an enclosed real-life puzzle with a shared goal and a fantastic all-out decor theme, it turns out it’s impossible not to have fun. In an escape room, everyone has a chance to shine. That random book on Egyptian mythology you read as a kid just might come in handy now, as could any other miscellaneous knowledge you have stored in the back of your mind!
You never know who will have that perfect piece of information that will save the day. It’s not just books either: movies, video games, pop-culture references, music, and a knack for finding clues or solving problems can all be the difference between making it out “alive” or failing to escape the puzzle.
It’s a one-hour puzzle with high stakes and an opportunity for teamwork and bonding you’ll love. The only downside is that you can only really do each puzzle once before you’ll know all the answers, but thankfully Queen City Escape Rooms has two puzzles on offer at any given time, and rotates through them occasionally, meaning you can keep coming back every year for more satisfying puzzles!
Library
Libraries are underrated these days. Where else can you find so much FREE entertainment in this town (or any town, for that matter). Kids, teenagers, and adults can all get lost in a story for an afternoon, learn how to plant a vineyard, or kill some time on the computer.
We haven’t even touched on their programming, with daytime programs put on by the library staff that include “crafternoons”, family story time, and Book Babies for the really young ones. These are just their regularly scheduled programming. There’s also special events, after school and summer programs, and interest-specific programs.
Whether you’re using the library at your own pace, or as part of their scheduled offerings, it’s a great resource, and a really great way to spend a quiet afternoon.
Entertainment
Grab a seat, and let the show begin!
Nelson Leafs (Hockey)
Canada’s most popular sport is alive and well in Nelson, from children’s teams all the way up to AA junior hockey. The Nelson Leafs hit the ice from September through February, usually with a home game every weekend, and an away game elsewhere in the Kootenays. You can find the full season schedule here.
Live sports have a whole different feel to watching them on TV. When the arena is packed and the crowd is chanting, the atmosphere is palpable. It’s a fun way to support these incredible athletes and connect with the community.
Capital Theatre
Here’s a cool piece of trivia for you: The Capital Theatre got its start nearly 100 years ago as a movie theatre showing the latest “talkies” – packed out every night as audiences flocked to see motion pictures in one of the finest movie theatres on the continent. In the mid 1930’s, the Civic Theatre was built as a stage for live theatre, with a 1000 seat auditorium.
These days the roles are switched. The Civic plays the latest Hollywood blockbusters, and The Capital hosts Nelson’s live theatre and musical acts. The venue was revived to its art deco glory in 1988, and has continued to play a valued role in the community ever since.
Going to the theatre is a unique experience – the productions are so varied and full of talented individuals who transport you for an hour or two into a whole new world. The Capital Theatre remains an impactful cultural cornerstone of the Kootenays, and a great time out on the town. You can see current and upcoming shows on their calendar here.
Civic Theatre
The Civic Theatre is huge. Not just small town huge, but even for the city, an auditorium built to seat 1000 is an uncommon find. After 90 years of service in its original configuration, The Civic Theatre is undergoing renovations to become a multi-screen venue capable of showcasing multiple films at once.
Going to the theatre is an activity that’s fun for all ages in downtown Nelson, and one that has a timeless appeal. You can find out what movies are playing here.
Walks/Parks Near Downtown Nelson
At each end of Baker Street there’s a beautiful park waiting to be discovered, and you can walk there in less than 10 minutes!
Gyro Park
At the North end of Baker Street you’ll find Gyro Park. It’s perhaps most famous for its viewpoint, which overlooks downtown Nelson, Kootenay Lake, and the mountains beyond. It’s one of the best viewpoints of Nelson, and the best one without having to hike.
It’s also got an outdoor pool that, while seasonal, is a huge hit with young kids and families. The pool is open to kids 13 and under, as well as their guardians, and staffed with lifeguards while it’s open.
In addition to the lookout and the pool, Gyro Park also has a kids playground, several paths to explore, and plenty of green space to relax, picnic, or sit back and read a book.
There’s a trail that leads to the end of Vernon Street, convenient for accessing the park from downtown.
Cottonwood Falls
On the South end of Baker Street is Cottonwood Falls, a small but beautiful garden park full of unique deciduous trees. This is the home of Nelson’s Saturday Farmer’s Market in the summer, and an incredible spot to view the changing leaves in the fall.
There’s no big attractions here for kids, but it sure is a beautiful destination for a walk or to meet up for a coffee with a friend.
Accessing the park is simple. You can walk or drive right to the park at the bottom of Baker Street in less than five minutes. There’s even a coffee shop close by ~ The Block at Railtown, if you’d like a hot drink to take with you to the park.
Eat/Drink
If you’re heading downtown, it’s best to come hungry! Everybody has their favourites, but here’s our recommendations for some restaurants, bars, and pubs to check out when visiting downtown Nelson.
Restaurants
Nelson has too many restaurants to list them all, but here’s a few gems to get you started. If we wanted to introduce guests to Nelson’s culinary scene (and we do, often!), these are the places we take them to first.
Once you get past our list of quintessential Nelson restaurants, you’ll still have hundreds and hundreds of fantastic meals to try. The fun never stops, and there’s always a new menu item or new restaurant to check out. If you’re looking for more inspiration, check out this page dedicated to food and drink in Nelson!
Grab a Coffee
Coffee is the unofficial drink of Nelson. There’s a coffee shop or café on every block, and many of them are amazing!
Stopping for a coffee and a pastry is a tried and true way to take a break from the busyness of downtown Nelson, and there’s no better place to start than these three iconic Nelson coffee shops!
Dessert
Feeling like something sweet? Nelson has you covered!
There’s tasty desserts to be found all around town, but these are the desserts that stand out to as incredible. If you’re feeling adventurous, the deep fried banana split at Relish is amazing: bold banana flavours are balanced out nicely with fresh crisp apple slices, caramel sauce, and refreshing vanilla ice cream.
If you’re looking for a full size adventure, why not leave the downtown core and try out one of these must-see hikes, parks, and other activities or go for a hike around Kootenay Lake!
