From Vancouver Island trails to a wider world of adventure
Coastal Bliss Adventures was founded in 2009 by Georgia Newsome and Gary Ward. We began with guided multi-day hiking on the West Coast Trail and other Vancouver Island wilderness routes. Our goal was to bring together skilled guiding, careful preparation and the kind of personal attention that helps guests feel at home in unfamiliar places.
Kayaking had always been part of our vision. In 2017, we opened Cowichan Bay Kayaking and Adventure Centre, bringing paddling experiences and outdoor activities more directly into our home community. Our adventures also grew beyond Vancouver Island: in 2016, we co-founded Kilimanjaro Bliss Ltd. with Tanzanian mountain and safari guide Aristarick Benard Swai.
In November 2022, Sea to Sky Expeditions became part of our family of companies, expanding the range of guided hiking, canoeing and kayaking journeys in British Columbia and the Yukon. Each company continues to offer its own distinct experiences.
Meet our founders and directors
Georgia and Gary bring different backgrounds to Coastal Bliss, united by decades of wilderness travel, guiding and teaching. Their experience shapes both the practical quality of our tours and the relationships we hope guests develop with the places they visit.
Georgia Newsome
Georgia has guided backpacking, kayaking and canoeing adventures since the mid-1990s. Before co-founding Coastal Bliss, she spent 13 years as a lead guide with Sea to Sky Expeditions—an especially meaningful connection given that the company later joined the Coastal Bliss family.
Growing up in England's New Forest fostered her love of the outdoors, circus skills, and fencing. She was the youngest fencing coach in the UK at 18. She first visited Canada in 1989 and felt an immediate connection with British Columbia's wild landscapes. Her early work as a physical education teacher inspired a lifelong commitment to helping others learn skills, build confidence and discover the outdoors for themselves. Georgia has many coaching, mountain skills, ski touring, whitewater kayaking and safety certifications. She is a Sea Kaykak Guides Alliance of BC Level 3 guide.
Georgia later completed a physiotherapy degree in the United Kingdom and returned to live in British Columbia in 2006. In 2007, she established Georgia's Strait Recreation to provide instruction and skill development across many outdoor activities. She leads and maintains a fencing club in Nanaimo, BC. That work eventually became part of Coastal Bliss Adventures, which she founded with Gary in 2009.
Gary Ward
Gary trained in physics and mathematics in the United States before pursuing a career in education. His interest in experiential learning led him to begin leading wilderness journeys in the 1990s, using outdoor experiences to deepen learning beyond the classroom.
His career has included teaching and educational leadership in Canada and the United Kingdom, as well as entrepreneurship and small-business management. He has led trips in British Columbia, the UK, Greece, Italy and Egypt, and has held qualifications as a Sea Kayak Guides Alliance of BC Level 2 guide and an Association of Canadian Mountain Guides Assistant Hiking Guide (permanent).
Gary completed an MBA at the University of Victoria in 2016. Alongside his work with Coastal Bliss, he continues to teach at an IB World School in Victoria and is developing the ideas and practice of Restorative Guiding—bringing together wilderness leadership, education, reflection and respect for the land.
Experienced people, personal care
Our seasonal guiding team brings a range of wilderness skills, route knowledge and professional experience to our trips. We trust our guides to make thoughtful decisions, look after guests and share the places they know with care.
We value continuing education and training. Our approach has been informed by the standards and practices of outdoor guiding organizations in Canada, including sea kayaking, canoeing and mountain guiding associations.
Stewardship is part of the work
We strive to go beyond minimizing our impact. We consider how our travel affects the land, wildlife and people whose territories and communities we visit. That includes respecting Indigenous relationships with place, thinking carefully about group transportation and supplies, buying locally where possible, and caring for beaches and trails along the way.
We follow Leave No Trace principles and seek to make practical, responsible choices across our operations. These commitments are an ongoing practice rather than a claim of perfection.
More than seeing remarkable places. It's how you experience them.
Our mission begins with a simple conviction: we all live on the land, and wilderness can remind us of that relationship. We guide people beyond the noise and demands of everyday life into experiences that deepen awareness, reconnect them with the natural world and leave room for reflection.
That philosophy informs our developing approach to Restorative Guiding. For guests, it means more than being given facts or led from one destination to the next. It means being invited to notice, to be curious, to hear meaningful stories, and to recognize the responsibilities that come with visiting a place.
Sometimes a guide's best contribution is an explanation. Sometimes it is a question, an encouragement during a challenging moment, or simply space to experience the quiet. We want our journeys to respect both the people taking part and the places through which they travel.
Awareness before words
Creating opportunities to notice the landscape, wildlife, weather and one's own experience before rushing to explain them.
Story as relationship
Using stories and knowledge to deepen curiosity and connection, while recognizing the limits of our own perspectives.
Interpretation as invitation
Helping guests discover their own meaning, rather than prescribing what an experience should mean to them.
Reciprocity and reflection
Considering what we receive from a journey, what we contribute, and the consequences of how we travel.
Restorative Guiding informs the direction of our work and ongoing guide development. We do not describe every Coastal Bliss departure as a separately certified restorative program.