My family moved to Courtenay when I was one year old, and I lived there until I graduated from high school. It’s an excellent place to live and grow up, as well as an excellent place to have kids, with lots of outdoor activities with lakes, oceans, skiing at Mt. Washington and trails and even more. It is probably not big enough for single twentysomethings, which is why they’ve moved to Victoria, Vancouver or Alberta. Comox makes a good stop when sailing through the Georgia Straight, and definitely check out 5th street for cool small-town shops.