Where is Virgin River filmed? Shooting locations of the series explored

Releasing in two parts two 12 episodes in total, season 5 of Virgin River is scheduled to have a September 7, 2023 release date. Part 1 will consist of 10 episodes, while part 2 will have the final two. Even though Virgin River is an American show, it has primarily been filmed in Canada.

The series stars Alexandra Breckenridge as Melinda "Mel" Monroe, Martin Henderson as Jack Sheridan, Colin Lawrence as John "Preacher" Middleton, Jenny Cooper as Joey Barnes. Aside from them, the show sees Lauren Hammersley as Charmaine Roberts, Annette O'Toole as Hope McCrea, Benjamin Hollingsworth as Dan Brady, and Tim Matheson as Vernon "Doc" Mullins, among several others.

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Netflix's Virgin River was primarily filmed in British Columbia, Canada

1) Vancouver, British Columbia

Vancouver is one of the largest cities in the region of British Columbia, Canada. It is also the most populous city in the region, with 662,248 people as of 2021. One of the most unique things about this city is its ethnic and linguistic diversity. 49.3 of the population are not native English speakers, while the rest 47.8 percent speak native languages that are neither English nor French.

Furthermore, 54.5 percent of the people belong to minority groups. Although settlements in Vancouver began almost 10,000 years ago, the modern version of the city was established on July 1, 1867.

Some of the most popular tourist destinations of Vancouver are Stanley Park, Granville Island, Vancouver Aquarium, VanDusen Botanical Garden, the Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver Seawall, and several others.

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2) Snug Cove, Bowen Island, British Columbia

Although the town of Virgin River is completely fictional, the community of Snug Cove in Bowen Island served as the filming location of the show. Even areas like New Westminster, Squamish, Agassiz, and Port Coquitlam were used for shooting.

The island of Snug Cove covers an area of only six kilometers and has a population of about 3,700 people. The place is best known for its marina and buildings that date back to the 1900s. Moreover, these were built by the Union Steamship Company.

In the show, Virgin River is a Northern California town that has a population of about 600 people. As such, locations like the library, main streets, and Artisan Lane show up in the series from time to time.

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More about Virgin River

Following the success of this romantic drama, Netflix renewed Virgin River for a sixth season in May 2023. However, due to the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, it is expected that the sixth will be released sometime in 2024.

The synopsis for the show, as per Tudum, reads:

"Seeking a fresh start, a nurse practitioner moves from Los Angeles to a remote Northern California town and is surprised by what -- and who -- she finds. For a town so small it doesn’t even have a hair salon, Virgin River is a dramatic-as-hell place to live."

It further continues:

"Drug kingpins, murders and kidnappings are all common occurrences in this Northern California utopia. But somehow, that’s all part of the show’s charm. In case you need a refresher on why this is the case — and how, exactly, the Virgin River criminal element has weaseled its way into the daily lives of these small-town residents."

Executive producers of the show include Robyn Carr, Christopher E. Perry, Sue Tenney, Roma Roth, Jocelyn Freid, and Amy Palmer Robertson. The show premiered on December 6, 2019, on Netflix, with the run time of each episode varying between 40 to 48 minutes.