Gulf Islands – Nature. Quiet. Relaxing. This long weekend, we went for four days to Galiano Island, BC – one of the Gulf islands. I looked forward to this little trip all week long, since work and everything is so busy at the moment. Definitely needed a little break 🙂
We took the Ferry from Tsawassan and it took us only 40 minutes to get there. We rented a trailer on Airbnb. First, I was a bit skeptical, if this is the ‘right’ vacation for me, but I was totally impressed and excited as soon as we arrived! We had a kitchen, oven, microwave, coffee machine, couch, little dinning table, bathroom and bedroom. It had as well a wooden deck with a seating area outside. Lots of room! I loved it! 🙂 The trailer was parked in the forest and we even had a bit of an ocean view.
We arrived late afternoon on Saturday. After getting everything unpacked, we had a little snack and got ready for our hike. We planned to watch the sunset on Mount Galiano, which has apparently an amazing view over the Gulf Islands. We grabbed our bikes and left them at the bottom of the mountain. The hike took us about 40 minutes to get to the summit viewpoint. The hike was very easy and not too long either. 🙂 The promises were not exaggerated. The view from the top is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! One of the best views I have ever seen. We enjoyed a little “drink” and watched the sun going down 🙂 Here is the link to Mount Galiano hike.
Sunday. Funday. After our breakfast on the deck, we drove to a moped rental by the Montague Harbour Marina and rented 2 mopeds for about 2 hours. The owner of the rental place was so nice and gave us great tips what to see on the island. The price is absolutely worth its money 🙂 We had such a fun morning, riding the mopeds. Galiano Island offers so many view points. My favorite one was at the Bellhouse Park 🙂
Afterwards we grabbed lunch at the “The Crane and Robin Restaurant” . We got delicious fish tacos and a chick pea-avocado salad! Yummy!
We did some research online and found a pretty cool cave, at the Retreat Cove, which we wanted to visit. Is a bit further up North. The walk from the parking lot is just a few minutes. It was one of my favorites things on the island. We had the cave totally for ourselves. We spent there a few hours just laying in the sun and listening to music and the waves. Definitely a MUST-TO on Galiano Island!
After that we just visited a few more view points and headed then to the Hummingbird Pub for dinner. We both shared Nachos and a salad. Apparently, they have as well a school bus picking up people from the bus stops to drive them to the pub, starting at 5pm. Sounds like a fun thing to do 🙂 We did not check that out further, since we brought lots of wine with us to drink on our deck.
We were really happy that the guy from the moped rental gave us all the information and signed it on the map, because beach accesses are mostly very hidden and as we all probably know, residents know the best secret hidden spots =P. We spend our last full day walking along beaches and little trails. We also rode our bikes to the cemetery, which is located at the southeast corner of the island overlooking Active Pass. Its a strong reminder of the Japanese community on the island.
For dinner we went to the ‘Babes in the Woods‘ Restaurant. (Love all the names of theses places haha) Their pizza is AMAZING, so as well their salads! Definitely a place to eat out on the Island.
Our little trip ended way to fast. We both totally enjoyed to relax and to get away from the city. We still have to check out all the other Gulf Islands. I think, every island has it’s own flair 🙂 Julia x
few more pictures …. 🙂
It's me JULIA 