Best Vacations in Canada?

…of course, Salt Spring Island would be the first destination of travel or weekend getaway…

Vacations on Salt Spring Island are almost as remarkable as the luxury real estate on the Gulf Islands. Certainly, market conditions (as you can read monthly) make vacationing and buying a second (or third) home in and around Saltspring a viable economic alternative.

It’s no secret that vacations can (and do) re-energize your spirit, but they are also good for the market…if you’re looking for a Northwestern Canadian adventure, here are a few getaways…

• Frog Hollow Guest Cottage

Relax, Unwind, Rejuvenate! – located 10 minutes from town on 5 country acres, with pastures, large pond, and a 45-jet hot tub. Guests are provided with croquet, a Bocce set, and a variation on Frisbee golf to use on the grounds.

• Salt Spring Island Spa Resort



…the perfect relaxing spa getaway from Vancouver, Seattle and Victoria! Our Spa therapists and estheticians offer a variety of treatments to soothe, relax and revitalize our guests’ tired bodies. See our online Spa Menu to book an appointment prior to your arrival.



• Sky Valley Inn Bed & Breakfast

Sky Valley Salt Spring Island Bed and Breakfast is the island’s only luxury French country retreat on eleven acres of natural beauty. Sky Valley Inn has been rated as one of the top Salt Spring Island bed and breakfasts.

• Wetherly Inn

Situated in 30 acres of meadows, forest and gardens, Wetherly Inn offers an elegant, adult-oriented retreat in the heart of Saltspring Island and is the perfect choice for the discerning traveler looking to enjoy a truly relaxing and memorable vacation.

Ganges, British Columbia is an unincorporated community on Salt Spring Island in the province of British Columbia, Canada… and … you most likely will need a water-carriage (or a floatplane) to get there.

Ganges, British Colombia

… of course, any city during the era of Mercantilism was considered prime real estate… as is still the case today… one doesn’t have to dig too far into The Wealth of Nations to find this out… but perhaps a lesser known fact about the harbor is…

In 1858, blacks from California were invited by British Columbia Governor James Douglas to take up land in the new colony. In the United States, many blacks were denied rights such as citizenship rights, suffrage rights, and the right to homestead land, and they saw British Columbia as a place of freedom. Upon welcoming black settlers to Saltspring Island, James Douglas distributed land to the new settlers, allowed new black citizens the right to vote, and allowed black male citizens to become part of the local militia.

of course… Adam Smith, summed up the reason coastal real estate and properties scattered about the Salt Spring Island vicinity are so sought after…

As by means of water-carriage a more extensive market is opened to every sort of industry than what land-carriage alone can afford it, so it is upon the sea-coast, and along the banks of navigable rivers, that industry of every kind naturally begins to subdivide and improve itself, and it is frequently not till a long time after that those improvements extend themselves to the inland parts of the country. A broad-wheeled waggon, attended by two men, and drawn by eight horses, in about six weeks time carries and brings back between London and Edinburgh near four ton weight of goods. In about the same time a ship navigated by six or eight men, and sailing between the ports of London and Leith, frequently carries and brings back two hundred ton weight of goods. Six or eight men, therefore, by the help of water-carriage, can carry and bring back in the same time the same quantity of goods between London and Edinburgh, as fifty broad-wheeled waggons, attended by a hundred men, and drawn by four hundred horses.*49 Upon two hundred tons of goods, therefore, carried by the cheapest land-carriage from London to Edinburgh, there must be charged the maintenance of a hundred men for three weeks, and both the maintenance, and, what is nearly equal to the maintenance, the wear and tear of four hundred horses as well as of fifty great waggons. Whereas, upon the same quantity of goods carried by water, there is to be charged only the maintenance of six or eight men, and the wear and tear of a ship of two hundred tons burthen, together with the value of the superior risk, or the difference of the insurance between land and water-carriage. Were there no other communication between those two places, therefore, but by land-carriage, as no goods could be transported from the one to the other, except such whose price was very considerable in proportion to their weight, they could carry on but a small part of that commerce which at present subsists*50 between them, and consequently could give but a small part of that encouragement which they at present mutually afford to each other’s industry. There could be little or no commerce of any kind between the distant parts of the world. What goods could bear the expence of land-carriage between London and Calcutta?*51 Or if there were*52 any so precious as to be able to support this expence, with what safety could they be transported through the territories of so many barbarous nations? Those two cities, however, at present carry on a very considerable commerce with each other,*53 and by mutually affording a market, give a good deal of encouragement to each other’s industry.

Since such, therefore, are the advantages of water-carriage, it is natural that the first improvements of art and industry should be made where this conveniency opens the whole world for a market to the produce of every sort of labour, and that they should always be much later in extending themselves into the inland parts of the country. The inland parts of the country can for a long time have no other market for the greater part of their goods, but the country which lies round about them, and separates them from the sea-coast, and the great navigable rivers. The extent of their market, therefore, must for a long time be in proportion to the riches and populousness of that country, and consequently their improvement must always be posterior to the improvement of that country. In our North American colonies the plantations have constantly followed either the sea-coast or the banks of the navigable rivers, and have scarce any where extended themselves to any considerable distance from both.

The nations that, according to the best authenticated history, appear to have been first civilized, were those that dwelt round the coast of the Mediterranean sea. That sea, by far the greatest inlet that is known in the world, having no tides, nor consequently any waves except such as are caused by the wind only,*54 was, by the smoothness of its surface, as well as by the multitude of its islands, and the proximity of its neighbouring shores, extremely favourable to the infant navigation of the world; when, from their ignorance of the compass, men were afraid to quit the view of the coast, and from the imperfection of the art of ship-building, to abandon themselves to the boisterous waves of the ocean. To pass beyond the pillars of Hercules, that is, to sail out of the Streights of Gibraltar, was, in the antient world, long considered as a most wonderful and dangerous exploit of navigation. It was late before even the Phenicians and Carthaginians, the most skilful navigators and ship-builders of those old times, attempted it, and they were for a long time the only nations that did attempt it.

Of all the countries on the coast of the Mediterranean sea, Egypt seems to have been the first in which either agriculture or manufactures were cultivated and improved to any considerable degree. Upper Egypt extends itself nowhere above a few miles from the Nile and in Lower Egypt that great river breaks itself into many different canals,*55 which, with the assistance of a little art, seem to have afforded a communication by water-carriage, not only between all the great towns, but between all the considerable villages, and even to many farm-houses in the country; nearly in the same manner as the Rhine and the Maese do in Holland at present. The extent and easiness of this inland navigation was probably one of the principal causes of the early improvement of Egypt.

Guess that’s a good explanation as to why these properties maintain their status as some of the world’s most sought after luxury real estate….

This is a shot of the annual Round Salt Spring Sailing Race, as the fleet goes around Southey Point, from Stuart Channel, to head down Trincomali Channel and back to Ganges Village (the start of the race).

In the background, one is looking at Kuyper and Thetis Islands, and beyond them lie Valdes and Gabriola Islands.

Round Salt Spring Sailing Race

You can see why this area is renowned as some of the best protected boating waters in the world!

This race takes place every Victoria Day weekend…this is the holiday around the third weekend in May, across Canada, and is the signal for Canadians to open up their summer cottages and be ready for the “season”.

The following weekend is the U.S. Memorial Day Weekend holiday, and Victoria, the capital city of B.C., tucked into the most southerly part of Vancouver Island, hosts the Swiftsure Race. Sailboats from Washington State, and even farther south, plus B.C. coast boaters, take part in this race. The Round Salt Spring race the previous weekend is often seen as the “shakedown” sail before the demanding and challenging Swiftsure (in Juan da Fuca Strait).

In wintry moments, it’s always nice to ponder scenes from late Spring moments…gives one heart! Summer is a-coming, right?

By the way, the local Sailing Club has races year round…Wednesday evenings in the summer season, and Sundays in the “off season” (is that a nice way of saying Winter?).