Galiano Island In The Off Season

It's hard to imagine these beautiful islands ever having an off season. I'm talking here about the Gulf Islands off of Vancouver, British Columbia . Lush with evergreen trees and rocky beaches, these emeralds in the sea beckon year round. Personally, I LOVE the off season for travel just about anywhere. Sure, I have to put up with some less than ideal weather from time to time, but the off season is a great time to relax away from the crowds. And crowd avoidance is high on my 'must have' travel list.

Taking BC Ferries from Tsawwassan on BC's mainland to Galiano Island, Pam, Kelly and I depart as the sun drops below mountainous Vancouver Island. After spending some time on the outer decks, soaking in the fading light to the South, we head inside to escape the chill. Plus, it was dark out there! Not much to see along the Strait of Georgia except distant lights at night. We seat ourselves in the forward section of the boat, Pam and Kelly reading over local information provided on the boat, chatting amongst ourselves but not that quietly.

"Are you staying on Galiano Island?" asked the girl who's seat we had accidentally invaded while she was up.

"Just for one night and then we have an early ferry reservation in the morning for Pender Island. We're bummed we don't get to stay longer," we let her know.

"Oh, you HAVE to stay longer than that. And the boats between islands don't take reservations, so you could just grab a later one. Here, let me check." She then pulled out a ferry schedule and proceeded to decipher the sometimes crazy arrangements of islands and boats and directions to let us know there was a 5:45pm boat the same day. And if we missed that one, there was one around 8pm.

It turns out Kayho worked.... [Read the rest at THE CAREY ADVENTURES]