Accessible only by boat or small plane, the southern Gulf Islands and San Juan Islands are places apart. Though ferries make the main islands easy to visit these ships bypass the vast majority of islands, which remain largely or entirely unpopulated. Even Saltspring Island scatters a scant 10,000 residents across 44,800 acres.

Plugged into the ferry system or not, settled or unpeopled, all the larger islands offer an enticing brew of forest, mountain, and coast. This archipelago of hundreds of islands straddles the border between Canada and the States. The southern Gulf Islands have been approved as Canada’s next national park; San Juan Islands lie in US waters.

The islands are bounded by the British Columbia mainland to the east, the Washington mainland to the south, and Vancouver Island to the west. The southern Gulf Islands cluster off the south-eastern tip of Vancouver Island, adjacent to the San Juans. Protected from ocean storms by Vancouver Island and the Olympic Mountains, the Gulf and San Juan Islands boast some of the region’s driest and sunniest weather.