Workshops & Retreats About Gabriola About Patricia Writers' Comments Home

Accommodation and Travel

Choosing where to stay

There's something for everyone on Gabriola Island, from first class bed and breakfasts to housekeeping cottages, with campgrounds in a public park or a private orchard. You choose what suits your budget, your taste, and your convenience.

Some favourites with visitors:

Stone's Throw Cottage
This delightful cottage with kitchen facilities is in a magnificient garden, with ponds and a tea house, close to Drumbeg Provincial Park. The hosts, Karen Cain and Vern Smith, are artists themselves, with painting and woodworking studios on the site. Ask about pecial rates for writers in the off season.

Page's Marina This resort and marina is one of the older establishments on the island, with five individual cottages above the marina in Silva Bay, and camp grounds in the old orchard, with laundry, showers, and washroom facilities. The hosts, Phyllis and Ted Reeves, open their waterfront home to exhibitions by visual artists, concerts by classical musicians, and readings by writers in all genres, and also maintain a bookstore of island writers.

The Inn at Dragon's Keep Recently remodelled and reopened, this old log hotel overlooking Georgia Strait offers individually-designed hotel rooms, each with its own bath and compuyter connection, plus a number of simple sleeping huts for campers who would like a roof over their heads. The hosts, Walter El;kins and Rhonda Legge, offer a complimentary breakfast, and special rates in the off season and midweek

Descanso Bay Campground is a 40-acre oceanfront park with 32 wooded campsites, some large enough for small RVs; open year round with day-use picnic and swimming sites plus a launch area for canoes and kayaks.

The Haven Resort, Seminar and Conference Centre A variety of rooms and suites in houses, cottages and cabins are available for guests, though preference is given to those attending personal development courses at the Haven itself. The resort is located on the waterfront, with a lodge offering buffet-style dining, gym and sauna, pool and games room.

For a more complete list of accommodations visit the website of the Gabriola Chamber of Commerce,

Getting here in half the fun

You can get to the island via a twenty-minute ferry ride from the city of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, or a twenty-minute flight in a float plane from the mainland. You could, if you chose, come by private vessel to one of several marinas, or bring your car on one of B.C. Ferries' fleet from Horseshoe Bay or Duke Point. You can use regular scheduled connections to the airport at Cassidy south of Nanaimo, or ride the thrice-daily high-speed catamaran passenger-only ferry HarbourLynx from downtown Vancouver to Nanaimo harbour, just a few minutes' walk from the Gabriola ferry terminal.

BC Ferries Toll-free in British Columbia, Alberta, Washington State: 1-888-BC FERRY (223-3779).
Scheduled service from Vancouver to Nanaimo, via Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay (a ten-minute drive from the Gabriola ferry terminal), or via Tsawwassen to Duke Point (a twenty-minute drive from the Gabriola ferry terminal).
From Nanaimo harbour to Gabriola Island, ferry service begins at 6:15 a.m., with the last ferry to Gabriola at 10:55 p.m. Fare prices are round-trip (you only pay on the Nanaimo side).

HarbourLynx 1-888-206-LYNX (5969)
A fast passenger-only service from downtown Vancouver (Seabus terminal) to downtown Nanaimo (boat basin, a ten-minute walk to the Gabriola ferry terminal). Three trips daily.

Float plane service directly to Silva Bay on Gabriola Island from the Fraser River, adjacent to Vancouver International Airport:
Tofino/Pacific Spirit Air Toll free: 1-800-665-2359

Float plane service between the Fraser river delta, adjacent to Vancouver International Airport, and Nanaimo's boat basin, adjacent to the Gabriola ferry terminal:
Amigo Air 1-866-692-6440

Float plane flights between Vancouver's inner harbour and Nanaimo's boat basin, adjacent to the Gabriola ferry terminal:
Harbour Air Seaplanes
Baxter Air 1-800-661-5599

Float plane service from Green Lake in Seattle to Departure Bay in Nanaimo, a taxi ride from the Gabriola ferry terminal:
Kenmore Air Seaplanes 1-800-543-9595

Regular scheduled flights connecting from Vancouver International Airport to Nanaimo Airport south of Nanaimo, with shuttle service to the Gabriola ferry terminal.
Nanaimo Airport 250-245-2157
Nanaimo Airporter 250-758-2133

Gabriola Island Taxi: 250-247-0049
This is a community-style service operating from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m., which picks up a number of passengers and delivers them to their destinations in the order of the most convenient route (rather than direct from where you are picked up to your door).

"i-MoPed" - 250-247-2029 - bicycle, moped, and car rentals

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Workshops & Retreats About Gabriola About Patricia Writers' Comments Home

This page copyright © 2007, Patricia Ludwick
1890 Starfish Place
Gabriola Island, BC
Canada V0R 1X6
Phone: 250-247-8990

E-mail: writershaven AT uniserve DOT com

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Last revision: October 2007