The Amazon, Sicily, Madeira 鈥� and Bowen Island?
Leave it to a British newspaper to remind us that one of the most scenic day trips is in our back yard.
The Guardian recently asked its readers to by boat. Right up there with a three-day ferry ride along the Amazon from Yurimaguas to Iquitos is the 20-minute 小蓝视频 Ferries trip from Horseshoe Bay to Snug Cove.
鈥淚t allows enough time to climb to the boat鈥檚 open-air top deck and take in three nautical miles of breathtaking west coast scenery. Sparkling ocean, forested fjords and whales 鈥� if you鈥檙e lucky 鈥� are your surroundings. Watch as locals brace themselves for the ferry鈥檚 final moments upon entering Bowen Island鈥檚 aptly named Snug Cove, when the horn blasts and passengers are momentarily jolted forwarded as the ferry nudges into place at the port. Step on to the wooden dock and you鈥檙e transported decades back to a friendly, artisanal island where locals leave car doors unlocked,鈥� the reader writes.
Bowen Island, you might remember, was in the headlines two summers ago when it launched its .
鈥淲elcome to Bowen Island 鈥� Don鈥檛 forget to leave,鈥� was one slogan.
鈥淭ell your friends it鈥檚 awful here,鈥� was another.
The campaign was by islander Chris Staples of Rethink Canada. Remember the Molson Canadian beer dispensers in London, England that were only accessible by swiping a Canadian passport? That was Rethink.
鈥淎nyone who lives here has a love-hate relationship with visitors,鈥� Staples told the Bowen Island Undercurrent in 2016. 鈥淲e love to show off our island, but we don鈥檛 want it to be overrun with tourists. We want visitors, but only if they really get what makes Bowen special.鈥�
Although Bowen Islanders were divided 鈥� as is their wont 鈥� about the slogans, they seem to have worked.
The number of visitors increased 79 per cent last year, Bowen Island Tourism reports.
There are nearly every hour. You can avoid the cost (and complication) of taking your car by parking in Horseshoe Bay and going on as a foot passenger or you can take the from downtown Vancouver.
Don鈥檛 worry. Despite some islanders鈥� wish that the Howe Sound doubled as a moat, you鈥檒l find the island as charming as the Guardian contributor did.
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