Berry Island Lodge

The lodge does not print a rate. Its Book Now page says packages and pricing are customised to your dates and group size, and asks you to enquire. Every package is all-inclusive: the water taxi from Alder Bay, the room, all meals and non-alcoholic drinks, guides and every excursion. In 2026 the lodge sold 4 to 7 day packages with daily arrivals; for 2027 it sells 4, 5 and 8 day packages, the 4-day starting every Sunday and Friday and the 5-day every Monday and Wednesday. Whole-lodge bookings for families, retreats and events are priced separately.

Every stay starts at Alder Bay RV Park and Marina, near Port McNeill. The lodge's water taxi leaves between 12:00 and 12:30 pm and asks you to be there by 11:30 to park and sort luggage; parking at Alder Bay is free for the length of your stay. The crossing through Johnstone Strait and Blackfish Sound takes about 30 minutes, and the boat brings you back to Alder Bay around noon on departure day.

Flying, take Pacific Coastal from Vancouver's South Terminal to Port Hardy the day before; the lodge's shuttle from Port Hardy airport to Alder Bay, about 40 minutes, is included on arrival morning, and on the way out it takes you back for a flight booked after 2:00 pm. Driving from Vancouver, it is the Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo ferry and about 345 km, four hours, to Alder Bay, so the lodge asks you to be on Vancouver Island the night before.

Getting to Berry Island Lodge, step by step →

Twelve rooms, every one with an ocean view, an ensuite bathroom with shower, a gas fireplace and two beds. Eight are along the cedar boardwalk on the shore and four are on the floating lodge below, reached by a ramp. Because arrivals and departures are daily, the lodge does not allocate particular rooms in advance.

Arrival day is the water taxi at 12:30, a light lunch and orientation, then an afternoon marine tour, back by 4:30 pm for the 5 pm swim club. Dinner is a buffet, followed by a briefing on the next day and a talk by one of the guides.

A full day is breakfast, then out from the dock: a full-day bear-viewing trip to the inlets and estuaries, watching from the boat, a zodiac or on foot depending on the tide, back by 4:30. Other days you choose from a marine tour, a bear ecology tour, a coastal safari, sea kayaking, a rainforest hike, an Indigenous cultural tour or paddleboarding, as half or full days. Nothing is pre-booked; each evening around dinner the guides settle the next day with you against the weather and the wildlife. Departure morning has time for a short kayak, a marine excursion, a guided forest or forest-bathing walk, a cultural site visit or the Berry Loop Trail on your own, before the noon boat.

The lodge's own answer is that the chances are high and sightings cannot be guaranteed. Viewing is from small boats or on foot, in the animals' habitat, and the guides choose where to go each day from the season's and the day's patterns. Grizzlies and black bears are sought in the inlets and estuaries; orca, humpbacks, Pacific white-sided dolphins, Dall's porpoises, Steller sea lions and sea otters in the waters around the island. The lodge is a member of the North Island Marine Mammal Stewardship Association and the Commercial Bear Viewing Association.

No experience is needed and the tours are not strenuous, but you must be able to get in and out of boats, manage the ramps and docks and walk uneven ground; the lodge and its tours are not wheelchair or walker accessible. Children are welcome from age 7 with full-time parental supervision. The lodge is building a children's programme but says plainly that the long boat rides and full days outdoors suit some children better than others, and asks parents to judge their readiness. Guests under 19 need a separate informed-consent form signed by a parent or guardian.

Chef-cooked, much of it served buffet style, with boat lunches on excursion days, and all non-alcoholic drinks included; the bar is extra. Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and common allergens are handled with notice at booking. The lodge is candid that it is a shared kitchen in a remote place: buffet dishes and shared coolers on the boats mean cross-contact cannot be ruled out, and guests with severe allergies are asked to weigh that and to bring their own epinephrine.

The lodge is off-grid, on a battery and inverter system that has replaced most of the diesel, with a freshwater well in place of the old desalination plant. There is no guest laundry; the laundromat at Alder Bay is the place to do a wash before or after. Wifi and cell coverage are unknown under the new owners; the lodge's pages do not say, so ask when you book if it matters.

A detailed packing list comes with your guest package about 45 days before arrival. Rain gear and rubber boots are provided, and this is a temperate rainforest where rain falls in summer too, so come prepared for a range of weather. A swimsuit for the swim club, and a liability waiver, signed before you reach Alder Bay, are the two things the lodge singles out.

Open the Berry Island packing list →

The $500 per person deposit is non-refundable, though cancelled more than 90 days out it becomes a credit. Half the package is due at 90 days and all of it at 45; cancel between 45 and 90 days and you lose $500 per person with the rest held as a credit, cancel inside 45 days and there is no refund or credit. Credits last 24 months. Date changes cost $150 per person. The lodge highly recommends travel insurance.

Gratuities are not included. The lodge suggests $50 per guest per day.

Yes. Berry Island Wilderness Lodge is Farewell Harbour Lodge under new ownership, sold as the Canadian destination of The Bucket List Collection; the operator's own pages still use both names. The lodge was homesteaded in 1920 and sits in the Broughton Archipelago Marine Park in the traditional territory of the Mamalilikulla First Nation. The Bucket List Family, whose name the collection carries, will most likely not be on the property during your stay, in the lodge's own words.