Knight Inlet Lodge

A 3-night package (two at the lodge, one in Campbell River) is $4,755 per person double in spring and fall 2027, $4,365 in summer, before 5% GST. In 2026 the same package was $4,345 and $3,985. Longer stays run to $12,140 for 7 nights. The price covers the floatplane, meals, all excursions and the pre-night hotel.

No. Every package starts with a night at the lodge's partner hotel because the floatplane leaves at 9:00 and one flight a day is all the bears get. You can check in from 11:00; dinner that night is on you, and Campbell River has become a good place to eat.

Check in at 8:15 at the Vancouver Island Air dock, 2870 Spit Road; the plane leaves at 9:00 and lands in Glendale Cove about 9:45, a 25 to 45 minute flight in a Turbine Otter, or a Beaver on busy days. One flight a day, mornings only, to keep noise off the bears. You are back in Campbell River by about 11:15 on departure day.

The bag limit is 14 kg (30 lb) per person, soft bags, stowed in the floats. There is no carry-on: whatever you keep on you, camera included, has to fit the seat pocket. Free secure storage at the dock for the rest. Driving in, there is parking at the hotel and pay parking at the terminal.

Getting to Knight Inlet Lodge, step by step →

The lodge moves you by boat, which is slower and can reshuffle the first or last day's excursions. There is no refund for weather, so leave a spare day before any onward flight or ferry.

Eighteen rooms on the floats: fourteen with two queen beds, four family rooms with a queen and two twins ($100 a night upgrade where available). Eight face the water, ten face the shore, allocated in booking order, and the shore-facing ones sometimes have bears in view. Private bathroom and shower in every room. Four guests to a room is the hard limit, and children never stay in a room without an adult.

Breakfast from about 6:00. The day runs in four blocks of two to two and a half hours; most guests take two or three excursions, some take four. Your first full day is planned for you, and after that you choose each evening at the manager's desk before dinner, with six to twelve people on each outing.

From 31 August one trip to the viewing platforms is guaranteed every day and everything else fits around it. Dinner comes with BC wine, then the interpretive programme until about 9:30. The generators go off at 10; lights and chargers run from batteries overnight, the hot water does not, so shower before ten or after 4:30.

From 31 August to 15 October, when the pink salmon are in the spawning channels and the bears line the river. Before that, viewing is from boats in the estuary, with newborn cubs in spring and bears on the berry slopes in midsummer.

On packages of 4 nights or more, a full-day run to Johnstone Strait is one of the excursion choices, roughly mid-July to the end of September and weather dependent. It is too long a day for the 3-night package.

Low to moderate fitness. Every land tour includes about 200 m of rocky, slippery shoreline you must manage unaided, and the tours cannot take walkers or wheelchairs. Minimum age is 6 for the boat seasons and 8 for the fall platforms; a child rate applies to ages 6 to 16 sharing with two adults.

Chef-cooked, local where it can be; the prawns and crab come from the cove. Dietary requirements need a week's notice because everything is flown or boated in. Red and white from BC wineries is included at dinner; the bar carries Vancouver Island beer, Shelter Point spirits and cocktails, and there is proper coffee all day.

No wifi and no cell coverage, on purpose. Standard North American outlets in every room; the generators run 4:30 to 22:00 and batteries carry the lights and chargers overnight.

Scent-free toiletries only, or use theirs; a grizzly's nose is the reason. Layers even in summer, shoes that can get muddy, a swimsuit for the decks and the saunas (the water is 9 to 20°C in July and August). Rain gear, boots and binoculars are lent. There are no biting insects at the lodge itself. You sign a liability waiver and a health questionnaire in Campbell River the night before you fly.

Open the Knight Inlet packing list →

In 2026 a $40 per person gratuity was built into the price. From 2027 it is at your discretion.