The Journal
Written by the people who maintain the listing dataset, from the same sources and the same visits. No sponsored content, no affiliate roundups.
Sea Kayaking Tours
Wildcoast Adventures asked me up to Orca Camp in August to shoot the virtual tour, the drone stills and the people. Four nights on a beach in Johnstone Strait, next to the one stretch of water no boat is allowed to enter.
Ben Taft ·
Fishing Lodges
Steep Island is a few minutes off Campbell River by water taxi and about as far from ordinary as that distance allows: first-growth cedar, cabins in the trees, and Discovery Passage running past the dock hard enough to make its own noise.
Ben Taft ·
Fishing Lodges
Newton Cove is the furthest out of the three Nootka Marine resorts; a floating lodge in Esperanza Inlet with the open ocean a short run away, thirty guided hours on the water, and a four-course dinner at the end of them.
Ben Taft ·
Fishing Lodges
Nootka Sound Resort is tied to the shore of Galiano Bay rather than built on it. Three nights, a private ensuite, thirty hours of guided water, and a sound sheltered enough to fish on the days the open coast says no.
Ben Taft ·
Fishing Lodges
Two hours west of Campbell River, past Strathcona and Gold River, the pavement runs out at a marina on Nootka Sound. Moutcha Bay is the only one of the three Nootka Marine resorts you can drive to, and the only one that works for a party where not everybody fishes.
Ben Taft ·
Bear Viewing Lodges
I've flown into Glendale Cove twice now, camera in my lap, to photograph the largest gathering of grizzlies in British Columbia. This is what the viewing-stand season actually looks like, and how to time your own trip.
Ben Taft ·
Backcountry Lodges
I've flown into both Purcell and Mistaya with a drone case in one hand and skis in the other. Fifteen helicopter minutes from Golden, a full world away from it; here's how BC's heli-access backcountry lodges work, and how to choose between meadow and glacier.
Ben Taft ·
Dive Resorts
Jacques Cousteau called this stretch of current-swept coast the best cold-water diving in the world. I spent a week on Hurst Island with cameras topside and below deck to see what a quarter-century of family-run diving actually looks like.
Ben Taft ·
Sea Kayaking Tours
Orca and humpback move through Johnstone Strait all summer, and the best seat is eighteen inches off the water. I paddled and filmed with Spirit of the West out of Quadra Island, base camps, expeditions, and the hot tub that ruins you for ordinary camping.
Ben Taft ·
Fishing Lodges
Fifteen private lakes in the Interior, a heli-fishing lodge on the Gold River, and a charter fleet working Tofino's open coast year-round. I've photographed all three, here's how to choose between them.
Ben Taft ·
Coastal Retreats
An oceanfront farm on Salt Spring Island's quiet south end, where breakfast is grown on the property and the ferry schedule is the only deadline. I brought cameras to a place designed for putting them down.
Ben Taft ·
Heli-Ski Lodges
Package prices are the starting point, not the total. A breakdown of vertical guarantees, overage billing, down-day policies and the line items that move a $20,000 week to $26,000.
Ben Taft ·
Fishing Lodges
What actually separates a $780-a-night boreal outpost from a $2,150-a-night coastal lodge; inclusions, guide ratios, transfer costs and the questions worth asking before you commit.
Ben Taft ·
