---
title: "The Point at Farewell Harbour: Berry Island Lodge, before and after the name"
description: "I spent late summer days photographing this lodge on a rocky point in the Broughton Archipelago when it was still called Farewell Harbour. It is Berry Island Lodge now, same cedar, same floating rooms, same 5 pm swim club. This is what a stay there looks like, what I saw from the boats, and how to get to it."
author: "Ben Taft"
published: "2026-09-14"
updated: "2026-09-14"
canonical: "https://wildernessledger.com/guides/the-point-at-farewell-harbour"
about:
  - "Berry Island Lodge: https://wildernessledger.com/experience/berry-island-lodge"
---

# The Point at Farewell Harbour: Berry Island Lodge, before and after the name

> I spent late summer days photographing this lodge on a rocky point in the Broughton Archipelago when it was still called Farewell Harbour. It is Berry Island Lodge now, same cedar, same floating rooms, same 5 pm swim club. This is what a stay there looks like, what I saw from the boats, and how to get to it.

Words, photography and film by Ben Taft. Published 14 September 2026, updated 14 September 2026. Canonical page: https://wildernessledger.com/guides/the-point-at-farewell-harbour

Photograph: Aerial view of Berry Island Lodge at dusk, its blue-roofed cedar buildings and boardwalk of guest rooms lit along a rocky point, with boats at the dock below

Some lodges are hidden in a bay. This one stands out on a point, cedar and blue roofs on a spine of rock at the edge of Berry Island, with the Broughton Archipelago opening on three sides and a floating lodge tied in below it. I photographed it in late summer, when the sign on the dock still said [Farewell Harbour](https://wildernessledger.com/experience/berry-island-lodge). The name has changed since. The point has not.

Berry Island is one of more than two hundred islands in the Broughton Archipelago Marine Park, at the southern edge of the Great Bear Rainforest and in the territory of the Mamalilikulla First Nation. The lodge occupies a homestead first cleared in 1920; the rest of the island is protected rainforest. You reach it by water taxi from Alder Bay, half an hour through Johnstone Strait and Blackfish Sound, and the first thing you see is the deck.

Photograph: Aerial view over the Broughton Archipelago at sunset, still water reflecting a pink sky between forested islands, the lodge's floating building small in the cove

Photograph: Aerial view of the floating lodge and dock at dusk, guest boats tied alongside, with the main lodge lit among the trees behind

## Two lodges, one ramp

The main lodge sits on the rock with eight guest rooms strung along a cedar boardwalk above the water. A ramp drops from its deck to a floating lodge with four more rooms and the dock the boats work from.

From the air, at dusk, the whole arrangement reads as one lit shape on the point, with the archipelago going pink and silver behind it. That is the frame the drone was there for.

Every room, on the rock or on the float, looks at the water. They are cedar inside, with two beds, an ensuite, a fireplace, and a wall of glass onto the harbour. The rooms on the float have the tide moving under them; the rooms on the boardwalk have the forest at their backs. Neither is the lesser option.

Photograph: A guest room lit from within at dusk, seen from the cedar boardwalk that runs along the rocky shoreline

Caption: A boardwalk room at dusk. The rock drops straight to the water on the other side of the rail.

The boardwalk is the corridor. Walking to your room means walking along the edge of the island.

Photograph: Guest room with two beds under a cedar ceiling, a wall of windows onto the harbour and the ensuite bathroom beyond

Caption: Two beds, cedar, and the harbour where a television would be.

The rooms

### Twelve, all on the water

Eight along the boardwalk, four on the float. Each has an ocean view, an ensuite with a shower, a gas fireplace and two beds; the bed frames were made from Vancouver Island fir by a local carpenter.

The lodge offers daily arrivals in 2026, so it does not allocate a specific room in advance. Ask for the float if you want the water under you, the boardwalk if you want the trees.

[Check availability](https://wildernessledger.com/experience/berry-island-lodge#request-availability)

Photograph: The lodge's cedar deck at dusk with Adirondack chairs around a lit fire table, looking out over the harbour

The deck is where the day starts and ends. In the morning it is where you meet the guides and hear what the water is doing; in the evening it is Adirondack chairs, fire tables, and a glass of something while the sun goes down behind the islands. The lodge plans each day the evening before, around the weather and the wildlife, and the deck is where that conversation happens.

Photograph: Five guests with glasses of wine around a fire table on the deck at sunset, the islands of the archipelago behind them

## What the days are made of

Full-day bear viewing in the inlets and estuaries, by boat, by zodiac or on foot depending on the tide. Marine tours for orca, humpbacks, Pacific white-sided dolphins, Dall's porpoises and Steller sea lions in the water around the island. Guided sea kayaking from the dock, paddleboards, rainforest walks, and visits to Indigenous cultural sites with the lodge's neighbours.

The lodge's own line on wildlife is the honest one: the guides seek animals in their natural habitat, from small boats and on foot, and that is less predictable than a viewing platform. Nothing is guaranteed. I spent most of my days on the point photographing the lodge itself, and still came home with dolphins, sea lions, seals and eagles from the water around it.

> Taking the plunge is totally optional, but we encourage you to literally jump outside your comfort zone. A warm towel awaits you.
>
> The lodge, on the 5 pm swim club

Photograph: A guest on a stand-up paddleboard on calm water below a wall of old-growth forest

Photograph: Overhead aerial of two sea kayaks over clear turquoise water and a sunken log near the rocky shore

Photograph: A guest lying back among ferns beneath a moss-covered rock face in the island's rainforest

Caption: The slow days: a paddleboard off the dock, kayaks over water clear enough to see the logs on the bottom, and the island's own forest, which is a walk from the deck.

The boats go out and come back by 4:30, and what happens next is the lodge's oldest tradition. At five, whoever is willing walks down to the dock and jumps in. The water is the same temperature as everywhere else on this coast, which is to say cold enough to make a point, and the towel waiting on the dock is warm. It is optional. I did not jump; I was above it with the [drone](https://wildernessledger.com/go/gear/dji-mini-5-pro/primary), which is the photographer's way of attending, and the frames went to the lodge.

Photograph: A chef's hands placing cilantro on a plate of grilled halibut over rice and charred broccolini

Caption: Halibut, rice, charred broccolini, and the last leaf going on.

The kitchen

### A chef, a board, and a very good dinner

Meals are included, from lunch on the day you arrive to lunch on the day you leave, with snacks between and a board of cheese and fruit that appears on the deck when it is wanted most. Dinner is a buffet followed by a talk from one of the guides on something about this coast they care about.

The lodge buys local: craft beer, wine and spirits from the island, food from the region. It can handle allergies and dietary restrictions with notice at booking.

[Check availability](https://wildernessledger.com/experience/berry-island-lodge#request-availability)

Photograph: A chef carrying a wooden board loaded with cheeses, fruit, crackers and dips across the deck

Photograph: The chef pouring steamed mussels into a bowl in the lodge kitchen, a large tomato salad beside the stove

## Inside, by the fire

The main lodge is one big cedar room under a cathedral ceiling: leather sofas around a brick fireplace, a dining room, a bar, and windows on every side that make the fireplace optional most evenings.

The kitchen is in the same building, and the smell of it reaches the sofas well before dinner does. Mussels went into a bowl while I was photographing, which is a hard thing to stay professional through.

What I remember most is how the place ran: a family feel, the staff and the guests in the same room by the end of the first evening. I hope the new owners have kept that spirit, and some of the people who made it.

Photograph: The lodge lounge with leather sofas and armchairs around a brick fireplace, under a timber cathedral ceiling

Be clear-eyed about the logistics, because they are precise. The water taxi leaves Alder Bay between noon and 12:30 and the lodge asks you to be there by 11:30; that means arriving on Vancouver Island the day before, whether you fly Pacific Coastal into Port Hardy and take the lodge's shuttle, or take the Horseshoe Bay ferry and drive four hours north from Nanaimo. Book departing flights after 2 pm. The lodge is off grid: no laundry, a well for water, batteries and a generator for power. Guests need to be able to step in and out of boats and walk uneven ground; children are welcome from seven. Rain gear and rubber boots are provided, because this is the coastal temperate rainforest and it will, at some point, rain. The other thing to pack for is fog. Mornings out here are often fogged in, sometimes all day, and the right clothes are the difference between a grey morning on the deck and a cold one.

Photograph: A guest in an Adirondack chair with a glass of wine on the deck at sunset, a fire table burning beside her

Caption: The end of a day on the point.

The name on the dock changed. The reason to sit on this deck at sunset did not.

## Questions

**Is Berry Island Lodge the same place as Farewell Harbour Lodge?**

Yes. The lodge on Berry Island in the Broughton Archipelago was renamed Berry Island Lodge under The Bucket List Collection; the operator's own pages still use both names. The buildings, the floating rooms and the location are the same.

**How do you get to Berry Island Lodge?**

By the lodge's water taxi from Alder Bay RV Park and Marina near Port McNeill, departing between 12:00 and 12:30 pm, a crossing of about thirty minutes through Johnstone Strait and Blackfish Sound. Fly Vancouver to Port Hardy with Pacific Coastal the day before and take the lodge's included shuttle to Alder Bay, or drive Vancouver Island and park at Alder Bay for free. The lodge stopped using floatplanes in 2018.

**What is the weather like at Berry Island?**

Coastal temperate rainforest, so rain is possible in any month and the lodge lends rain gear and rubber boots. Mornings are often foggy, sometimes for the whole day, so pack warm layers and a shell even in late summer.

**What is included at Berry Island Lodge?**

The water taxi, an ocean-view room with an ensuite, all meals and non-alcoholic drinks, accredited guides and every excursion, including bear viewing, marine tours, sea kayaks and paddleboards. Alcohol, gratuities and travel insurance are not. Rates are quoted on enquiry and depend on dates and group size.

## The experience in this story

- Berry Island Lodge: https://wildernessledger.com/experience/berry-island-lodge (plain text: https://wildernessledger.com/experience/berry-island-lodge.md)
  Berry Island Lodge: packages of 4 to 7 days are priced on enquiry by dates and group size (the lodge publishes no tariff), season 1 June to 6 October 2026, 12 ocean-view rooms on an off-grid island reached by the 12:00 water taxi from Alder Bay, with a $500 per person non-refundable deposit. Read from The Bucket List Collection, Canada (Berry Island) on 14 September 2026.

Written by Ben Taft, Photographer and filmmaker, The Wilderness Ledger (https://wildernessledger.com/about). Ben Taft stayed at the place this story describes and wrote it afterwards. Every photograph and film is his. Publisher: The Wilderness Ledger. Corrections: hello@wildernessledger.com.