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Lightwater Cove

Packing list · Lightwater Cove

What to pack for Lightwater Cove

What to bring for a few days at Lightwater Cove. A guesthouse with breakfast, a spa and a beach on a rain-shadow island does most of the work for you, so this is a weekend bag: layers for a coast that changes its mind, something to swim in, shoes for the shore and the trails, and cash for the market. Tick things off as they go in; the ticks are saved on this device.

A week at Lightwater Cove, and what a Salt Spring weekend needs. The property publishes no packing list; a local one is linked below as the reference this was checked against.

Some gear links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through one, I earn a small referral fee at no cost to you.

Get this list as a PDF

Getting on and off the island

BC Ferries from Swartz Bay near Victoria or Tsawwassen near Vancouver, or a floatplane from either harbour in about twenty-five minutes. A car is needed on the island; the property is at the quiet south end.

  • Reusable shopping bags at Amazon · or REI

Packing items laid out on grey gravel: a steel water bottle, a black cap, a tube of mineral sunscreen, a headlamp, a battery pack, a can of insect repellent and a paperback

Layers for a rain shadow

Salt Spring sits in the lee of Vancouver Island and gets Mediterranean summers while the outer coast takes the weather. It is still the Salish Sea: evenings cool, mornings can be grey, and a rain jacket earns its place in every month.

Beach, hot tub, spa

The beach is private and the hot tub is on site, and the property has a spa. Pack for water you will actually get into.

Walking

Gardens terraced to the water, an arbour walk, and an island of trails and viewpoints a short drive away.

For doing nothing well

Nobody in the photographs from this week is doing anything, and it took me a week to properly appreciate that. Pack for it.

Kit budget

What this list costs, bought new

The kit for this trip, bought new, is about CA$3,813 (US$2,782), across the 15 of 21 items above that name a product. Tick the items you already have and the figure below becomes what is left to buy.

Still to buy CA$3,813 US$2,782 · 15 of 15 items Approx., at 1.37 CAD per USD. Street prices, not quotes; a sale or a used one changes the sum.

Some gear links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through one, I earn a small referral fee at no cost to you.

Checked against: Lightwater Cove , A Salt Spring weekend packing checklist (Mariner's Loft, for reference) . Operator limits, especially helicopter baggage weights, are theirs and change; confirm with your booking.

Where this list came from

The weeks behind it