Salt Spring Island
Welcome To Our Pacific Paradise

Salt Spring Island... Dubbed the "coolest island in Canada" by the Washington Post, we are home to over 10,000 free spirits, artists, writers, alternative therapists and a sizable Buddhist community. And we're just a short ferry ride from Vancouver or Victoria. Come visit...

Salt Spring Island (or Hippieville, Canada, as it's sometimes called) is one of those unique places that has to be seen to be believed...

If you've ever wanted to get away from all the hustle and bustle of city life and flashback to a mellower era, Salt Spring Island is the place for you.

You can just feel the stress and anxiety melt away as your mind and body happily adjust to "island time"...

I'm Bill Nash and I live here on this beautiful, enchanting isle.

SSI is awash with rocky inlets, kayak-friendly waters, evergreen forests and a tradition of tolerance. Also, thanks to liberal Canadian laws, a faint whiff of marijuana still tends to waft on the breeze.

Salt Spring's lifestyle fest reaches its zenith at the Saturday Market in the village of Ganges, which sells crafts and organic food.

If you've never been to Salt Spring Island before, let's just say that it's probably different from anything you've experienced. I call it "The Vibe", as in "good vibrations"...

Ever wonder where all those '60's "flower children" ended up? Well, a lot of them discovered this place and never left. Now they have flower children of their own.

But it's not just "hippie heaven" here.

All sorts of folks now call this island paradise home: artists and artisans, photographers, retired CEO's, plumbers, pilots, journalists, actors, directors, ferry workers, bus drivers, musicians, New Agers, internet entrepreneurs, organic farmers, sheep ranchers, bed & breakfasters...

Over 200,000 people visited Salt Spring in 2009.

Remember when Joni Mitchell sang "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot"? Well, that's what happened to Pitt Meadows, my hometown.

Lots of folks started moving out there to get away from the city and it eventually became a suburb itself.

But Salt Springers have an ace in the hole...

It's called The Islands Trust Act which severely limits development and growth here and on several other Gulf Islands. Even so, it's still an ongoing struggle and the topic of many a conversation around here.

Local businesses provide a complete range of trades, services and professions. We have excellent shopping for the essentials as well as some totally awesome specialty shops.

You can swim, golf, go horseback riding, play tennis, sail, or kayak 365 days a year.

Our artistic community provides a wonderful variety of plays, concerts, art shows, studio visits and learning opportunities.

"You're welcome as a visitor, but be warned: many who came for a casual visit are now residents."

We have a temperate Mediterranean climate - not too cold and not too hot. About 34 inches of rain each year keeps everything so green.

We receive very little frost and many winters have no snow at all. We have no poisonous snakes and the largest predator is the raccoon.

Our life style is relaxed and undemanding. It's a place to be who you want to be and do what you want to do.

You can find seclusion without isolation.

Four large cities: Victoria, Vancouver, Nanaimo and Seattle
are within easy reach.

There are frequent daily ferry trips to Vancouver Island and the mainland of British Columbia.

Float planes make scheduled trips to Salt Spring several times a day.

This Pacific jewel, halfway between Vancouver and Victoria, is truly an island paradise...

Hey! Conde Nast Traveler, the best travel magazine in the world, even voted Saltspring the #3 Best Island In North America!

You're never far from those crashing ocean waves and that refreshing salty scent of the sea...

Pristine inviting beaches, shimmering turquoise lakes, emerald green forests, and more deer than you've ever seen in one place...



And you can see it all from our towering mountains.

We invite you to come visit us to explore and discover
the magic for yourself.

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