Road trip

Route 4 · Salt Spring Island Loop

Ferry: Crofton–Vesuvius, 25 min, no reservations
Driving: ≈ 60 km on-island, hilly
Day: Full day; plan around sailings
Season: Saturday Apr–late Oct for the market

Schematic map of the route with numbered stops — Open this route in Google Maps ↗Schematic map; numbered stops match the list below. The link gives turn-by-turn directions.

The ferry is a five-minute walk from the inn, but take the car: the island is spread out and hilly. Salt Spring is farms, studios and villages, with a famous Saturday market, a goat dairy, a cidery, a stone church and 7 km of coast at Ruckle Park. Check the last sailing back before you leave Vesuvius.

Vesuvius Bay — Coffee at the ferry-side café; the Seaside Restaurant here is also your sunset dinner option while waiting for the boat home.
Mount Maxwell (Baynes Peak) — Sweeping views over Burgoyne Bay and back to Vancouver Island. The access road is rough gravel; allow 20 minutes each way and skip it in a low car.
Salt Spring Island Cheese Company — A working goat and sheep dairy with viewing windows into the cheesemaking, a farm shop, and goat-milk ice cream from the seasonal café.
Fulford Harbour — St. Paul's Stone Church (1880s), a tiny fieldstone mission church by the water. Lunch at Rock Salt, or the Fulford Inn for local beer and wine.
Ruckle Provincial Park — An 1870s farmstead with the original farmhouse and barns, still worked by the Ruckle family, plus 7 km of rocky shoreline trail, tide pools at Beaver Point and resident otters.
Ganges — Galleries, bookshops and the harbour. Saturday Market in the Park runs 9 am to about 3 pm, April through late October, with holiday markets in December: everything is made, baked or grown by the person selling it. Dinner at Tree House Café, Auntie Pesto's or Oystercatcher.

Salt Spring Wild Cider House, Salt Spring Vineyards and the Studio Tour (follow the sheep-icon signs) can replace any stop. Many island restaurants cut days or close in winter.