The coast province of British Columbia is a tapestry of peaceful seashores, ancient forests, dramatic uplands, and vibrant cities.
by Debra Bokur
The edge of the garden is close, touchable. Just beyond the open window at Hastings House Country House Hotel, a glorious tangle of tulips and daffodils stretch past the sill, and I realize it’s happened again: I’m deeply, helplessly in love. Not that my husband needs to worry – he’s used to me having my heart stolen by everything from wildlife and coastlines to the season’s first strawberries. This time, it’s the province of British Columbia, and I suspect I’m not going to recover any time soon.
Island Escape
A perfect synthesis of Tolkien’s Middle Earth and Beatrix Potter’s Lake District, Hastings House is a collection of manor house and historic buildings spread across a hillside overlooking the sea. Located on Salt Spring Island, about two hours via ferry from Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal in Vancouver, the hotel (a member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World) is a short stroll from the village of Ganges. The island is known as an artist’s colony, with a well-defined driving and walking route leading to sculptors, jewelry makers, metalworkers, and potters.
The shaded, winding drive to Hastings House is bordered on one side by a long meadow filled with sheep. I make my way past the meadow to the rustic dining room, located within the main manor house. The menu incorporates produce and products from the island’s many farmers and artisan food makers. Chef Marcel Kauer uses some form of alchemy to transform the local fish, cheese, meats, fruits, flowers, and vegetables into mouthwatering dishes such as Pickled Beets & David Wood’s Goats Cheese, and Grilled Free Range Chicken Breast with Rosemary Spaetzle.
The next morning, after an early hike in the fresh sea air through both the kitchen and sculpture gardens, I return to find breakfast has been delivered to my door. There’s a covered pot of mixed grapefruit, oranges, strawberries, blueberries, and melon, freshly baked croissants, juice, and a pot of tea. I settle into a chair beside the windows of my ground-floor suite, aptly called the Greenhouse, and find that breakfast is accompanied by a symphony. Besides the songbirds fluttering around the gardens, there’s the honking of the occasional Canada goose flying overhead, and the cheerful bark of the gardener’s dog.
Each Saturday, there’s an open-air market in Ganges, which is only fifteen minutes away from the hotel by foot along the harbor front. Bread makers, cheese artisans, and farmers all display their goods among the artist’s booths. Scattered among them are cheerful soap makers and musicians, lending a strong air of community to the business of buying and selling locally. A woman offering her handmade lotions and skincare products tells me that she gathers the ingredients herself, including seaweed, rose hips, geraniums and other botanicals, from around the island.
A few hours later, I’ve found my way back to the hotel’s spa for a Signature Facial Plus with Decleor products. My esthetician, Rachael Brown, is also a massage therapist, and delivers a soothing scalp, neck, and shoulder massage after the luxurious facial. Before darkness falls, there’s time to ramble around the grounds and watch as four lambs caper in a meadow, observed tolerantly by their fleecy mothers.
Mountain Bound
From the ferry landing in Vancouver, the scenic, twisting Sea to Sky Highway leads northeast between the mountains and the coast to Whistler, which has been selected as the site for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. The Four Seasons rests on the edge of the village at the base of Blackcomb Mountain. While winter months draw their share of snow worshippers, Whistler is also a spring, summer, and fall destination for hikers, cyclists, and walkers. The ski-lodge ambience feels right regardless of the season, and I take a stroll through Whistler Village, stopping for a light lunch at the organic Ciao Thyme Bistro.
Back at the hotel, I follow a broad stairway leading from the main lobby down to the spa. My therapist, Ute Hingerl, greets me and escorts me into a tranquil treatment room, where she administers the resort’s signature ninety-minute Sea to Sky therapy. Ute uses techniques from a variety of massage traditions, including Thai, Lomi Lomi, deep tissue, and Swedish, blending them seamlessly and leaving me feeling completely rejuvenated. The spa makes full use of local ingredients, including salt from the sea, clay, seaweed, cedar, juniper, and rose hips.
Spa Director Julia Danielsson tells me that the spa is in the process of adding several new treatments to their menu that will focus on traditions from the First Nations people of British Columbia.
“Treatments should be about more than beauty,” she explains, “they should also be about healing. When we place products on our skin, or breathe them in, our bodies absorb them, presenting us with a wonderful opportunity to nourish ourselves, inside and out. Using organic botanicals indigenous to this rich, biodiverse region will also help guests connect to the history and spirit of this place.”
At the Fifty-Two 80 Bistro, the hotel’s restaurant, Executive Chef Scott Dolbee’s has created a scrumptious menu of locally-sourced, seasonal dishes. The restaurant also offers a lighter Wellness Menu, with such selections as a Watercress Salad with Baked Fuji Apple and Salt Spring Island Blue Cheese, and BC Spot Prawns with Avocado, Mango, and Arugula with Citrus Vinaigrette.
The menu complements the resort’s Path to Wellness program, which launched during the summer of 2007. Now a regularly offered option that comes with meditation cards, a yoga mat, and a selection of aromatherapy products, the program is designed to help guests more quickly achieve a state of relaxation. There’s also a Base Camp Activity Team that helps guests make the most of their surroundings with customized activities built around the season. Despite the options, I’m content to head back to my room for a long soak in the deep tub in my luxurious bathroom.
City Sanctuary
Following the highway south, I head for my next ferry rendezvous, which will deliver me to the island of Victoria and the charming city of the same name. I find the Italian Renaissance-style Villa Marco Polo located in a quite neighborhood just outside of the main part of town. The innkeepers greet me at the door, and as we make our way to the second floor of the estate, I’m calmed by the collection of rich fabrics, deep colors, and beautiful textures assembled by owner Eliza Livingston and operator Liam Morton.
“The mansion’s architecture seemed to lend itself toward an Italian theme,” Livingston tells me, adding that before purchasing the property, she had traveled extensively, and lived in several different parts of the world. Together with Morton, she used intuition and instinct to create a sanctuary where visitors not only feel comfortably at home, but pampered by the exquisite surroundings and décor, all of which contribute to a feeling of having been swept away. Special touches include two hand-decorated lava rock tables from Italy’s Amalfi Coast and an exquisite Italian crystal chandelier.
Each luxurious, named bedroom is decorated with unique features. My room, the Alexandria, includes a gas fireplace, huge bed, separate lounging area, and bathroom with an enormous jetted tub. At the end of the hallway is a cozy library, filled with books and comfortable seating areas.
In the morning, I join the other guests downstairs in the formal dining room for a healthy, gourmet breakfast prepared by the innkeepers. The four courses begin with a chilled pomegranate juice blend, followed by fruit, an herb and goat cheese omelet, and a delicate pineapple tart to finish.
Victoria turns out to be the perfect walking city, and I set out for the waterfront. From the Villa, it takes me about forty minutes at a brisk pace. The Inner Harbor area is filled with shops, restaurants, historic buildings, and museums detailing the history of the aboriginal peoples who settled this coast long before the arrival of Captain James Cook. The Royal BC Museum on Bellview Street houses over seven million artifacts, and viewings take place to the sound of drums and Native music. From there, I head north along Government Street, where Silk Road – a local tea shop – is located next to the gates leading to Canada’s oldest Chinatown. The shop’s rooms are filled to the brim with tea ware, handmade skincare and aromatherapy products, and fragrant teas.
Back at the Villa Marco Polo, guests have gathered in the warm, burgundy accented communal area for afternoon tea, which turns out to be a blend from Silk Road. After a refreshing cup, it’s time to explore the newly opened spa, which occupies the entire top floor of the estate. The attention to detail in the spa is extraordinary, and from the very moment I slip across the threshold at the top of the stairs, a healing journey begins. There are lace-edged linens on the massage table, plush surroundings, and a heady collection of stoneware, glass, and wood art displayed throughout the space. SeaFlora, a local company, supplies handcrafted seaweed body care products. I find the scent to be clean and fresh, as if I’m breathing in the coastline.
Therapist Chantelle Ohs gives me a head-to-toes customized massage, then escorts me to a comfortable chair and leaves me to gaze out from the balcony at the Olympia Mountains across the water. Seagulls dip and soar overhead, and I have a view of the formal garden below, with its long, still pool and bocce ball lawn. Stillness, in fact, turns out to be one of the Villa’s most defining and lovely features.
- Pevonia - April 22, 2024
- 15th Annual Earth Day Beauty Awards - April 21, 2024
- Alimaj Essentials LLC - April 21, 2024