Short voyage to car-free Sidney Spit offers beach-front camping, beaches, hikes
SIDNEY, B.C. — The passenger ferry departs the pier at the north end of Beacon Avenue in Sidney, B.C., bound for the long, thin sandbar that marks Sidney Spit.
The voyage on board the 15-metre catamaran to the Victoria-area community takes about 25 minutes and transports visitors to a vehicle-free oasis that is a nature-filled getaway from crowded city streets.
Sidney Spit, with tidal flats, sandy beaches, salt marshes and rolling meadows, is part of British Columbia’s Gulf Islands National Park Reserve, a protected marine ecosystem that encompasses 15 islands over 36 square kilometres.
The spit is a hook-like sandbar on the northern tip of Sidney Island, east of Vancouver Island.