Canada (British Columbia)
Port Hardy (Vancouver Island)
Dominated by big-time copper mining, a large fishing fleet and the usual logging concerns, PORT HARDY, a total of 485km from Victoria and 230km from Campbell River, is best known among travellers as the departure point for ships plying one of the more spectacular stretches of the famous Inside Passage to Prince Rupert (and thence to Alaska) and the newly introduced Discovery Coast Passage. If you have time to kill waiting for the boat you could drop into the occasionally open town museum at 7110 Market St or visit the Quatse River Salmon Hatchery on Hardy Bay Road, just off Hwy 19 across from the Pioneer Inn.

 
If possible, though, time your arrival to coincide with one of the Inside Passage sailings, which leave every other day in summer and twice-weekly in winter. Bus services aren't really scheduled to do this for you, with a Laidlaw bus meeting each incoming sailing from Prince Rupert. A Laidlaw bus (tel 949-7532 in Port Hardy, tel 385-4411 or 388-5248 in Victoria) also leaves Victoria daily (currently 11.45am), sometimes with a change in Nanaimo, arriving at the Port Hardy ferry terminal in the evening (currently 9.50pm) to connect with the ferry next morning; in summer an extra service departs from Victoria on the morning before ferry sailings. Maverick Coach Lines (tel 250/753-4371 in Nanaimo, tel 604/662-8051 in Vancouver) runs an early-morning bus from Vancouver to Nanaimo (inclusive of ferry), connecting with the daily Laidlaw bus to Port Hardy. You can fly from Vancouver International Airport to Port Hardy or with Air BC (tel 1-800/663-3721 in BC, 1-800/776-3000 in the States, 604/688-5515 in Vancouver, 250/360-9074 in Victoria).

The Port Hardy ferry terminal is visible from town but is actually 8km away at Bear Cove, where buses stop before carrying on to terminate opposite the infocentre, 7250 Market St (year-round Mon–Fri 9am–5pm; to early June to late Sept 8am–8pm; tel 949-7622, chamber@capescott.bc.ca). The infocentre can give you all the details about Port Hardy's tiny but free museum, and the immense wilderness of Cape Scott Provincial Park, whose interior is accessible only by foot and which is supposed to have some of the most consistently bad weather in the world. As a short taster you could follow the forty-minute hike from the small campsite and trailhead at San Josef River to some sandy beaches. Increasingly popular, but demanding (allow eight hours plus), is the historic Cape Scott Trail, part of a complex web of trails hacked from the forest by early Danish pioneers. Around 28km has been reclaimed from the forest, opening a trail to the cape itself.

If you stay in town overnight, leave plenty of time to reach the ferry terminal – sailings in summer are usually around 7.30am. North Island Transportation provides a shuttle-bus service between the ferry and the town's airport, main hotels and the bus station at Market Street, whence it departs ninety minutes before each sailing (tel 949-6300 for information or to arrange a pick-up from hotel or campsite); otherwise call a taxi (tel 949-8000).

Many travellers to Port Hardy are in RVs, but there's still a huge amount of pressure on hotel accommodation in summer, and it's absolutely vital to call ahead if you're not camping or haven't worked your arrival to coincide with one of the ferry sailings. Note that the ferry from Prince Rupert docks around 10.30pm, so you don't want to be hunting out rooms late at night with dozens of others. There are rooms out of town at the Airport Inn, 4030 Byng Rd (tel 949-9424, www.airportinn-porthardy.com; $100–125), but you'd be better off in one of the slightly more upmarket central choices like the North Shore Inn, 7370 Market St (tel 949-8500; $80–100), at the end of Hwy 19, where all units have ocean views, or the Thunderbird Inn, 7050 Rupert St and Granville (tel 949-7767, tbirdinn@island.net; $80–100). The former has nice views of the harbour but sometimes has noisy live music. Five minutes south of town at 4965 Byng Rd, in a park-like setting near the river, is the Pioneer Inn (tel 949-7271 or 1-800/663-8744, pioneer@island.net; $100–125), which has rooms, RV sites and a campsite ($20). Other hotels are the Glen Lyon Inn by the marina at 6435 Hardy Bay Rd (tel 949-7115, www.glenlyoninn.com; $80–100), and the large 40-room Quarterdeck Inn, 6555 Hardy Bay Rd (tel 902-0455, quarterdk@capescott.net; $125–175), the town's newest hotel – it opened in late 1999: otherwise contact the infocentre for details of the town's five or so B&B options. The Wildwoods campsite (tel 949-6753; $5–15; May–Oct) is a good option, being within walking distance (3km) of the ferry, though it's not too comfy for tenting – or try the Quatse River Campground at 5050 Hardy Rd (tel 949-2395, quatse@island.net; $14–18), with 62 spruce-shaded sites opposite the Pioneer Inn, 5km from the ferry dock. Or go for the larger 80-site Sunny Sanctuary Campground 1km north of Ferry Junction and Hwy 19 at 8080 Goodspeed Rd (tel 949-8111, sunnycam@capescott.net; $15–20).

Food here is nothing special, but there's a bevy of budget outlets, so you should be able to fill up for well under $10. Granville and Market streets have the main restaurant concentrations: try Snuggles, next to the Pioneer Inn, which aims at a cosy English pub atmosphere with live music, theatre (Friday nights) and steaks, salads and salmon grilled over an open fire. The cafeteria-coffee shop in the Pioneer does filling breakfasts and other snacks.

The Inside Passage
One of Canada's great trips, the Inside Passage aboard BC Ferries' Queen of the North, between Port Hardy and Prince Rupert on the British Columbia mainland, is a cheap way of getting what people on the big cruise ships are getting: 274 nautical miles of mountains, islands, waterfalls, glaciers, sea lions, whales, eagles and some of the grandest coastal scenery on the continent. By linking up with the Greyhound bus network or the VIA Rail terminal at Prince Rupert, it also makes a good leg in any number of convenient itineraries around British Columbia. Some travellers will have come from Washington State, others will want to press on from Prince Rupert to Skagway by boat and then head north into Alaska and the Yukon . A lot of people simply treat it as a cruise, and sail north one day and return south to Port Hardy the next. If nothing else, the trip's a good way of meeting fellow travellers and taking a break from the interminable trees of the BC interior.

The boat carries 750 passengers and 160 cars and runs every two days, departing at 7.30am on even-numbered days in August, odd-numbered days in June, July, September and the first half of October. The journey takes around fifteen hours, arriving in Prince Rupert about 10.30pm, sometimes with a stop at Bella Bella. Be aware that from about October 15 to May 25 the sailings are less frequent in both directions and are predominantly at night (they leave Port Hardy in the late afternoon), which rather defeats the sightseeing object of the trip. On board there are cafeterias, restaurants and a shop (among other services): at the last, pick up the cheap and interesting BC Ferries Guide to the Inside Passage for more on the trip.

The cost from mid-June to mid-September (peak) is $106 single for a foot passenger (May & Oct $85/75; Nov–April $56), $218 for a car (May & Oct $154; Nov–April $114); reservations are essential throughout the summer season if you're taking a car or want a cabin. Bookings can be made by phone (tel 1-888/223-3779 anywhere in BC, tel 250/386-3431 in Victoria, tel 604/669-1211 in Vancouver, www.bcferries.com), fax (tel 381-5452 in Victoria) or by post to BC Ferry Corporation, 1112 Fort St, Victoria, BC V8V 4V2. Include name and address; number in party; length, height and type of car; choice of day-room or cabin; and preferred date of departure and alternatives. Full payment is required up front. Day cabins can be reserved by foot passengers, and range from around $24 for two berths with basin, to $45 on the Promenade with two berths, basin and toilet. If you are making the return trip only you can rent cabins overnight, saving the hassle of finding accommodation in Port Hardy, but if you do you are obliged to take the cabin for the following day's return trip as well: cabins are not available as an alternative to rooms in town, so don't think you can rent a cabin overnight and then disappear next morning at Prince Rupert. Two-berth overnight cabins range from about $51 with basin only, to $120 for shower, basin and toilet. Reports suggest BC Ferries are not happy for passengers to roll out sleeping bags in the lounge area. If you're making a return trip and want to leave your car behind, there are several supervised lock-ups in Port Hardy: try Daze Parking (tel 949-7792) or the Sunny Sanctuary RV Park (tel 949-8111) just five minutes from the terminal (the town shuttle bus will pick you up from here). You can leave vehicles at the ferry terminal, but there have been incidents of vandalism in recent years: neither BC Ferries nor the Port Hardy infocentre seem to recommend the practice. Note, again, that it is vital to book accommodation at your final destination before starting your trip; both Port Hardy and Prince Rupert hotels get very busy on days when the boat arrives.

The Discovery Coast Passage
The huge success of the Inside Passage sailing amongst visitors led BC Ferries to introduce the Discovery Coast Passage, a trip they candidly admit will only pay as a result of tourists. The route offers many of the scenic rewards of the Inside Passage, but over a shorter and more circuitous route between Port Hardy and Bella Coola, where you pick up the occasionally steep and tortuous road (Hwy 20) through the Coast Mountains to Williams Lake – it goes nowhere else. En route, the boat, the Queen of Chilliwack, stops at Namu, McLoughlin Bay, Shearwater, Klemtu and Ocean Falls (Namu is a request stop and must be booked in advance). If the route takes off as BC Ferries hope, you can expect visitor facilities to mushroom at these places – you can disembark at all of them – but at present the only places to stay overnight are campsites at McLoughlin Bay and a resort, hotels, cabins and B&B at Shearwater. Bella Coola is better-equipped, and will probably become more so as the route becomes better known. BC Ferries is offering inclusive ferry and accommodation packages – even renting fishing tackle so you can fish over the side – and these too may mature as the service finds its feet.

Currently there are departures roughly every couple of days between late May and the end of September, currently leaving at 9.30am on Tues and Thurs and 9.30pm on Sat, Sun and Mon. There's a slight catch, however, for while the early morning departures offer you plenty of scenery, some arrive at McLoughlin Bay at 7.30pm and Bella Coola at 6.30am in the morning, meaning that the very best bit of the trip – along the inlet to Bella Coola – is in the middle of the night. The 9.30am departures are quicker (they only stop once, at Ocean Falls) and make Bella Coola the same day, arriving at 11pm, so the problem is lessened. Alternatively take the 9.30pm departures and wake at McLoughlin Bay at 7.30am with a further daylight trip towards Bella Coola, arriving at 7.30am the next morning – read the timetables carefully. Making the trip southbound from Bella Coola gets round the problem, though there are similar staggered departure and arrival times (services currently leave Mon, Wed and Fri at 7.30 or 8am, arriving Port Hardy 9.30pm on the Mon departure, 7.45am on Wed sailing and 9am on the Fri boat), with overnight and same-day journeys and a variety of stopping points depending on the day you travel. Unlike the Inside Passage, there are no cabins: you sleep in aircraft-style reclining seats and – for the time being – sleeping bags seem Ok on the floor: check for the latest on freestanding tents on the decks.

Reservations can be made through BC Ferries . Prices for a foot passenger are $110 one-way to Bella Coola, $55 to Namu and $70 to all other destinations. If you want to camp or stop over and hop on and off, the boat fares between any two of McLoughlin Bay, Ocean Falls, Klemtu and Namu are $22 and $40 from any of these to Bella Coola. Cars cost $220 from Port Hardy to Bella Coola, $140 to all other destinations ($45 and $80 respectively for the single-leg options). To take a canoe or kayak costs $40.75 stowage from Port Hardy to Bella Coola, $30.75 to points en route.

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