VICTORIA AND VANCOUVER ISLAND - British Columbia: Including the Alaska Highway - page 279

Practicalities
Along the waterfront and within easy walking distance of the ferry dock, Alert Bay Lodge
(549 Fir St., 250/974-2410 or 800/255-5057, www.alertbaylodge.com , $115 s or d) has four
simple rooms where rates include wireless Internet access and a cooked breakfast.
Pass N Thyme (4 Maple St., 250/974-2670, 11am-9pm Tues.-Sat., $14-22) is the bright
red building across from the waterfront. Inside, you'll find a friendly, casual ambience and
a menu of pizza, pasta, and salads.
Turn right after leaving the ferry dock to reach Alert Bay Visitor Centre (116 Fir St.,
250/974-5024, www.alertbay.ca , 9am-5pm daily in summer, 9am-5pm Mon.-Fri. the rest of
the year).
Getting There
BC Ferries (250/956-4533) runs to the island from Port McNeill a few times daily. The
round-trip fare is adult $11.10, child $5.55.
MM TELEGRAPH COVE
Most visitors come to Telegraph Cove (population 20) to go whale watching on Johnstone
Strait, but the village is well worth the eight-kilometer (five-mile) detour from the highway
just east of Port McNeill. Built around a deep sheltered harbor, it's one of the last existing
“boardwalk” communities on Vancouver Island. Many of the buildings stand on stilts and
pilings over the water, linked by a boardwalk.
Whales are occasionally spotted from the cove, but to enjoy the full whale-watching ex-
perience, you'll need to join a boat tour. In the village itself, it's easy to spend at least an
hour exploring the colorful boardwalk. Here you'll find the Whale Interpretive Centre
(250/928-3129, 9am-5pm May-Sept., adult $3, child $1), a historic fishing shed that has
been given a modern makeover and is now filled with interpretive panels and lots of whale
bones. Also on the boardwalk are an art gallery, a couple of cafes, the Old Saltery Pub,
and a store selling groceries and fishing tackle. Beside the boat ramp, North Island Kayak
(250/928-3114) has two-hour guided sea kayaking tours for $60.
Whale Watching
More than 50 whale-watching operations have sprung up around Vancouver Island in the
last three decades, but the opportunity to view orcas (killer whales) close up in Johnstone
Strait is unparalleled. These magnificent, intelligent mammals spend the summer in the
protected waters around northern Vancouver Island, but are most concentrated in Rob-