Southlands

Check the tide table before you come. When the water drops, the Willow Point Reef stretches out from shore and the beach turns into a field trip: sea stars wedged under rocks, tiny crabs, anemones closing up as you lean in. Kids head out with buckets and come back soaked. At high tide the same spot is all driftwood and views across to Quadra Island and the Coast Mountains.

South along the highway, Stories Beach is the one families pick for a whole afternoon. It's sandy and sheltered, with parking close to the water. Big Rock sits a little farther on, a house-sized boulder left on the beach by a glacier. Locals use it as a landmark, a meeting point and, depending on the season, a canvas for painted messages.

The village itself is a few blocks of everyday business: a grocery store, a pharmacy, sushi, a butcher-style kitchen, a couple of pubs and the coffee shop where the morning regulars hold court. Nothing here is fancy, and that's the appeal. You can walk to dinner, then walk the seawalk home as the light goes pink over the passage.