Everything You Should Do On Bowen Island, BC

(Last updated April 2025)

Bowen Island is an island municipality that is part of Metro Vancouver. The island currently has a population of around 4200 people and does attract several tourists all year round. The island is located in Howe Sound, it is approximately 6KMS wide by 12KMS long. Several people walk or bike onto the ferry from Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal, however we wanted to get aound efficiently and took a car over. I will break down an approximate total of what I spent to do this little getaway at the end as well. If you have never been to Bowen Island or want to go back to do some adventuring, keep on reading - I will list everywhere we went, to what we ate and drank.

For where we stayed I have linked that on my places to stay on AIRBNBs here. To start off the ferry to Bowen Island runs on the hour and cannot be reserved. You must link up the schedule from where you are starting - for us that was Depature Bay - Horseshoe Bay. This was Easter Long weekend and I had managed to reserve a vehicle spot for 8:05AM from Nanaimo and then we got onto the 11:35 to Bowen Island. We waited maybe 20 minutes in-between. I will post the schedule to Bowen Island here. To loop back to Bowen Island ferry once you get off from Horseshoe Bay (if your coming from Nanaimo or Langdale) you will want to take Exit 4 and it will take you to the ticket booth again. I was surprised at how smooth this process was, as my husband was a bit weary of the ferry situation on a long weekend. I guess we got lucky going on a Thursday-Friday.

WHERE WE EXPLORED:

SNUG COVE:

This is where you will get off the ferry from, it's a cute little harbour with docks, restaurants, cafes & a general store. Crippen Regional Park is nearby as well that has a lovely view of the cove with picnic tables.

SANDY BEACH:

There will be lots of beaches listed but I'd have to say this was a favourite for us. There was tons of seaglass and in the season where you can have beach fires, this would be a sweet spot. You can access this beach from Cardena Rd or what we did was turned it into a short walk by parking at the Killarney Creek Trailhead. This is where we saw the waterfall (fish ladder) Killarney Creek, the Lagoon and walked onto Mothers Beach.

CATES BAY BEACH:

This one was highly rated to go see and I can see why. This is a short walk with stairs. Stunning mountain views and it was pretty quiet when we got there. Beautiful homes on Bowen Island. I took my drone out for this one, there was even a house on a small little island to the left.

We drove past Cates Bay, but aside from houses and a dead end there was nothing really going on that north west side of the Island.

DORMON POINT: CRIPPEN REGIONAL PARK

You can make this a longer hike and start from Snug Cove, however we have a 5 year old and werevtrying to fit in a-lot in the time we had so we parked at the end of Robinson Rd. Making this not even a kilometre long one way. If you wanted to continue past this lookout, it'll bring you to the point below. It would probably add over an hour, I'm not 100% the signs were saying it was 500M+ below to get to there. I have highlighted that area in yellow for you to see where I'm talking about. The viewpoint was stunning and there was even a little bench to sit on.

TUNSTALL BAY BEACH:

I had read this was a good sunset spot, so I chose this for where we had our beach fire. You can tell this where the locals hang out on the weekends. Lots of people having beach fires or just came to enjoy the sunset and we had a killer one that evening. You can have beach fires during certain times and make sure when it's allowed you leave no trace. Make sure the fire is completely out. I was able to get wood from the general store, our AIRBNB host gave me a number for firewood but she had ran out, so I'm thankful that the general store had one bundle left.

KILLARNEY LAKE:

Where we parked this was a 6KM little hike, you can make it longer as AllTrails suggested a longer route but again we have a child who I can't carry anymore, so if I can park closer I am going to lol. This took about 1 and a half hours with Graeson, if you've ever hiked Westwood Lake in Nanaimo - it reminded me of that. You could take a stroller here as well and it's a doable walk for just about any skill level. This was a beautiful way to start our day on the Friday. The trees are tall, there is small creeks everywhere and it's just so green. The water is more like a swamp in areas but there is a really nice beach located by the picnic tables on the left hand side if you walk further up.

ROGER CURTIS LIGHTHOUSE (LIGHTHOUSE LANE PARK):

This is the most scenic spot and was very busy. I was skeptical to fly my drone because of how many people were here. I didn't fly very long due to not wanting to discrupt peoples peace. This is a short walk to the beach and lighthouse, some say this is a good spot to see whales as well. We didn't see any but it was a beautiful beach. So many cool rocks.

ROGER CURTIS BEACH:

Yet another little beach that was recommended on several blogs I read, this is a smaller beach and was a short hike down. There is a little viewpoint on the left side you could hike up to as well. Graeson was not into it, so i just flew my drone while he searched for seaglass.

BOWEN BAY BEACH:

I feel we had to visit this one as it is more on the west south side of the island and we had explored the north west the day before. My step-daughter is named Bowen and we had fun thinking of her. I wish we could have taken her that weekend. She would have loved our adventures. This is a short walk and there is several houses nearby in the back, we enjoyed basking in the warm sun and watched boats go by.

BOWEN ISLAND COMMUNITY SCHOOL:

If you have a child, you know stopping at a playground is a must, so we stopped here for Graeson to play for a bit after our Killarney Lake walk.

THINGS WE DIDN'T GET AROUND TO DOING BUT WILL COME BACK FOR:

• Mt. Gardner - this is a 10KM hike and the view looks insane. I will come back when I don't have my child as it's about a 700M climb.

• Waterfall Trail Coastal Viewpoint - I found this on Google Maps and it looked worth checking out.

• Josephine Lake

• Grafton Lake

• Seymour Bay

WHERE WE ATE & HAD TREATS:

We very well could have just went to the 2-3 general stores available here and made our meals in our AirBNB, however we really wanted a break from all of that and just went out.

Bowen Island Pub - Traditional pub food and good drinks. The staff was very friendly and helpful. We actually had lunch for both days we were here! They had a good kids menu as well.

Doc Morgans - Really great patio overlooking Snug Cove, the food is amazing - a little more on the expensive side. They did have a kids menu which was nice. The staff is super friendly.

Steamship Company Marina - by Snug Cove, this is where we had your standard flavoured ice cream on one of the days. This place was so busy!

Branch on Bowen - 100% recommend this place, it's where near where the ferry docks at Snug Cove beside tell your friends cafe. The ice-cream was so good. I didn't get to have a coffee at tell your friends because they close at 3PM.

Artisans Cafe in Artisans Square - this place is SO cool, several shops and businesses in here to check out. Most don't open until 10AM, we were getting coffee at 9AM so nothing was open yet. I got a salted caramel latte at the Artisans Cafe and it was SO good. Lots of pastries and breakfast stuff. We just had oatmeal at our AirBNB to make it cheaper.

I have also heard and read Snug Cafe, Tippys Cookhouse, The SHED, The Tuscany, Barcelona Tapas & the Bowen Cider House are really great choices too.

We left Bowen around 4PM, we had a resversation to Horseshoe Bay at 8:00PM and wanted to give ourselves plenty of time. That was to much time but the ferries were starting to look a little crazy for the long weekend. We were talking to one of the locals there and she said when the ferry line up on Bowen gets past the community school thats where it cuts off. If you are in the line and your below that you will be fine and get on. But like I said the ferry runs every hour. Your ferry ticket you pay for at Horseshoe bay is also your return ticket, so no need to pay again.

I am glad I visited this island, it has been on my list for a long time ever since I read about Mt. Gardner. So I'll for sure be back some day and we did have such an amazing time. I hope you get out and explore our backyard, we are so lucky to be able to have these places so close. I did hear that Bowen gets very busy and it's becoming a bit of a problem during the summer months, so in that regard I'm glad we went more in the off season. I could see lineups being a bit of an issue during that time.

So good to finally write another adventure on here, until next time. See you out there!

TRIP EXPENSE OVER 2 DAYS WITH A CHILD:

AIRBNB - $235

FOOD/DRINK - $343

FERRIES - $203

GAS - $20

TOTAL: $801

It's crazy how that adds up just in two days! You could reduce this by a-lot by not going out for food like I mentioned but we wanted to enjoy ourselves. It also helps all of our activities were free because we like to enjoy nature on our little trips.