I must be doing too much "retail therapy" on Amazon, because the title for this page comes from the "Buy It Again" offer they often put in front of you.  Still, it's a good question. Were the Gulf Islands a good choice? Would we do it again?

When the question is put this way, the answer is definitely "yes".  We found the relative calm of the roads and the water views at most turns magical. In between, the forests, farms, and many interesting houses added to the experience. There was even at least one creditable bakery on each island!

Coming in Fall was also probably a good move. We suspect that the relative calm we are talking about would not be so much in tourist season. But in Winter, there is a big potential for calm turning to dreary and isolated. In Fall, we had the Fall colours too. Now, Spring could be an idea as well.

Having said all that, there are important reasons for which this destination would not be for everyone. The biggest is hilliness. The islands were insanely hilly. To enjoy them, you would need either an e-assist, and ultra light bike, or legs of steel. There is no way, for example, that we would bring grandkids,  even on mountain bikes.

Next, if we are saying that shoulder seasons are best, then camping is less of an option, because of cold and rain. If that then means B&B's, then we should say we found prices here far higher than in Europe. For our seven  nights, the costs in Canadian dollars were 88, 88, 140, 140, 160, 160, and 187. The reason for the paired amounts is that we stayed two nights in each place, save the last. You can also see that the cost increased as the islands became more "remote".  No doubt, someone willing to work on it (using AirBnB or such) and willing to situate more remotely in each remote island, could cut the cost a lot.

For this short trip, we also did not rigidly try to cut food costs, though we did do a mix of restaurants and things from the grocery store.  All in, this trip cost $1393, which is an average of $174 per day. In euros, that's about €118.  Ok, that's a little surprising, because with all our  self-indulgent behaviour when on a long trip overseas, we usually come out at about 110 euros per day (excluding airfare), so that is about the same.  That rates Canada not as bad as we thought. Maybe all in all the food was cheaper. Or maybe we are less tempted to buy souvenirs. We can certainly testify that any and all museums the Gulf Islands happened to have were closed, and would have been free anyway!

By the way, cycle touring blogs only rarely reveal what their human powered eco-friendly trips are costing. I'm sure there is quite a wide variation. Sometimes I think of cyclists we encountered on our pedal across Canada.  Usually young, single males, they seemed to subsist on a few bags of rice and pasta, and often wild camping. That is a whole other mode for this "sport".  I guess we go from there all the way up to fully supported jaunts on light bikes between luxury hotels, with sag wagons in pursuit. It would be interesting to know what the distribution of daily costs looks like among our various types of participants.

While the Grampies would certainly "Fall for the Islands" again, maybe in Spring,  would we recommend them to others? Aside from the thing about the hills one might have to consider where a visit to the Islands would fit, in a larger trip.  Spinning madly in circles, we only managed 283 km on this trip- fewer even than the meagre 350 km predicted on the first page of this blog.  If one needed to use a plane to get here, would it be worth it?  That's hard to say.  Look, we have flown to the little island of Hawaii, several times, to spin in circles, and felt it was worth it. Based on that, let's say "Come on Down!"

Epilog

Many people who emailed, or commented here in the blog, mentioned the therapeutic effect of cycling. This is something that does get some mention in many blogs. It would be hard to name an activity that is better for the mind and body than distance cycling. Even 8 days, we found, was wonderful. Thanks to all who expressed their best wishes this time around.