of all the islands, is there one that you'd recommend if a person wanted some nice sandy beaches?

Pender

And is the water there warm enought to swim in during july and august?

In my experience "nice sandy beaches" don't exist on the Gulf Islands. Nice beaches yes, but sandy - no. Most of them are very rocky. Warm water - only if you like to have really cold showers. As a child I used to play in the water and not notice the cold, now it takes an awful lot to get me to get in the water.

If you want warm water forget about
beaches in Canada. Go south!

The closest thing I"ve found to "nice sandy beaches" is Montague Harbour on Galiano Island. Otherwise, I share Cruiseryyc's sentiments. If you're looking for nice sandy beaches and warm water, head to Tsawwassen's Centennial Beach or Parksville/Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island.

ok. message is clear: i would need a wetsuit! thanks.

I swim here all summer-warm days are best and an incoming tide helps.

Check out Sidney Spit. You can only access it by boat. It's a park and there are no commercial establishments on the island. A passenger only boat shuttle goes there from Sidney in the summer. There's camping on the island. The spit is beautiful - very long and sandy, with lots of marine life on the spit, plus big forests. It's a great place to spend the day or camp. Also, it's a great place to kayak. There are fields for volleyball, frisbee. It's a great spot.

Ditto the Sidney Spit idea if you want a nice sandy beach for a day or want to camp. Other than that, the other nice beach I can think of is way up on Hornby Island.

Depending on where you want to go but Hornby Island has wonderful sandy beaches. Tribune bay to name one but there are a lot of them.

Savary and Hernando Islands have nice sandy beaches, and you can get 20 - 23 deg C water in Desolation Sound.

ok. thanks for more terrific ideas. i need to check out a good map of the gulf islands so i can figure out where these places are.

sidney spit sounds really great, but i know we don't want to camp on this trip.

thanks again,
dina

didn't mean to bogart your post, ltt.

Is savory island considered to be in desolation sound -- with the warm waters??

thanks,
dina

Savary is a Gulf Island and friends of mine love swimming there.

Tedious to access and accommodation options are limited.

Yes, it is a distance to Savary Island but the journey is part of the point, for me. Ferries and pretty scenery. Sam's right, no accommodation on Island save cottage rentals, which I'm guessing get snapped up pretty quickly. Could stay at Lund and water-taxi to the Island.

i assume it's not too long a water taxi? thanks

Hi again Dina
My guests do day trips to Savary Island quite often. Some like it others not so. It is mostly wide open white sandy beach.You can rent bicycles part of the year and of course walk. There is a tea house in the summer but mostly our guests just go over for 3-4 hours as the water taxi makes many trips in the summer season. We are 40 minutes from Lund and the water taxi is about 20 minutes across. www.savaryisland.com for more information including the Lund water taxi costs. Hope I have been helpful