Far-Coast Escape: Powell River, Lund & Desolation Sound

The blackberry cinnamon buns have caused more Lund congestion than the ferry ever has. Grab one, claim a patio seat over the harbour, and accept that the fifteen minute queue was character building. Expect summer lineups for the cinnamon buns, which sell out.

A red cedar bar, a patio staring straight across the Malaspina Strait, and a kitchen genuinely fussy about local ingredients. Watch the sun drop into the water and take full credit for planning this.

Crispy oysters and gunpowder prawns on a deck hanging over Okeover Inlet, five minutes past Lund. The oysters grow practically beneath your table, which is either deeply romantic or slightly awkward for the oysters. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays; dinner service starts at 4pm. Book ahead in summer.

Fish tacos served inside a rebuilt early 1900s police station dressed in talavera tile and stained glass, which is a sentence Powell River gets to say and Vancouver simply does not. Sentence yourselves accordingly.

Fish and chips three ways, cod, halibut or salmon, in a 1926 seaside room parked over Lund Harbour at the literal end of Highway 101. The road stops here, so you may as well eat.

They roast their own beans and bake brown butter miso chocolate chip cookies, in a town of thirteen thousand. That is frankly showing off, and the correct response is ordering a second honey latte. Open Thursday to Saturday only, 9am to 3pm.

Right on Lund harbour at the foot of Highway 101, steps from the water taxi to Savary and Desolation Sound. Indigenous-owned; book summer nights well ahead.

Charming Tudor-style inn in Powell River's historic Townsite with free breakfast, #1-rated in town and friendly for a solo stay.

Cedar chalets on stilts over Okeover Inlet right at the edge of Desolation Sound, the dreamy splurge for a couple.