Salt Spring Inn

The Salt Spring Inn takes the sensible view that a small island town needs one building where you can eat, drink, and then climb a staircase to bed. Upstairs are seven rooms: three deluxe ones with queen beds, fireplaces, private bathrooms and sea views, and four standard rooms that share washrooms down the hall, the way travel worked before everyone got precious about it.

Location is the whole argument. You are on Lower Ganges Road across from the visitor centre, which puts the Saturday Market, the galleries, the bakeries and the harbour all within a five-minute shuffle. Downstairs, the restaurant serves breakfast through dinner from a locally sourced menu, with a lounge and an outdoor deck for the deliberations.

It is not fancy and does not pretend to be, which on an island that also contains a Relais and Chateaux estate is practically a public service. The beds are pillowtop, the Wi-Fi is free, and your commute home after dinner is one flight of stairs, a distance even a second bottle of wine cannot complicate much.