SOOKE, BRITISH COLUMBIA (BC), CANADA
Sooke bed and breakfast stays for mountain bikers and harbor fans
Sooke bed and breakfast businesses have traditionally catered to visitors who come to admire the harbor scenes. For generations tourists have admired the Sooke Harbor House and the Whiffen Spit. A B&B, lodge and inn has grown in Sooke built on regular tourism, but now a new sport is finding a home in this beautiful town on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. It is about a 45 minute drive from the city of Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. Mountain bikers know that Sooke is a great destination to practice their sport and they visit in their hundreds particularly during the warm summer season. The Galloping Goose Regional Trail, part of the Trans-Canada Trail, runs through Sooke as is a popular cycling route to Victoria. Other tourists, local and foreign prefer to visit the Sooke Potholes Provincial Park or just mooch around the harbor area. There are bed and breakfast stays, cozy inns and lodge accommodation in Sooke for every budget and preference.
The residents of Sooke, bed and breakfast owners included, are protective of their beautiful town and want to see all its lovely natural features. For instance, local advocacy groups are working to have areas such as Broom Hill set aside as Parkland. Its pretty location is much admired by tourists and the locals are fiercely proud of it. Sooke is situated to the north and west of the Sooke Basin, an ocean inlet often mistaken for a lake by first-time visitors. The District of Sooke’s political boundary contains the entire basis up to the high tide mark even though Sooke only encompasses about half of the directly adjacent shore. There are many character B&B, lodges and inns in Sooke and bed and breakfast hosts are quick to tell visitors that the town is not without its local politics. East Sooke is the unincorporated area to the south of the town and this includes the remaining uplands of the basin. It is a peninsula of land separating the basin from the Strait of Juan de Fuca. As you will hear from the barroom chatter at the Sooke B&B, lodge or inn where you stay, some privately owned properties in East Sooke joined Sooke, albeit legally, against the desires of the majority of East Sooke residents. That has caused simmering discord in the town, but that just serves to illustrate how beautiful it is and how little the locals want to see Sooke changed. Bed and breakfast visitors are in hearty agreement that Sooke is lovely just as it is.
Sooke is a fairly large town with a population of nearly 10 000. The town center straddles the Sooke Road for about a ¾ mile. Off the highway, Sooke is a mix of residential areas, smallholdings, large productive farms, light industrial areas and wilderness. Sooke is proud of its logging and fishing heritage, and lumberjack sports and competitions are an integral part of All Sooke Days held in the town. A small fishing fleet still operates out of Sooke Harbor. The demand for bed and breakfast accommodation has led to the development of an active B&B, inn and lodge industry in Sooke.
