About Bowen Island

"In a frenzied and harried world there are few places to be found where almost an entire community knows your name and the names of your children and entrance to the island closes at 10pm."
        - Barbara Wiltshire, TravelLady Magazine

Only 20 minutes by ferry from West Vancouver across the waters of Howe Sound, Bowen Islanders enjoy the best of two quite different worlds.

Very few islands worldwide enjoy the benefit of being located within such an easy commuting distance to one of the most beautiful cities in this world. At the entrance to English Bay, flanked by West Vancouver to the North and Metro Vancouver to the South, Bowen Island is as close to the City's cosmopolitan energy and amenities as any suburb.

Yet the instant you step off the ferry onto Bowen, you enter that other world. Your shoulders relax. You breathe more freely. People smile and talk to one another. They even say hello to strangers. There are no big box stores. Not much traffic except at the ferry. People walk or cycle a lot. There are no streetlights or traffic lights – at night just plenty of stars. No break-ins, no gangs. No crime to speak of. It's safe.

With a year round population of approximately 4,000 people (and a final cap of approximately 7,000), Bowen Island has a permanent community of diverse residents who are proud of their freedoms and protective of their unique community. Many artists and writers have made Bowen Island their home, and they have greatly enriched the community. Indeed, Bowen Island is quickly becoming renowned for its cultural, intellectual, spiritual and social qualities.

The island has all the amenities of most small communities, but perhaps just a notch above what you might expect. The quality of the groceries is superb. Restaurants are good enough to entice urban residents to cross the water. There's a locally elected municipal council, police, fire and ambulance, preschools, elementary school, day cares, private junior secondary school (public junior high and senior high schoolers travel on school buses and ferry to secondary schools in West Vancouver), library, doctors, dentist and other health care specialists, general food and liquor store, bakeries, restaurants, pubs, hardware supplies and building materials, garden center.... Everything practical that you need is here, plus something we don't think anyone should live without: heart.