Hastings House: A Salt Spring Island Getaway Full of Little Luxuries

A mere few hours into my stay at Hastings House on Salt Spring Island, I find myself daydreaming about all the ways I could replicate the experience once I’m back home in Vancouver. Take the purple flower petals sprinkled across my morning eggs Benedict—which I enjoy on a terrace overlooking Ganges Harbour: they’re from a prolific flowering variety of sage called Amethyst Lips. Surely I could plant one of those?

Or the Hastings House cocktail, which serves as my perfect shoulder-dropping, leave-the-city-behind transition on arrival: a bright and tingly glass of champagne with Chambord and a house-made blackcurrant syrup, a sprig of fresh rosemary as a garnish. I can find blackcurrants back home somewhere, right?

Ditto the thoughtful touches in my room: tealights and matches by the bath, towels on a warmer within easy reach of the shower and—the pièce de résistance—a warm, home-made muffin delivered in a tiny picnic basket that’s left on my doorstep each morning.

Okay, maybe I can’t do it all. And that’s really the point. Where Salt Spring itself already feels like a dreamy escape from downtown living—the rolling hills! the florals at the farmstands! the lavender fields!—Hastings House is its own little oasis within that oasis, where all of the details that make for a dreamy weekend away are just effortlessly… handled.

Set on 22 acres of waterfront just a few minutes from the town of Ganges, what’s now an 18-suite hotel was once the manor home of naval architect Warren Hastings and his wife. (The home was built during World War II, while Hastings was also at work on designing the landing craft that would eventually be used during D-Day; rumour has it that Salt Spring was crawling with spies at the time, all hoping to get intel on the architect’s plans.)

The buildings still stand: the manor, where the stones for the fireplace and chimney were quarried from the land and its old-growth cedar beams hand-adzed; the original barn, once home to the couple’s two horses, two Jersey cows and a buggy (and, later, a silver Jaguar), which was later rebuilt to house suites for the hotel; the Post cottage, formerly a Hudson’s Bay Company trading post and now a favourite for honeymooners with its ocean view and French doors that open out onto the grounds. The Farmhouse, now a spacious duplex, was once a workshop where Hastings developed homing devices for torpedoes.

Over time, new buildings were constructed that feel in spirit with the coastal forest that surrounds those original buildings: today, the Hillside suites cascade down the landscape in a way that provides each unit with a view of the harbour.

It’s in one of those Hillside suites that I’m experiencing my retreat for the weekend. The suite’s balcony is the perfect spot to open the little picnic basket that’s been left on my front door—for me, a gluten-free carrot cake muffin; for my friend (who doesn’t suffer from the same dietary setback), an apple-thyme version.

The basket arrived just after I’d returned from an early-morning stroll through the gardens (which are thoughtfully marked with a warm “Guests Welcome” on the gate and are also where many of the restaurant’s offerings are grown). While I was exploring the flower and vegetable beds, I’d run into Hastings House general manager Michael Coughlin, who was on his way to collect edible nasturtium flowers and those bright purple sage flowers to decorate the morning’s breakfasts.

That’s right: it’s the hotel’s GM himself who’s responsible for so many of those seemingly effortless details that I’m desperate to bring home with me. He returned to the property this spring after managing the dining room for nearly 16 years through the late 1990s until 2011.

While my friend and I are reading in the sun before dinner, he brings out a pair of sunseeker oysters topped with a little circle of house-made cocktail sauce to whet our appetites. At dinner, he happily taps into his many years of living in Italy after his first stint at Hastings House to offer savvy wine suggestions, enthusiastically delighting in the many local options that appear on the menu: a Kutatás Zweigelt rosé, for example, that’s a perfectly bright pairing with the spot prawn on a rich saffron risotto.

He’s also, I soon discover, the creator of that gluten-free carrot cake muffin that’s on my porch when I return from my morning stroll. I ask him for the recipe and he’s happy to share—realistically, it’s the only thing I’ll bring back home with me to remember this sweet spot with until I come back again.

READ MORE: Where to Sip Wine, Cider and Spirits on Salt Spring and Pender Island

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5 More Spots to Explore Around Salt Spring

Woven Curated Goods

Ask co-owner Genevieve Graham about any of the items she’s selected for this new design shop in downtown Ganges: there’s an incredible story behind each and every sustainable, ethically made piece. It’s also the sister company to Salt Spring-based firm Woven Architecture and Design—no surprise, then, that the space itself is masterfully designed (think charcoal walls and incredible lighting). wovencuratedgoods.com

Cassette Cafe and Dive Bar

Located in a former service station in the heart of Ganges, Cassette bills itself as a dive bar—with a nod to the mixtape era—but on a sunny afternoon, its patio (with an excellent pub menu) is the spot for families and locals. Go for the prawn burger: perfectly pan-seared chili-lime prawns topped with homemade slaw on a sesame-seed topped brioche bun. cassettecafebar.com

Lavender and Black

This little farm on the north end of the island seems to have its own microclimate of South-of-France sun; visitors can wander through the sloping field of lavender—each plant helpfully labelled with its origins (French, Spanish, English) and then transformed into house-made tinctures and creams for purchase (and lavender ice cream, too). lavenderandblack.ca

Garry Oaks Estate Winery

When we’d told Hastings House GM Michael Coughlin that we were going to pop by Garry Oaks “for a quick tasting,” he smiled knowingly and indicated we might want to stay a little longer. Head here to start the weekend off right: each wine is crafted from grapes grown right on the property, and tastings are best taken on one of the Muskoka chairs on the hillside overlooking the vines. garryoakswinery.com

Pura Vida Food Truck

I say this without hyperbole: Pura Vida offers the best poke bowl I’ve had outside of Maui. Dished out of a food truck parked near Ganges Marina, each bowl is made fresh (choose from ahi tuna, salmon, chicken or tofu), stacked with fresh vegetables (along with caramelized red onion) and drizzled with chipotle mayo or basil and garlic aioli. Optional avocado and mango, too: go for the option. @puravidasaltspring

READ MORE: A Laidback Mayne Island Getaway Guide for Slowing Down