Haida Gwaii Islands Queen Charlotte Islands Canada
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Cruises availables
At departure or passage at this port
Frequently Asked Questions
In Skidegate Inlet, on the south of Graham Island. Tenders land passengers near the villages of Daajing Giids and Skidegate, about 9 km apart. No terminal, no row of shops: a wooden wharf and houses facing the water.
About a hundred kilometres off the British Columbia coast, across Hecate Strait. The archipelago was long known as the Queen Charlotte Islands.
The Haida Heritage Centre at Kay Llnagaay in Skidegate is the heart of the day. Add a quiet hour on foot in Daajing Giids and a shoreline trail to take the measure of the temperate rainforest.
Carved totem poles facing the sea, the regional museum, a canoe house and workshops where carvers work. It follows the history of a seafaring people, their cedar canoes, their monumental art and their cultural renewal after the epidemics of the 19th century.
Rarely. The national park reserve and Haida heritage site at the far south of the archipelago takes several hours of sailing and is generally not reachable in a single day. Some expedition itineraries devote whole days to it with the site watchmen.
No. Some cultural sites are not open to free photography, and guides' instructions must be respected. The archipelago belongs first to the Haida people, who welcome travellers on their own terms.
Raincoat and closed shoes: drizzle is part of the landscape, even in summer. Mist clings to the spruce long before land appears, and the rainforest keeps everything damp.
Bald eagles perched on pilings, herons, guillemots and raptors around the inlet. On the roads and at garden edges, Sitka deer, introduced more than a century ago and now everywhere, graze with disarming indifference.
Yes, and it is one of the good reasons to go ashore. Works sold on the islands often come straight from the workshops: a chance to buy fairly, to the community's benefit. Galleries are in Daajing Giids and at the Heritage Centre.
Few. Distances are short but services limited: bring what you need. A local café, a handful of galleries and the government wharf where the fishermen talk make up most of what is on offer.
