We are a fairly easygoing couple in their mid-20s and early-30s who travel often for business and pleasure.

Our first stay at the Galiano Inn was summer of 2005. For $299 a night we enjoyed a huge king size bed, soaker bath tub, an amazing view of the ocean and passing BC Ferries, and a gourmet breakfast. Breakfast wasn't served until 9 a.m., but no problem, because we received a basket of muffins, scones and jams at our door at 7:30 a.m., plus there was a coffee maker, coffee and tea in the room. The mini bar was fully stocked and we enjoyed the hot tub. Although the restaurant (Altrevida) was closed for a private function, an employee let us borrow his car to go out to dinner, since we came to the inn by private boat. We had an enjoyable time but agreed $299 was slightly overpriced for the amenities. Based on this stay, I would have given the inn 4 out of 5 stars.

June 2006, we stayed again at the "newly remodelled" Galiano Inn, for a special introductory price. It looked as though they were still in the midst of remodelling, though. If we had been paying full price, I would have demanded my money back and gone home from the moment I saw the filthy hot tub. We could write our names in the dirt and slime in the hot tub. The leaves hadn't been swept from the area and there were no towels available.

This time we came by car. When we came to check in, we couldn't find any staff, even though the Friday afternoon ferry had just landed. We were finally checked in and shown to our room. The owner explained that the remodelling was just being finished, and she was surprised to see the fridge was even installed (but not on, for the record). The mini bar area consisted only of an assortment of tea bags, but no kettle, coffee maker or anything else. The balcony looked as though it hadn't been swept since the previous summer.

The new features supposedly included a massage table. The owner didn't tell us about it, but we pulled it out of the wall ourselves, though there were no sheets or anything to drape over it. The bathroom was nice, with a separate shower and deep soaker tub. However, the shower walls were dirty, the toilet didn't flush properly, and the drain in the bath tub didn't work. We used the cork screw to prop open the drain. The gold fixtures touted on the website were falling off the bath tub. They added a flat screen TV, but when I'm on Galiano in the summer, the last thing I want to do is watch TV.

There were no mini spa shampoos or lotions. The soap came in a big dispenser pump and the shampoo and conditioner came in the wall mounted dispenser you would normally see at the YMCA. The soap smelled lovely, like blackberries, but they only gave us one trial size bar and did not replenish it the second day. We had to ask for more soap!

The dinner was delicious. I had smoked duck ravioli and my partner chose the beef tenderloin. The service was fantastic, as well. However, sitting outside wasn't an option (even though a lovely patio with tables and chairs was just steps away, the temp was in the high 20s and it was a gorgeous summer evening).

The bed was super comfortable and the view still gorgeous. There was no breakfast basket, however, and 9 a.m. is late to start serving breakfast. The breakfast, though extremely slow, was delicious. The inn's location is good, because without a mini bar we had to make the easy three minute walk to the corner store and buy wine and snacks.

The inn is still above average, but it is worth maybe $150 in its current state, not the $299 guests are paying in July and August. I give our second stay 2 out of 5 stars (which my partner says is very generous considering the *slime* in the hot tub). If the hot tub can't even be kept clean, I wonder what else was dirty.

My Husband and I stumbled here after long deliberation about which Gulf Island to visit. WOW! This Inn offered everything a couple would want. The rooms are romantic with fireplaces, sitting area, and the amentities you need. We travel a lot for work and for fun, and we found this to be a jewel of a place. The owners were very hospitable, food was WONDERFUL! Wine cellar was fun and unique- they are doing the right things there! The massages were O.k. and may be a little disorganized due to the slow season, but it was fine.
We would definitely go back.. the ferry is really not a problem at all, I saw the previous reviews and it's not something to consider when booking. We were worried too, but it amounted to be nothing.
If you are looking for romance, relaxation, great food, hospitality.... GET THERE! Great memories made there...Breakfast was phenomenol!! Don't miss it.

I had seen the Inn online a couple of years ago and had wanted to visit ever since. I was sorely disappointed.

- After sorting out my reservations over a couple of days via e-mail, I tried e-mailing the spa - the main purpose for my visit. No reply. I phoned a couple of days later, got the person I later learned was a not very experienced/helpful young desk clerk who argued with me over wanting to book a 7:30pm appointment on the grounds that it wasn't convenient for the spa staff (even though the site clearly states they're open til 9pm). After trying to fob me off with several other times, she discovered I was a hotel guest (which made more important than any old schlub with $110 to spend, I guess) and that the times she'd suggested were booked anyway, so she allowed me book my 7:30 massage (how kind of her, eh?). The day before I left on my trip, I got an e-mail from the spa telling me that that treatment I'd chosen is no longer available. Great.

- When I e-mailed to ask what the best way was to the Inn from the ferry since I was arriving without a car, Desk Clerk told me it was a 5 minute walk and gave me directions. Now, the site does say it's walking distance, and I'd thought that's what I'd do, but it also says pickup can be arranged. Apparently you have to explicitly request it, it won't be offered to you. Given her attitude about the spa, I doubt she would've arranged it even if I had asked specifically. For all she knew, I was a senior citizen with a cane. At the very least, since I'm coming to a hotel, I clearly have luggage to carry, which might make walking difficult. But at least I knew which direction to turn when I got off the ferry, so I decided to hoof it, bag and all.

- When I arrive at the Inn, I wander into the first available door, only to find that the rooms are separate from the rest of the hotel. I grab a spa brochure from the little sitting area there before wandering around trying to find the front desk. There's no-one there when I walk in. But soon Conny the owner and Desk Clerk arrive. I check in without too much hassle and am shown my room which, to my dismay, has no air conditioning and no TV, unlike just about every other hotel I've ever been in, most of which charge much less. When I ask about AC, Clerk says that's something no-one has told her about, but I could open the window. Great, thanks, the bugs, chatter from the dining patio and ferry horn won't be any sort of nuisance. Thankfully, Clerk did manage to get a functioning if rickety fan for me when I asked for one.

- The in-room directory stated they had room service, Clerk told me they do not.

- After finally getting hold of the spa a couple of hours before my appointment, I chose an okay-sounding treatment (neither the "spa menu" I picked up nor the one in my room listed any of the cool-sounding treatments on the web site, but this didn't surprise me, given the one I wanted that WAS listed was now discontinued). Then the spa woman tells me that "what they'd like to do" is have me come in at 10:00 the next morning! Basically, unless I'd put up a huge fight, the spa refused to honour my 7:30 appointment. And since I didn't want to get a massage from a surly employee and was so battered by disappointment by this point, I gave up and agreed to come in the morning. She then had the gall to tell me that if I'd phoned the spa, they'd have told me the treatment wasn't available. Well, I phoned the number listed on the spa's page and I got Clerk, who assured me she could make the booking.

- So, there I was - a woman traveling alone, with no car in a place where everything shuts down in the evening anyway, with my carefully made plans cancelled on me, without even a TV to give me something to do all night. I love to read, but hadn't planned on spending the entire two evenings doing nothing but. (I discovered the next day that there's a TV lounge in the other building, in a corner near the dining room where you'd have to crank up the volume over the dinner music, cutlery, and conversation - not fun for the viewer or the diners.)

- The spa did give me a free hourlong treatment (in addition to the one I eventually booked and shelled out for) and it was a good experience. The spa is really nice, if you can get the staff to agree to let you make an appointment.

- Breakfast sounded really good but on both mornings what I chose was nicely presented but bland. Service wasn't great, especially the 2nd morning when 2 waiters couldn't cope with the 3 tables (5 people total) in the dining room. When one man asked for toast, you'd have thought he'd asked for the moon and was told that the waiter would bring round the muffin basket (which he didn't - the other guy did it eventually and they didn't manage to supply jam/butter). Either they only had a small number of muffins or the waiters just didn't bother to replenish the supply, because every time they presented it to a new person, the selection dwindled until there was basically one muffin and a couple of croissants. A little thing, yes, but another example of far from good service. Maybe not enough people live on the island to allow them to have competent staff.

- Lunch in the restaurant was excellent, I'll give them that. If you're on Galiano in the summer, pop in for lunch on the patio.

- Housekeeping left a tub full of dirty glasses in the hall all day and didn't replace the facecloths they took away the second day.

- On the last day I couldn't keep my disappointment in any longer and complained to the owner about the spa treatments not being available as advertised online. It turns out there's an INSERT into the spa brochure that was in neither of the brochures I had. They're apparently being reprinted soon, but in the meantime the inserts tend to fall out, she said. As far as I can tell, the only place the inserts were actually available was on an easily overlooked table in the lobby. She was polite and very sympathetic, but that was it (although she did ask if the spa had offered me anything).

- My room was nicely decorated and it was neat to have a private deck. And you can't beat the view. The bed was comfortable enough, but nothing great. I liked the bathroom with soaker tub (thank goodness for it - it gave me something to do at night) and separate shower, but the large pump bottles of soap, shampoo, etc. were a bit off-putting, especially the 3-in-one dispenser mounted in the shower like the ones they had in my gym. They had a few amenities like cotton and "tub tea" for the bath, but not what I was expecting.

The setting is nice and the decor and grounds are pretty. Conny was really nice and I enjoyed talking to her. They've obviously tried really hard, but it was absolutely not worth over $200 per night for me. Maybe if you're not traveling alone, have a car, have money to burn and can be assertive enough with the staff to get them to serve you, you'll have better luck than I did.

The experience we had late last summer on Galiano was the most interesting experience I have had in "local colour"! We are frequent travelers to high-end inns (from the Wickaninnish and Snohomish Lodge to the Boulders). At first we had been booked into a local bed and breakfast in a house that was supposed to be a "unique experience"...well it certainly was: unclean, in ill repair,with disinterested owner. We did not even check in...we tried to get off the island immediately, but had to wait for the ferry. We decided to check out the Galiano Inn and Spa.while we waited..and were we ever glad we did. After meeting the lovely owner and talking to happy guests in the restaurant, we were absolutely charmed! It was an incredibly beautiful property, right on the ocean. We rescued our car from the ferry line-up and the Inn rescued us from our opinion of Galiano Island. The staff were wonderful, the blackberry martini a favourite, the halibut to die for, the decor and architecture world-class, the fireplace romantic, the robes so luxurious we bought two, the spa treatments heavenly. What else can we say? How could it get more perfect than this?