EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

Not quite the fishing village it's billed as, BALFOUR is a fairly shoddy and dispersed collection of motels, garages and cafés - albeit in verdant surroundings - designed to catch the traffic rolling on and off the Kootenay Lake ferry. RV campsites line the road south to Nelson for about 2km, the quietest being those furthest from the terminal, but a much better option is the campsite at Kokanee Creek (reservations possible ), about 10km beyond Balfour ($17.50; May-Sept) with a sandy beach. The handiest motel for the ferry is the Balfour Beach Inn and Motel , 8406 Bush (tel & fax 229-4235; $40-60), with heated indoor pool but convenient also for the small pebbly beach just north of the terminal.

About 15km north of Balfour on Hwy 31 - look out for the telegraph poles wearing ties - AINSWORTH HOT SPRINGS is home to some one hundred residents, making it a town by local standards. The tasteful Ainsworth Hot Springs Resort (tel 229-4212 or 1-800/668-1171; $100-125) is ideal if you want to stay over while taking in the scalding water of the mineral springs (daily 10am-9.30pm; day-pass $10, single visit $6.50), though the chalets are expensive and, despite the lovely views and the health-giving properties of the waters, local opinion rates the Nakusp Hot Springs rather more highly. Note that you don't need to stay in the resort to sample the springs. The nicest local motel is the cheaper and smaller eight-room Mermaid Lodge and Motel (tel & fax 229-4969 or 1-888/229-4963; $40-60) alongside the springs and pools. Cave enthusiasts might want to take a guided tour of Cody Caves Provincial Park , 12km up a rough, well-signposted gravel side road off Hwy 3 3km north of town. From the end of the road it's a twenty-minute walk to the caves, whose kilometre or more of galleries can be seen by tour only: contact Hiadventure Corporation (tel 353-7425; $12).

A touch further up the increasingly beautiful Hwy 31 comes the self-contained Woodbury Resort and Marina (tel 353-7177; $40-60), a collection of motel, cottages, campsite ($16-20), restaurant, pub, store, heated pool, boat rentals and water-sport facilities all pitched on the lakeshore with lovely views and a small beach, it makes an attractive long-term accommodation prospect if you're tenting. Directly opposite is the Woodbury Mining Museum (July-Sept daily 9am-6pm; $4; tel 354-4470), a quaint pioneer building crammed with mining regalia and the entrance to a thirty-minute underground tour of the old lead, zinc and silver workings.