PROTECTION ISLAND, British Columbia — "Would you like to borrow a wheelbarrow?" Catherine Hebb asked as we finished the last of our French toast.

We had spent a relaxing two nights at her B&B. Now our bags were parked near her front door. It was time to catch the ferry and head home.

Did she want something moved? I wondered to myself. Dirt? Sand from the beach? Then I remembered. This was the land of "pirates, beachcombers and happy people," according to local lore. Here on Protection Island, where most people get around on foot or on bikes and golf carts, her offer was the equivalent of calling us a taxi.

But my husband and I are light packers and the ferry dock was just a half-mile away. We walked, as we had been doing since we arrived a couple of days earlier, along gravel lanes, past signs that said "Beware of Cat" and "Quilts for Sale," feeling like kids with permission to play in the middle of the street without watching for cars.

Mostly pedestrian Protection Island and its sister island, Newcastle, a provincial marine park, cater to the car-free. The only way to reach either is by rowing, paddling, sailing or hopping aboard a passenger ferry for a 10-minute skip across the busy Nanaimo harbor on the eastern side of Vancouver Island.

Think large doses of peace and quiet — hikes or bike rides on nature trails, picnics on open meadows, beach combing at low tide and kayaking through sheltered coves — alternated with mini breaks ashore to explore the shops, galleries and cafes in Nanaimo's restored Arts District and Old City Quarter.

No cars needed. Take Amtrak to Vancouver (or drive and park in a lot that offers 24-hour parking), and board the HarbourLynx, a high-speed, passenger-only catamaran that leaves three times daily from the downtown waterfront.

Where

Newcastle and Protection islands are offshore from Nanaimo, 70 miles from Victoria, on Vancouver Island in the Strait of Georgia. Both can be reached in 10 minutes via foot ferries that leave hourly from the Nanaimo Harbor.

Newcastle and Protection islands

Getting there:

You won't need a vehicle when you get here, so why not make it a car-free weekend? Take Amtrak (schedules and fares at www.amtrak.com) from Seattle, or drive to Vancouver, park in the Helijet lot, 455 Waterfront Road ($8 for 24 hours)* and board the HarbourLynx passenger-only catamaran to Nanaimo from the South SeaBus Terminal on the downtown waterfront.

Ferries leave three times daily and carry 300 passengers. The trip takes an hour and a half. Tickets are $20 each way, $36 round-trip for adults and $12 each way for children. Bicycles and pets in carriers OK (no dogs on leashes). See www.harbourlynx.com or call 866-206-5969.

To get to Protection Island, take the Protection Connection ferry from Nanaimo. Adults fares are $2.80 (one way) and $4.90 (round-trip). Dogs and bikes are extra. Info: 250-753-8244. Ferries run year-round.

To get to Newcastle Island, walk from Protection Island at low tide or take the ferry from Nanaimo. Round-trip adult fares are $5.70, and $4.80 for children and seniors. Information: 250-754-7893. Service runs from May to the first weekend in September. Arrangements can be made to be picked up and dropped off by private water taxi or the Protection Island ferry other times.

Lodging:

• Protection Isle Bed & Breakfast, 83 Pirates Lane, Protection Island. Phone: 250-753-4393 or see www.mybnb.com Two rooms overlooking the cliffs of nearby Gabriola Island. Rates, $64 (single), $72 (double), with breakfast.

• The Berry Patch B&B, 192 Captain Morgan's Boulevard, Protection Island. Phone: 250-753-5104. Two-bedroom suite with kitchen and breakfast, waterfront views. Rate, $92.50 per night (double).

• The Painted Turtle Guesthouse, 121 Bastion Street, Nanaimo. Phone: 250-753-4432 or see www.paintedturtle.ca. Double rooms, family suites and dorm rooms in the restored historic Commercial Hotel. Shared bathrooms. Rates: $19.50-$61.

• Camp sites on Newcastle can be reserved by calling 250-754-7893. Rates are $11.50 per night in summer and $7.30 mid-October through March.

For other accommodations in Nanaimo, see www.tourism.nanaimo.bc.ca or call 800-663-7337.

Dining:

Join the local boaters at Dinghy Dock Floating Pub, 8 Pirates Lane, Protection Island. Open Mondays-Saturdays 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m., Sundays until 10 p.m. Phone: 250-753-2373.

More information

Contact Tourism Nanaimo, 800-663-7337 or www.tourism.nanaimo.bc.ca. See www.newcastleisland.ca for info on Newcastle Island Provincial Marine Park.

— Carol Pucci

*U.S. dollar prices based an exchange rate of 81 cents to the Canadian dollar.

Traffic? High gas prices? Ferry lines? Not your problem. Sit back and relax. Ninety minutes later, you'll be strolling along Nanaimo's seawall, watching the sea planes take off and land, and thinking about dinner.

Tranquil destination

Other than private rentals, there are only two places to stay on Protection Island, both B&Bs. I called ahead and reserved a room at Hebb's Protection Isle, and a few minutes after getting off the HarbourLynx, we were on the water again, this time aboard the 34-passenger Protection Connection foot ferry.

The little blue and white open-air boat makes its way hourly through Nanaimo's working harbor past fishing boats and barges filled with wood chips. The island's No. 1 tourist destination is the Dinghy Dock Floating Pub perched near the ferry dock on a concrete barge.

With just 350 residents, Protection Island has no other businesses, no school, church, post office or garbage collection. Locals compost and carry what's left over on the ferry in plastic bags rather than put up with noisy trucks.

The town "parking lot" is a clearing above the ferry dock filled with golf carts, grocery baskets, bikes — and a wheelbarrow or two. Gravel roadways with names like "Treasure Trail" and "Captain Kidd's Terrace" lead to pine-cone-strewn trails with beach access. Homes are tucked into wooded lots, each next to one of nine parks.

Some residents have cars, but the island's only three miles around and walking takes less than an hour. Hebb, 50, who opened her B&B seven years ago on three-quarters of an acre of forested land, uses the wheelbarrow to haul groceries or pulls a wooden cart on the back of her bicycle.

"Tomorrow it's low tide," she announced after we unpacked in our upstairs rooms. "You can walk to Newcastle!"

A rugged 750-acre marine park with forests, open meadows and beaches, Newcastle is separated from Protection by a narrow channel reachable at high tide only by boat, but walkable across a sand spit when the tide is out.

After breakfast the next morning, we combed the beach around Billy Bones Bay for oysters and hermit crabs and the occasional moon snail, but our timing was off. With several hours to go before low tide, we would either have to swim to Newcastle or get there the conventional way — by going back to Nanaimo and transferring to another foot ferry that makes hourly runs between the harbor and the park.

Coal was king all over this area in the mid-1800s, and Newcastle, named after the British coal mining town, was a Hudson Bay Company outpost.

After the mines closed, Newcastle was used as a sandstone quarry and later became a resort island with floating hotels and a dance pavilion run by the Canadian Steamship Co. With 11 miles of shoreline and inland trails, it sounds ideal for bike riding, but locals advise hiking instead.

Only the inland Kanaka Bay Trail and inland Mallard Lake Trail are open to bikes. The real fun of exploring Newcastle is picking up a trail guide at the former dance pavilion, now a visitor center, and using it to find the best places to discover wild orchids or spot a blond raccoon or black-tailed deer.

City breaks

The ferries make it easy to either stay in Nanaimo and island hop or take time out between runs to explore the city's historical downtown area.

McClean's Specialty Foods, 426 Fitzwilliam St., is the place to go for picnic supplies. The old-time grocery stocks more than 120 kinds of cheeses and homemade Nanaimo bars, a triple-layer pastry that became popular in the 1920s when British families sent them to loved ones working in the coal mines.

Tina's Diner at 187 Commercial, once owned by jazz singer Diana Krall's grandparents (check out their photo on the Formica counter) serves old-fashioned milkshakes and Blue Cheese chicken burgers in a '50s-style lunch room decorated with red booths and pictures of Elvis and Betty Boop. Next door is Katz's martini bar and the Painted Turtle, a youth hostel-cum-guesthouse run by Bruce Barnard and Angie Gottenberg in the former Commercial Hotel built in 1913.

As for the Dinghy Dock Floating Pub back on Protection, prepare for a movable feast.

It rocks.

"When I first started working here, they said 'floating pub' and I said, 'yeah, sure,' " said Christina Lepard, a waitress who recently relocated here from Toronto. "But if you go out on the deck, you can really feel it."

We ordered the blackened halibut and corn chowder. The band began playing Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville. I swear I felt the table sway. On the other hand, maybe it was that second glass of pinot grigio. No worries. I wasn't driving.

Carol Pucci: 206-464-3701 or cpucci@seattletimes.com

The basics

Name: Newcastle Island is named for the British coal-mining town of Newcastle.

Protection Island was originally named Douglas Island for Sir James Douglas, former governor of British Columbia. It was renamed Protection by Frank Ney, a former mayor of Nanaimo who purchased the island from a coal company in the 1960s and subdivided it for homes and summer cottages.

Nicknamed "Black Frank," Ney used to dress up as a pirate and helped organize the Nanaimo Bathtub Races, which still take place every summer.

Population: Newcastle is a provincial marine park. Protection has about 350 year-round residents.

Three must-do's

1. Take the ferry to Newcastle. Hike the Mallard Lake Trail to Giovando Lookout for panoramic views; comb the beaches between Newcastle and Protection at low tide.

2. Ride the Protection Connection foot ferry from Nanaimo to the Dingy Dock Floating Pub on Protection Island. Walk off dinner with a hike through Pirates Park.

3. Explore Nanaimo's waterfront, Arts District and Old City Quarter.