It's pouring in Vancouver but just a five hour drive away I’m sitting poolside along with a dozen other guests of the Spirit Ridge Resort & Spa in Osoyoos, Canada’s only desert. Here the weather is a balmy 25 degrees with just a slight spring breeze. Bikinis and books are the order of the day, though it’s easy to get distracted by the view. Before us, the neat lines of a vineyard stretch for miles to Lake Osoyoos, while the arid mountains form a protective circle around this small town of 4,200 people.

This desert is a far cry from the lush rainforest of BCs coastal regions. Here, cactus plants grow in abundance, shaggy-maned bighorn sheep graze on the steep mountain slopes and the sky is that perfect shade of blue that convinces you summer is tangible. Pleasure craft zoom around the perimeter of the Okanagan’s warmest lake, and it’s hard to banish a smile as the thought of the rainy Lower Mainland crosses your mind.

Spirit Ridge Resort opened last year on land owned by the Nk’Mip, one of the Osoyoos First Nations’ five tribes. The 130-roomed property has the architecture and feel of a New Mexico-style establishment, its buildings constructed in rectangular blocks and coloured in earthy tones, offering large verandahs and a perfect vantage point overlooking the vineyards, mountains and lake. With full kitchens in cozy, comfortable suites, the resort has plenty to keep honeymooners occupied on property. There’s the Nk’Mip Cellars, a large tasting room and wine shop, and Passatempo, the resort’s restaurant with an outdoor patio offering a view rivaled only by the delectable cuisine. A heated swimming pool, waterslide and hot tub make for relaxing afternoons when the sun shines, and the Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre offers visitors an insightful glance at the forces that have shaped and changed the lives of the First Nations who call this region home.

Leave the resort and a love of viticulture is enough to keep you occupied for days on end. Between Osoyoos and Oliver, just 15 minutes drive away, lie dozens of wineries, from highly acclaimed ones like Gehringer Brothers to small mom-and-pop enterprises where reservations are mandatory. Time your visit in July and August and you’ll witness the Okanagan in the full blush of harvest, with farm stores on every corner offering the bounty of the land-luscious peaches, cherries, apples and berries.

If it’s blackberries you’re after, though, you have to head to the southern Gulf island of Galiano, where they come in a variety of different forms. A far cry from the prickly trees on which they grow, I try them in the form of a Blackberry Vinotherapy, essentially a massage in which blackberry wine mixed with oil is slathered over my body by deft, soothing hands.

I’m at the Galiano Inn and Spa, an establishment that emphasizes the sensuousness of food – and not just in the kitchen. “Would you prefer a blueberry smoothie, a blackberry vino or a chocolate butter crème?” I’m asked when I arrive at the spa.

Bored with the typical array of spa choices, I’m thrilled to find that inn owner Connie Nordin and her spa team have spiced it up a notch by taking local, island delicacies and creating from them an innovative selection of body wraps and massage lotions using ingredients that add a sensuous, sumptuous and uniquely Galianan touch to the spa experience.

Just a puddle-jump away from the Lower Mainland, Galiano is possibly one of the gulf’s best kept secrets, and its Galiano Inn and Spa is a sublime honeymoon destination. The ten-room inn, equipped with a fabulous restaurant and beautifully decorated rooms, was completely remodeled just last year and offers first-rate amenities, spectacular views, and best of all, the quietness of fine accommodation that is far from the maddening crowds.

Our handsome, king-size bed boasts a massive wood headboard and solid wood beams stretch across the ceiling. The room is equipped with a massage table that’s lifted from the wall like a hide-a-bed and converts into a table, that, at your request, will be laid and served for private dining. There’s a hot tub for two in the bathroom, a large shower and a unique wild blackberry soap that Nordin gets made up specifically for her guests.

In the on-property Atrevida Restaurant, we dine on beet cured salmon with pomegranate reduction and halibut cheeks on a warm cedar plank, dishes prepared and presented with a finesse that easily rivals Vancouver’s finest eateries.

I wake early on my last morning at the inn, heading, robe-wrapped, straight for the outdoor hot tub to enjoy the serenity of the day before the inn springs to life. Here, submerged in the bubbles, the nearby beach is mine alone. A bald eagle flies low overhead, and the deep bass of the BC Ferries horn pierces the stillness briefly before disappearing like a phantom into the gulf.