Why Sandpiper Resort Harrison Mills is Perfect for Families (& their dogs)

Why Sandpiper Resort is the Ultimate Dog-Friendly Stay in Harrison Mills

Head to Harrison Mills and stay at the Sandpiper Resort with your family – including the furbabies! This incredible resort has two dog-friendly cabins for all your needs!

The new luxury cabins at Sandpiper. Ours was the Raven cabin which is the first one on the left. Dog-friendly and had every amenity we needed.If you’re like us you hate to leave your beloved dogs at home when you travel so we try not to whenever we can. That’s why we appreciate amazing resorts that accommodate us, our pets and all of our needs. Our stay at Harrison Mills was beyond comfortable in their new luxury cabins, one of which is dog-friendly.Our dog Cleo enjoying snuggling in front of the fire in the Raven luxury cabin at Sandpiper Resort.

We are even more grateful now for our time in the Raven cabin at Sandpiper as it would turn out that it was the last trip we got to have with our beloved dog Apollo. We lost him at the end of November last year (not long after this trip) to a terrible accident. This is one of the reasons it’s taken me a little longer to write about this wonderful resort as we, of course, thought Apollo would be with us for many years.Our Apollo with my husband enjoying the long deck at our cabin.

It’s been tough but I’m at the point now where I appreciate and treasure our memories with Apollo especially our time at Sandpiper. He got to be with us there, we had so many areas to explore on the acres of property with him and relaxation time in front of the fire in the cabin. It was a special time as it was also my daughter’s birthday that weekend. 

Make sure to check out some of our other favourite destinations both close and far away in our travel section and for travel tips. Like some of these articles:

Top Disney Cruise Line Activities For Kids And Teens

Tips For Travelling With Your Dog

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Vancouver Island Spa – Grotto Spa At Tigh-Na-Mara

Now I don’t write this to make everyone sad but to say how much we appreciate our memories and that can only happen when we have options to bring our dogs with us to fabulous places like the Sandpiper Resort in Harrison Mills, British Columbia. Apollo making himself comfortable in the cabin.

Before I forget, make sure to PIN this article for your reference and feel free to share. 

Oh and silly me I hadn’t mentioned that until now where this wonderful place is located and how close it is to where we live too, total bonus. So first let’s share a bit about Harrison Mills itself and Sandpiper resort that is on a golf course and includes the historic Rowena’s Inn.

Rowena’s Inn at Sandpiper Resort 

About Rowena’s Inn at Sandpiper Resort

I want to share some history on the resort and oh what a history it is, in particular about Rowena’s Inn picture above. Betty-Anne Faulkner owned Rowena’s Inn and the land until 2015 and in fact, it was her parents who bought the land it sits on when there were no roads. Rowena’s Inn on the River is a colonial 1920s themed inn, infused with a European flair.

Rowena’s Inn being set up for a Hallmark Christmas movie while we were there. The Inn we had learned is very popular for being used for movie sets.The inn honours the original owners’– the Prettys–history and is a popular destination for weddings and special events. Offered a handful of times a year, guests are invited to dine in the Upper Drawing Room for Step Back in Time fireside dining.

My husband and daughter in front of the Clubhouse Restaurant at Sandpiper Resort

In 1995 Betty-Anne and her remaining sibling James Ivan decided to open up their home as a B&B so that others could enjoy their serene surroundings. Ivan had a dream of building an 18-hole golf course, and so it was implemented. Today, it is called Sandpiper Golf Course. In memory of their mother and sister, they named the inn Rowena’s Inn on the River.

Betty-Anne sold the resort in 2015 but she still lives on the grounds and is known to often greet visitors. That explains why we saw her often at the Clubhouse. You can read more about their story on the Sandpiper Resort website. 

We didn’t get a chance to speak to Betty-Anne but as mentioned we did see her at the resort’s restaurant the Clubhouse where we went to eat often even though we had a full kitchen in the cabin. The food was that good that we just couldn’t stay away.

I’ll share more on that another article soon as the food and some of the fun family things to do in Harrison Mills (and Harrison Hot Springs) deserve their own article. Not to mention I have so many photos to share of the tasty food and drinks.

About Harrison MillsLocated 20 minutes from Harrison Hot Springs and just under two hours from Vancouver, Harrison Mills is a land filled with wilderness, mountains &
rivers. They honour the salmon & the world’s largest winter gathering of eagles (from October through to January). There are tons of things to see and do in Harrison Mills, especially if you love the great outdoors and nature and of course golf. We’ll be sharing some fun family things to do in Harrison Mills and Harrison Hot Springs soon! 

We’ll be sharing more on fun family things to do in Harrison Mills and Harrison Hot Springs soon. To learn more though on this beautiful area check out Tourism Harrison Mills. 

Sandpiper Resort

Of course we think if you’re going out to Harrison Mills you should stay at Sandpiper Resort. Aside from the inn rooms, which are available to stay in, Sandpiper Resort has rustic and luxury cabins to choose from. We stayed in the one pet-friendly luxury cabin. One of the rustic cabins is also pet-friendly. 
The luxury nature series cabins are new with 1, 2 and 3-bedroom layouts! We stayed in a 2 bedroom one, the Raven. These cabins honour the wildlife and salmon that are indigenous and sacred to our area. They have the same rustic elements as the classic cabins, but with contemporary touches. Recognizing that they have a variety of guests, the new cabins accommodate larger groups and are perfect for girlfriend getaways, stags, stagettes, retreats, golf groups, and fishing trips and of course families with dogs. Above is a photo of one of the “rustic” cabins, they are not that rustic and in talking to some guests who were staying in one, they are very comfortable. You certainly can’t beat the views.I will share some photos of our cabin but how about a quick video tour of the Raven cabin. It’s totally worth it to see all the small details that went into making these luxury cabins. We all enjoyed it from the two to the four-legged family members. I did not edit this video because one it’s short and two I figure you might as well hear me in all my glorious mishaps, we’re human so I didn’t want to edit it out lol

What’s not to love about cabins that look like these on the inside and outside. In case you’re wondering even though we saw golfers out on the course every single day we were never in any way disturbed by them. It always seemed so quiet. We were advised not to park in front of the cabins just in case there were any stray golf balls so we did park in the back. However, we were in the front of the cabin on the deck all of the time and always enjoyed the beautiful surrounding and no flying golf balls.You can have it all at Sandpiper resort, tasty food, or cook your own, special events, gorgeous scenery, golfing, nature walks, and if you book one of the two pet-friendly cabins you can bring your dogs too. The Raven cabin was perfect for us as we had two bedrooms and there was even a hide-a-bed as you saw in the video. With our dogs, it was easy to clean up as we would just sweep the floors and we brought their dog beds with us for them to sleep on. 

Here are the top 5 reasons we think Sandpiper resort in Harrison Mills is perfect for families and their dogs:

1. Plenty of space for the whole family in the cabins so as to not feel crowded. Space for everyone to be together and on their own.
2. Luxurious cabin amenities but easy to clean up even with the dogs. 
3. Big deck to sit on with the dogs and grounds to walk around (not the golf course) with the dogs on a leash.
4. Ability to leave the dogs in the cabin when going to the restaurant and not worry about bothering our fellow guests. Our dogs were in their crates but you couldn’t hear them outside the cabins unless they barked really loud.
5. Comfortable for humans and dogs, inside and out. Everyone at the resort who worked there also seemed to love dogs. Our Apollo and Cleo got lots of attention from the people who worked there. 

Those are just our top 5 reasons, there are so many more. Our dogs are very well trained off-leash so we did hang outside our cabin off-leash sometimes and they would go and visit everyone. I don’t recommend this though if your dogs are not well trained off-leash as you don’t want to disturb other guests. Lots of space to enjoy our time together, for our dogs to eat with us in the cabin and oh so much more. I also want to share some of the little things that added up to make this an amazing stay, fun with our dogs, celebrating our daughter’s birthday and just having some family time. Little things like nice amenities in the bathrooms and including toiletries for the number of people, there were three of us so three sets of shampoo etc.. every day.All of the meticulous landscaping the beautiful wood carvings which you may have noticed some already in earlier photos. Just look at this bench above it’s a work of art. There were several like this all over the resort. As well as beautiful artwork in the cabins themselves. I just have to share more of the wood carvings on the grounds as they are just so beautiful. The one below was right in front of our cabin.Who doesn’t love looking at such beautiful works of art that complement the landscape?! No one I know!See what I mean about all of the little touches. I have to say it was very hard to leave this resort. We went away so relaxed and enjoyed our family time.Lucky for us that Harrison Mills is less than two hours away by car from where we live. Even if it was farther way I would make the trip to this resort, so worth it. I could easily spend a week here and I don’t even golf, you don’t have to when there’s so much to see, comfy accommodations to relax and so much beautiful scenery. I’ll be sharing more of this in our next article but when I mention nature for this resort I should also say that with the best views of the Harrison River, Sandpiper Resort has been designated a prime bald eagle viewing destination. Primetime to see them is from October to January and you can just walk down the eagle trail. You’re also five minutes from a salmon run viewing area. So much to see and do and this resort!

Make sure to visitSandpiper Resort’s website to learn more about this wonderful destination. 

While we know that this resort is perfect for families and their dogs it’s of course perfect for well everyone. Did I mention there were two different weddings on two different days while we were there? Sure was, it’s obviously great for couples, girlfriend getaways and more. In fact I’m already plotting when I can go back and for what occasion or just because. 

One more reminder to PIN this article. 

Have you been to Harrison Mills? If so please share how you liked the area or share where your favourite destination is.