For many food enthusiasts, this describes an ideal getaway: you wake to a view of a lavender field in bloom. After a farm-fresh breakfast, you spend a leisurely day touring neighbouring wineries and picnicking on artisan breads with local handmade cheeses. You might cycle country lanes or splash in the sea before a memorable dinner of just-caught fish and seasonal vegetables.

It might sound like Provence, but it actually describes Vancouver Island’s Cowichan Valley. And getting there doesn’t require a long international flight or maxing out your credit cards.

The words culinary and tourism usually suggest exotic destinations a long way from home, but let’s not overlook the flavours of our own backyard, an evolving food culture created from top-quality ingredients and multi-ethnic influences. So this summer, consider taking a staycation in BC. You’ll spend less time traveling and more time enjoying the experience, and you’ll be using your tourist dollars to bolster your local economy.

Here are some suggestions for food-focused getaways that range from a few hours to a few days.

The Half Day:

Discover Italy in Vancouver by roaming the delis and cafés of Commercial Drive or Burnaby Heights. www.burnabyheights.com, www.thedrive.ca

Take A Wok Around Chinatown, a guided culinary and cultural tour of one of Vancouver’s oldest and most exotic neighbourhoods. www.awokaround.com

Go berry-picking at a local U-pick farm. The fields will smell of jam, and you’ll pop a few plump berries, warmed by the sun, straight into your mouth. www.bcstrawberries.com, www.bcraspberries.com

The Daytrip:

Cycle around the farms of Agassiz with Slow Food Vancouver, or create your own farm tour. (Doable in a day, but consider prolonging that pastoral bliss by staying overnight in Harrison instead of rushing home.) www.slowfoodvancouver.com, www.circlefarmtour.com

Take the ferry (or water taxi from Granville Island) to Bowen for a taste of island life. (The organic chocolates at Cocoa West are worth the trip, and an easy walk from Snug Cove.) www.bowenisland.org, www.cocoawest.com

A Weekend:

Book yourself into Damali B&B, a working lavender farm in Cobble Hill, the heart of Vancouver Island’s wine country. Use it as a base to discover the gourmet culture of an area quickly earning a reputation as the Provence of Canada. www.damali.ca

Pop over to Salt Spring Island in autumn and visit Apple Luscious Organic Orchard, growers of more than 200 heritage apples, including unusual red-fleshed varieties. www.appleluscious.com

Several Days:

Tour the wineries of the Similkameen and Okanagan Valleys. Start in Keremeos and wend your way through the desert country of Osoyoos and Oliver, up to Penticton, Summerland and Kelowna. Many of these wineries are home to fine farm-to-table restaurants, and a few (Burrowing Owl and Therapy) offer elegant accommodation. Consider taking a gourmet cooking class with Michael Allemeier at Mission Hill. www.bovwine.ca, www.therapyvineyards.com, www.missionhillwinery.com

Details of more great Local Libations can be found here: