How Porteau Cove's oceanfront campsites book on BC Parks: the 3-month 7am PT window, the 7-night yearly limit, and the 7-day refund rule.
About
Porteau Cove is the campground you see from the Sea-to-Sky Highway: a strip of waterfront sites on Howe Sound, which BC Parks calls "the most southerly fjord in North America". It's 38 km north of Vancouver on Highway 99, 20 km south of Squamish and 8.5 km south of Britannia Beach, so it's the closest true oceanfront camping to the city. That's exactly why it's hard to get.
The park is also a scuba-diving spot, with a floating dock, a boat launch (not for divers) and an emergency ferry pier. Active train tracks run beside the park, so expect the odd train at night.
The sites
The BC Parks booking map splits the campground into vehicle sections A and B plus a walk-in area. Vehicle sites allow one extra vehicle for an additional fee, up to two per site; walk-in sites get one parking space each. There's a sani-station and washroom buildings, and a seasonal outdoor shower in the day-use area (March 1 to November 12).
Winter camping is allowed with limited services, though snow can restrict vehicle access. The two cabins at Porteau Cove are a separate booking through Sea to Sky Parks, and our watch doesn't cover them.
Source: BC Parks: Porteau Cove Park. Last checked: October 2026.
How booking works
Campsites book on camping.bcparks.ca or through the call centre at 1-800-689-9025 (7am to 7pm PT, with a $5 phone fee). The rules, from the BC Parks frontcountry camping page:
- You can book up to three months before your arrival date. New dates open at 7am Pacific Time every day. (Until 2025 the window was four months, so older blog posts still say four.)
- Statutory holiday long weekends open on their own, earlier dates and need a three-night minimum stay.
- Porteau Cove has a 7-night limit per person per calendar year, not the usual 14.
- The booking fee is $6 per site per night, up to $18 per site, plus tax.
- At most parks online booking closes at 8pm two days before arrival.
Last checked: October 2026. The 2027 long-weekend release dates aren't announced yet; expect a similar pattern to 2026.
When it sells out
So close to Vancouver and with the water right at your tent, summer weekends here are among the most contested in the Lower Mainland. Expect July and August weekends and the long weekends to go within minutes of the 7am release, three months out. Midweek nights in spring and fall are the easiest to find, and the winter season is quieter still.
How to get a cancellation
BC Parks' cancellation windows shape when sites reappear:
- More than 7 days before arrival: full refund of camping fees for cancelled nights
- Within 7 days: one night's fee is deducted
- On the arrival date: two nights' fees are deducted
Transaction fees aren't refunded, and a $6 fee applies per site when you get a refund. People cancelling for free tend to do it just before the 7-day mark, so day 8 before arrival is a good time to look. Changing your arrival date counts as a cancellation too, so dates shuffle as people move trips around.
Rather than refreshing at 7am every morning, you can watch Porteau Cove on Canada Camp Alerts. We alert you per night: a night counts as open when any bookable campsite in the facility is free. We don't match a specific site across a multi-night stay, your party size or your vehicle, and we don't book or hold anything. You book on BC Parks yourself. The free plan gives one watch with email alerts 15 minutes after we spot the opening. The season pass (C$25 once, 12 months, no auto-renew) gives up to 10 watches with instant alerts by email, Telegram or web push.
Tips
- Count your nights. With the 7-night yearly limit, a long summer booking here uses most of your allowance.
- Be signed in to your BC Parks account with your vehicle details saved before 7am or before you open an alert.
- If one night opens in the middle of a weekend, grab it and keep watching for the next. Each night is judged separately.
- Generators are allowed only 9am to 11am and 6pm to 8pm, and quiet hours run 10pm to 7am.
Nearby alternatives
Up to three months before your arrival date. New dates open at 7am Pacific Time each day on camping.bcparks.ca. Long weekends follow their own earlier release dates, so check BC Parks for those.
BC Parks limits Porteau Cove to 7 nights per person per calendar year, half the usual 14-night limit at most BC Parks campgrounds.
Cancelling more than 7 days before arrival gets a full refund of camping fees, so many cancellations land just before that cutoff. Most parks stop online booking at 8pm two days before arrival.
No. The cabins are booked through Sea to Sky Parks, not BC Parks. The watch covers the campsites on the BC Parks reservation system.