Tofino British Columbia

July 8, 2025

I saw a picture and a comment about the Hawaii of British Columbia somewhere in my scrolling on social media (thank goodness the algorithm knows I love to travel) and was intrigued. My husband and I started looking into the area Tofino on Vancouver Island. We did not know much before planning the trip but found nice options for lodging near the beach to stay, so we planned and set out for our trip. We drove from the Seattle area, crossed through the Peace Arch border crossing, and grabbed a ferry to Nanaimo from Vancouver. The ferry ride is a short two hours, and it is a scenic ride; humpback whales were spotted by the captain near the boat on our ride over to Nanaimo.

Once we disembarked in Nanaimo, we set out on our three-hour drive to the Tofino area. Highway 4 is a windy throughfare through a mountainous area. This drive was equally scenic to the ferry with several large lakes and recreation areas as well as large peaks that were still snowcapped in early July. We enjoyed our ride not knowing what to expect in the area but excited about the adventure of exploring a new place. Highway 4 reaches the pacific coast at an intersection (a T in the road) and to the left is Ucluelet and to the right is Tofino. As we drove right toward Tofino, we saw long sandy beaches sprawling to our left through the large old growth forest. The water was brilliant blue. We reached our resort, the Pacific Sands Beach Resort and followed the winding road in and it opened to the Pacific Ocean, lapping a beautiful beach. Our room was delightful with a small kitchen and balcony overlooking the coastline. Complete with a fireplace and a hot tub.

Dinner on our first night was near the marina at the Shelter Restaurant. The service was great (and so enthusiastic about the area) and the food was perfect. The view of this part of the area was inlet waters filled with small islands and the backdrop of some beautiful mountain peaks. The water was so clear and blue.

We enjoyed a walk on the beach at our resort after dinner taking advantage of the late summer sunset which was at about 9:30PM. The beach was clean with soft sand and the resort sits on Cox Bay Beach, which is one of about eight or nine beaches (Long, Combers, Cox Bay to name a few) in the area that you can explore.

We enjoyed breakfast the next day at a little café called Savary Island Pie Company. As you might be able to tell from the name they sell pies, but also much more including breakfast, and sandwiches. The restaurant is located at the bottom of the road to the left of the dock for seaplanes.

Our adventures took us on a drive toward Ucluelet and a few hikes that we had spotted on the Wild Pacific Trail Map published by Ucluelet B.C. This map is great and there are some great trails to choose from in the area. We walked the Lighthouse Loop which was very scenic. The hike would not have been long except that the views throughout the hike were so perfectly placed you could not help but stop and take in the view and photos.

We worked up an appetite after our hike and visited Frankie’s Resto-Bar in Ucluelet which had some delicious BBQ options and a relaxing view from their deck. The town of Ucluelet is very cute complete with some fun little stores my favorites included The Den Refillery who has recently put our their own line of beauty products as well as The Blackberry Cove Marketplace which had some great health foods and a great bookstore in the back filled with wonderful books about local things from plants, to sea life, to cooking and more. We drove back to our resort in the afternoon and enjoyed the breeze, and view and put our feet up before dinner.

Our resort hosted a lovely private dinner in their Rainforest Dinner Series, and we were excited we could reserve a place at the table. The series of dinners is hosted in the woods in a lovely tent and the table is set with seashells and other ephemera to set the mood. The food was locally, and seasonally focused and included oysters with a rhubarb mignonette, whipped ricotta and beet salad, Lingcod and Pork Belly, and for dessert a Strawberry Rhubarb Shortcake it was all delicious and we met some wonderfully travelers who shared that they were making an annual repeat trip to Tofino because they loved it so much.

On our last day before our drive home we had spa massages at the resort and then headed back on highway 4. We stopped at Kennedy Lake Provincial Park to enjoy the clear water and the views with our lab; she was determined to get a mountain lake bath and play stick. The rest of our drive was a breeze we made time to stop at scenic points and take in the beautiful green of the pacific northwest summer.