Comox : Where to Stay
Canopy Beds
By Tom Gierasimczuk
Mar 1, 2007

Splurge

Long Beach Lodge Resort

1441 Pacific Rim Hwy., Tofino • 877-844-7873 • longbeach-

lodgeresort.com •

from $289

 

The fact that your co-workers might actually envy you for taking off to the west coast of Vancouver Island to watch storms in the middle of winter has more to do with the posh oceanfront accommodations you’re likely to stay in than society’s embrace of a new extreme pastime.

The Long Beach Lodge Resort, along with the Wickaninnish Inn and several other properties along the western side of the narrow Esowista Peninsula just south of Tofino, has romanticized the act of walking in rain and the spraying Pacific brine, if only because warming up in a giant tub or drying off in front of a gas fireplace in your cedar-shingled, West Coast, craftsman-style room is but a mere short sprint away. And in case you forgot your slicker, two come with the room. Those who prefer to evaporate socially (and with a glass of northwest pinot) head to the stone wood-burning fireplace in the lodge’s central, soaring great room, complete with a balcony from which to devour the frequently epic sunsets on their way to Japan.

But as the high season approaches and the winter storms subside, the 40-room, 20-forest cabin resort is doing something it rarely does: tooting its own horn as it celebrates five years among the ancient sands, Sitka spruce and salal grasses this spring. Expect low-key festivities and be sure to raise a toast to a stunning property getting better with age.

 

Save

Bella Pacifica Resort & Camp

400 Mackenzie Beach Rd., Tofino • 250-725-3400 • bellapacifica.com • from $21

 

At $46 during peak season, it’s one of North America’s most expensive campsites. But show up at the Bella Pacifica campground between June and late September (and all long weekends year-round) without a reservation made months in advance and chances are you’ll be paying three times that for a musty motel room. There’s a reason that the 170 spots are so popular with the RV crowd, car campers and foreign backpackers. A dearth of affordable accommodation in tiny Tofino (three kilometres north) when the summer hordes descend aside, it’s Bella Pacifica’s beachfront location on sweeping Mackenzie Bay that makes first-timer jaws drop, especially during clear evenings, when campfire, barbecue and various other smoke rises towards the violet sky and dinnertime chatter is muffled by the lush canopy of the rainforest. The site’s amenities are plentiful as well—from the individual electrical and water hookups to the communal bathrooms, showers and laundry—and explain why visitors return year after year, if only to snag the prized beachfront lots (#1-18) that they missed out on in a prior visit.