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Hotel Class: 
3 Stars - 118 Opinions
1254 Pacific Rim Hwy, Tofino, British Columbia, Canada
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of people enjoy staying here
118 Opinions
On the waves
Wild Pacific Trail......Ucluelet
Long Beach in February 2008
Ancient Cedars,Meares Island,B.C.
If you have interest in going to Tofino, then there is a good chance you wanna check out the surf. There are 3 surf shops in town that will rent or sell you gear. I used Storm the Tofino Surf shop. Surfboards were available to rent $25 for 8 hours. Boogie Boards $20/8hrs.
Head over to Vargas Island. You can kayak or hire a boat to take you to the Vargas Island Inn (on the close side) and hike over a barely-used ~5 mile trail to the beach on the far side. The trail is in poor shape, and there are some wolves in the interior, so best to go with someone, but it's definitely far from the crowd.
If you are in BC make sure you go over to Vancouver island and visit Tofino. Many Canadians own favorite summer town. It's a very small but so cosy fishing town.
It gets crazy busy with happy people here in summertime.
What drags people here is that you can actually surf here. Yes the water is cold, 7 deg now in start of April but the wetsuits are so good that you actually don't feel the cold (much ;-)
AND there is the whale watching.
I work here in a very nice small whale watching company, WEST COAST AQUATIC SAFARIS, check out www.whalesafaris.com.
We do whale, bear and birdwatching and also trips up to the hot springs.
Its such a pleasure to see the enormous animals, that us humans really don't know that much about, out in the open sea (talking about the whales now).
With the bear trips, we go in the inlets in low tide to from the boat watch the black bears turn the rocks in search for crabs to eat. Vancouver island has got its own type of black bear with skin between its toes to swim better.
And we also do bird watches with for example the impressing bald eagle.
Our 2-year old boat WASCO (seawolf) is specially designed so people get the best of the best out of the trip.
It has got seats on the roof so you get higher up from the surface, and a heated inside area with a toilet.
The trips are well recommended and a real must do if you come to Tofino, as well as the surfing.
Make sure you come and see me at WEST COAST AQUATIC SAFARIS and say hallo.
Sincerely
Evis (swedish)
Tofino has gobs of wildlife to see.
In summer, you may see black bears on the side of the road - don't expect to see them in town, though - most likely you will see them on your way in if you're driving. You can also go bear-watching, which you take a boat to do.
There is of course whale-watching - many companies offer this - the whales you will most likely see are grey whales, though certain times of year you may see orcas. On boat trips you may also see sea lions, seals, and cormorants.
There are lots of blad eagles around - just listen for the high pitched sounds and look in the treetops. Ravens will emit their deep-throated gutteral caws, and cast shadows as they glide overhead.
On the beach, search around the rocky areas in low tide to find large pale green sea, and magenta sea anemones - lightly touch them and they will recoil. There are also dark purple and bright orange starfish clinging to a lot of the rocks.
There are cougars in the area, but don't expect to see any.
We ran across two Humpback Whales . Humpback whales do not care a tinkers that you are trying to take a picture of them .
The swimming style of Humpback Whales makes it difficult for scientists to make positive identification of individual whales.
Experts have problems taking photos of Humpbacks and so will you . Even when you are close you have to be 100% focused on the water surface waiting for their next appearance. You haven't a clue where they will surface or when .
The seas may not look choppy in the photo but they were . We had one passenger get seasick and another never let go of the safety bar.
In any event , when you spot the whales everyone in the Zodiac comes alive
There is a small black object on the real photo that may have been the whales tail .
Blue whales live in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and around Newfounland . OK , they are not as exciting but they move slow .
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