SPA

Shelter from the Storm

By Amanda Ross

On Vancouver Island’s Pacific Rim coast, you’ll find a few adventures that don’t require a mountain bike, backpack or even a wetsuit.

Wickaninnish Inn

With its year-round frigid waters, abundant rain and serious cougar population (not the kind that will buy you drinks if you’re nice to them), Vancouver Island’s Pacific Rim has a reputation for appealing mostly to intrepid outdoorsy types. It seems like everyone’s in a Zodiac chasing whales, in a wetsuit chasing waves or hiking in the soaking rainforest among towering cedars. But what’s on offer indoors is often forgotten in the Gore-Tex crush. So instead of following the pack, I park my pack to explore the confines of some of the country’s best lodgings.

Don’t get me wrong: I love the outdoors, and from the balcony of my room at the famed Wickaninnish Inn outside Tofino (the Wick to locals), I’ve got an awesome view of the silky sands of Chesterman Beach. I forego the rubber boots that the Wick thoughtfully loans out and decide to get my feet wet in the copper tub at the Ancient Cedars Spa. As I gently roll my toes over the loose marbles strewn on the bottom, it’s like walking on the beach, except the water’s a whole lot warmer and it's got lavender in it. Post-massage, I cocoon in an Adirondack chair under a sheltered nook outside and breathe the same cedar-scented air as the beach walkers do. And I’m not forced to don a yellow sou’wester.

Staying inside isn’t always fun and games, except at Long Beach Lodge, where they specialize in fun and games. In the massive great room, I’m treated to 270-degree panoramic views of surfers clad scalp-to-pinky-toe in neoprene while I sip a glass of island wine (surprisingly good) and decide which board game to play. Transported to a time before talk about variable-rate mortgages passed for stimulating dinner conversation, I settle on a vintage Scrabble set, which I set out on a stylish Brent Comber Douglas-fir coffee table. It feels like my living room, if my living room were in Architectural Digest. And no wonder; owner Tim Hackett based the design on his own home in Victoria. Watching the grommets (eager young surfers, for the uninitiated) outside tackle the 10°C water, I’m suddenly inspired: “gnarly,” triple word score.

The lobby at the swish new Black Rock Oceanfront Resort in Ucluelet sadly doesn’t look anything at all like my place. It looks more like the sort of lair a James Bond villain might fancy: minimalist and ultramodern. A massive log, salvaged during construction from the adjacent beach, serves as dramatic lobby seating. My room is a similar exercise in this uniquely West Coast take on the less-is-more aesthetic. With its clean lines and expansive terrace, it’s a canvas painted by the scene outside. Tofino is all about the beach, but here the Pacific arrives angrily at a jagged rocky coast. The sleep-inducing effects of the metronomic crashes make Black Rock the perfect rehab facility for workaholics.

Well-rested, I dine the next night at Black Rock’s Fetch, the oceanfront restaurant helmed by Wick alum Andrew Springett, then head out for Float, the most dramatic oceanfront bar in the northern hemisphere. At Float’s blue mosaic-tiled bar, curved in the shape of a wave, I order (what else?) a Dark and Stormy, which I drink nestled by the roaring Ecosmart fire but never far from the rugged outdoors that lies just beyond the plate glass.

(Vancouver-based Amanda Ross is the editor-in-chief of HomeSpa magazine. Both travel writers, she and her husband rarely stay in one place long.) 

TOP IMAGE: RACHEL WEILL
SURF: CHRISCHEADLE.COM / TOURISM VANCOUVER ISLAND
LONG BEACH LODGE: THE TARTAN GROUP