Wickaninnish Inn Tofino – rustic elegance on nature’s edge

I stretched out at Tofino’s Wickaninnish Inn for the final minutes of a small-group yoga class. Yoga teacher Mallory Stuckel settled lightweight, heated blankets across our bodies, then opened the glass doors of the second-floor yoga studio to the deep, rumbling sound of the surf. Refreshing, cedar-scented air came into the room.

Yoga Studio at the Wick Inn. Photo: Linda Barnard©

In that moment another Tofino memory was created in a place as treasured for the natural beauty of its magnificent Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere setting as its remoteness on the isolated west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

Wickaninnish Inn managing director, Charles McDiarmid, says Tofino has countless ways of sticking with people and luring them back. It’s no surprise visitors tell him they start planning their return on the trip home. The appeal is especially strong now, as travellers seek out places in natural settings that are free of crowds, traffic and the increasingly oppressive summer heat in some destinations.

Wickaninnish Inn managing director, Charles McDiarmid in library at the Pointe building. Photo Linda Barnard©

“Today, we’re an urban population on this planet,” McDiarmid said. “When people come to Clayoquot Sound, I think as part of our mission they should leave with a real sense of awe and appreciation and wonderment and take that back with them to the city to appreciate what these places represent.”

The village of Tofino, population about 2,500, has a mellow hippie-meets-hipster culture. You can find a good book, a piece of art, or a cool T-shirt on the short Campbell St. main drag. They take coffee seriously in Tofino and post-surf, fuel-up brunches are an art. From dining rooms to food trucks, chefs serve fresh, locally sourced seafood, along with island-farmed and foraged foods. You will eat seaweed — and you’ll love it.

The area is also rich with the living history of the Tla-o-qui-aht and Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations people who have called these lands home for thousands of years.

Since Tofino is about a five-hour drive from our Victoria home, I’m lucky enough to visit often. I had wanted to stay at the Wickaninnish Inn ever since I saw the hotel’s Pointe Restaurant the first time I stepped onto the hard-packed sand of Chesterman Beach in 2018. The dining room juts from a rocky promontory like the rounded glass deck of a ship, cresting above the sand and seeming to tow the inn’s two beachfront buildings from the forest. And here I was at last, with a Wickaninnish Inn wooden room key in my hand.

Lobby in the Pointe building as viewed from library at Wickaninnish Inn. Photo – Linda Barnard©

About Wickaninnish Inn Tofino

The inn has too many inspired touches to list, like the handmade luggage carts crafted from curved, sandwiched cedar strips. There’s a driftwood desk chair in each room, signed and dated by craftsman Maxwell Newhouse. That attention to even the smallest things is personal for McDiarmid.

The setting and the inn are part of his family’s story. His dad, Dr. Howard McDiarmid, came to Tofino in 1955, hired as the town’s only doctor to work at the newly opened Tofino General Hospital. He fell in love with the place, bought land on Chesterman Beach and built a cabin with the help of resourceful carpenter and beloved local character Henry Nolla. Charles McDiarmid and his two brothers grew up here.

McDiarmid Sr. dreamed of building a hotel on a piece of wooded, ocean-front land behind the family cabin. Charles and his brother Bruce did the clearing by hand to preserve as many trees as possible. The luxury inn and The Pointe Restaurant opened in 1996 with the motto “rustic elegance on nature’s edge.”

Nolla also helped build the Wick, as its affectionately known. Western Red Cedar and Sitka spruce felled to build the inn became the building’s wooden walls, fireplace mantles and posts, all covered in Nolla’s remarkable shaping work, done with an ancient cutting tool called an adze.The rhythmic cuts look like fish scales, or maybe tree bark, and you can’t resist running your fingers over the scallops and points. Nolla also carved the dramatic eagle-themed double cedar doors into the main lobby of the Pointe building. His custom-built adze, made from a car spring and various scavenged bits, is in a hand-carved display case in the Henry Nolla Gallery there.

The inn became a Relais & Châteaux property in 1997. Ancient Cedars Spa opened a year later. In 2010, the Beach building was completed next to the Pointe building, adding 30 rooms and suites. My room had a view of Chesterman Beach from every window, including the bathroom. There were leather tub chairs to relax in by the gas fireplace and a complimentary basket of snacks.

I didn’t notice there wasn’t a TV until McDiarmid pointed out they’re hidden. They pop up via a remote control from a custom-built credenza, or lower from a hidden spot in a ceiling frame.
“Mother nature gets top billing,” McDiarmid said. The destination is the “secret sauce” that makes the Wickaninnish Inn succeed, so why crowd the view with a big screen?

It’s not enough to just credit nature. Sustainability is important to the inn’s business plan. It’s a founding member of the Clayoquot Sound non-profit West Coast Sustainable Tourism. Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, not far from the inn, was created to protect the area in 1970. It was established in part due to the work of McDiarmid’s father, who was then the Social Credit MLA for Alberni. And Douglas fir from a renovation project at St. Ann’s Academy in Victoria was used for door and window trim around the inn, as well as for some furnishings. McDiarmid made sure to point out the nail heads in the wood in one room, a relic of its past life.

Secret Cove at Wickaninnish Inn Tofino. Photo: Linda Barnard©

The rooms at the Wick

All of the rooms at the Wickaninnish Inn’s two buildings face the ocean. Small balconies are a perfect perch for wildlife watching using the binoculars in each room. We didn’t have to look hard. A large bald eagle spent part of the morning in a tree outside our room. We left the door open in the evenings to fall asleep to the sound of the surf, cozy beneath luxurious Frette sheets and a warm, lightweight duvet.

The bathrooms have soaker tubs with a remote-controlled blind for privacy. There’s a candle on the tub rim and Italian-made Comfort Zone hair and bath products. Not a bath person? There’s a slate tile-lined shower.

Premier Room at the Wickaninnish Inn Tofino offers incredible views of the wild west coast. Photo Kyler Vos©

Warming up to storm season

Howard McDiarmid helped make Tofino a four-seasons getaway by adding winter storm-watching season at the inn from November to March. The thrilling power of nature was the draw, with beach walks featuring wind-whipped surf and lashing rain. There are heavy rain slickers and rain pants in room closets, along with thick Hudson’s Bay blankets.

The Driftwood Café in the Pointe building has a special drying cabinet where soaked storm watchers can air dry wet things while cozying up with a latte or hot chocolate, perhaps with an added shot of something warming. Or book a relaxing session in the Ancient Cedars Spa steam cave.

Wickaninnish Inn Ancient Cedars Spa relaxation area and massage cabin. Photo Linda Barnard©

The Pointe Restaurant

Tofino’s first fine-dining restaurant at the Pointe Restaurant is in a curved cedar dining room with 240-degree ocean views and a large, hammered copper fireplace at its heart. Executive Chef Clayton Fontaine continues the tradition of using local, sustainable seafood, interesting ferments and foraged ingredients like huckleberries and a wide variety of mushrooms in his sophisticated dishes. Even the butter is made in-house. I followed his recommendation for salmon crudo, made with just-caught, buttery spring salmon and it was delicious.

The Pointe has a three-course, table d’hôte format for dinner where diners chose from a rotating selection of starters, mains and desserts. Menus change every two days. There’s an excellent wine cellar, including a solid British Columbia wine list.

Magnificent ocean views from Wickaninnish Inn The Pointe Restaurant. Photo: Jeremy Koreski©

Carving shed on Chesterman Beach

Take a short walk down Chesterman beach to visit Nolla’s original carving shed, where he lived and worked. It’s now a combination museum, art gallery and workspace. Carver George Yearsley is always up to take a break and have a chat. Known as Feather George for the graceful eagle feathers he carves from reclaimed cedar, the fragrant wood curls left behind by Yearsley’s labours are part of the Feather George cocktail served at the at the On the Rocks Bar.

(R)Feather George Carving. Photo: The Wick©, Feather George Cocktail – On The Rocks Bar. Photo: Linda Barnard©

Tofino: How to get there

Getting to Tofino requires patience and flexibility. The weather and remoteness dictate travel plans. There are direct flights from Vancouver to Tofino-Long Beach airport and seaplane service to the Tofino Marina. You’ll need a car to get around. New local car rental company, Otus, has everything from motorcycles to tiny cars and mini vans in its fleet.

There’s one road in and out. I recommend renting a car in Victoria and doing the 4.5-hour drive from the charming provincial capital. The second half of the trip is incredibly scenic. The two-lane road passes lakes, forests and churning glacier-fed streams as it climbs through a series of mountain passes. Or drive one way and fly the other.

If you go:

Check out our guide to the top things to do from Victoria to Pacific Rim National Park

Linda Barnard was a guest of The Wickaninnish Inn, which did not preview this story.

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