My Trip to Tofino

Report by Sabrina H.

After a few weeks in Nanaimo, a friend from Germany came over to visit me in the beginning of February. Besides a weekend in Vancouver, we also did a trip to Tofino, a beautiful small „must-see“ town on the west coast of Vancouver Island. At first we thought it would get really complicated to plan this trip because it was off-season, however, we then realized it was not even as hard as we expected it to be and we had a really great time.

Getting there

Our trip started Friday morning and we took the „Tofino Bus“ from the Departure Bay in Nanaimo to Tofino which was also very affordable with approximately CAD 90 in total. It was a 3,5 hour drive with only few stops and by 12PM we already found ourselves in Tofino. We stayed at a very nice motel directly at the Waterfront which was called „Tofino Motel“. I would recommend it to anyone who does not want to spend a lot of money but still wants to stay in a nice room with sea view. The breakfast was not included, however, it was no problem to find a nice place with good breakfast in town as everything is within walking distance.

Enjoying our trip to Tofino

As it was off-season, there was really not much going on but we really enjoyed the peace. Even the shuttle busses to Long Beach were not running which was the reason why we decided to rent bikes and make a day trip to Long Beach. It was absolutely beautiful and stunning, and I really think that Tofino and Long Beach are one of the „Must Sees“ on Vancouver Island. The trip was exhausting (40km bike ride in total) but worth every single second of it.

Off-season

As we were really lucky with the weather we enjoyed the sun and just relaxed on Sunday before we unfortunately already had to head back to Nanaimo in the afternoon. All in all, I would also absolutely recommend to explore the Island during off-season however, one should be aware that there are indeed a few restrictions. For example there was no opportunity to go whale watching or bear watching on the west coast of the Island because it was the wrong season. So, I think it is perfect for a weekend trip to get away from studying and to explore new places but if you want to go for a longer period as for instance a week or more I think one would get a little bit bored due to the lack of activity opportunities and one might be better off exploring rather the Vancouver area during off-season.