From glamping on the Sunshine Coast to helifishing in a choper, to storm - watching in Tofino, here are some of British Columbia’s best places – and most provocative landscapes.
Winter gusts often reach up to 100 kilometres per hour on Vancouver Island’s wild west coast, where the next stop in the vast Pacific Ocean is Japan. Scrubby shore pine permanently bow to the land, attesting to which way the prevailing wind blows. Behind them, old-growth cedars and firs grow hundreds of feet high, giving the shoreline a steeply rising appearance, while creating a towering wonderland beneath the forest canopy. Curiously, the ocean waves come directly from the Antarctic or, after mid-October, from Alaska. It’s the long Antarctic swells – 15 seconds apart – that have made this coast famous for its thousands of shipwrecks and has turned Tofino into Canada’s surfing capital. The multi-million dollar oceanfront Wickaninnish Inn on Chesterman Beach pioneered the dramatic concept of winter stormwatching and today, the highest occupancy at the “Wick” is in January. It offers a roaring fire in the tranquil lobby when it’s howling outside; a 100-seat, sea-view restaurant (The Pointe) and bar (On-the-Rocks), stretching out over the rocks so that the surf pounds all around; a fullservice health spa; and 75 comfy guest rooms.
At Nimmo Bay Resort, a luxurious hideaway clinging to the edge of the rugged forests of Mackenzie Sound on British Columbia’s central coast, every day is packed with adventure. No wonder: the resort’s heliactivities operate across almost 78,000 square kilometres of breath-taking terrain. Packages can include fly or spin-fishing a river so high in the mountain it’s accessible only by helicopter, lunch on a glacier at 2,100 metres, beachcombing along the remote sand beaches of Vancouver Island’s west coast and at day’s end, a hot tub by a waterfall and a dinner flawlessly prepared by a renowned chef. Guests can’t get enough of this twenty-six-year old operation, or the splendors that it’s six-passenger choppers lay at their feet. The repeat business is 75 percent, and the list of luminaries includes Richard Branson, Jimmy Pattison (who once took George Bush there to heli-fish with owner Craig Murray). Says Murray, “Nimmo Bay’s the only place in the world where an eighteen-year-old scotch will ruin a glass of 10,000 year-old ice.” www.nimmobay.com
All you need know about the Gulf Islands that dot the Strait of Georgia is that they have the best climate in Canada. Named for the unusually cold and briny springs on the north end of the island, Salt Spring is the largest and most populous of the southern Gulf Islands (with 10,000 residents).
All roads lead to Ganges, as the natives are fond of saying. Ganges, the largest town in the Gulf Islands, has a colourful Saturday market with high-quality crafts, as well as plenty of cozy waterfront cafés and charming boutiques. Just when your nostrils catch the whiff of yuppification, you stumble onto Mouat’s department store, an island mainstay since 1907 and still owned by the same family. However, it is Hastings House (160 Upper Ganges Road, 250.537.2362) that put Salt Spring Island on the international map. Just minutes from Ganges, nestled among trees overlooking a rolling lawn and the sea, this Englishstyle country retreat is undeniably luxe. In the warm weather, Sunday brunch is offered with wonderful garden and harbour views.
It has been less than a decade since vines were planted at Garry Oaks Winery and it’s worth a stop to taste and pick up their Pinot Noir and Fetish. You can also taste wines or stay in a romantic bed & breakfast at the bucolic Salt Spring Vineyards.
You’ve set your sights on the raw wilderness. How wild do you want it? Wild, but not that wild? Exotic, remote, but cushioned with down-filled creature comforts? Try “glamping,” where glamour meets camping, under a starry sky marked only by a chandelier. Instead of boggy pup tent, think spacious safari canopy with Persian carpets on the polished wood floors. Meals from a Coleman stove? Not a chance. The chef’s a pro, the silver is polished and the linen is crisp.
Rough it, resort-style in a temperate rain forest on the west coast of Vancouver Island, at the Clayoquot Wilderness Resort. Leave the comfort of a wood-floored safari tent with Oriental carpets, antique furnishings and remote-controlled propane wood-stoves for hiking, horseback riding, fly-fishing, kayaking and wildlife-watching. Or just play snooker, have a massage and lounge in chef Timothy May’s openkitchen bar. www.wildretreat.com [1]
Or live the high life in a treehouse tent nestled among old-growth cedar forests at the Rockwater Secret Cove Resort on the Sunshine Coast. With more amenities than most condos - bedroom fireplaces, heated slate tiles, remote-controlled Euro soaker tubs – you’ll spend most of your time horseback riding or on the water, in a kayak or a row boat. The chef uses local organic produce and meats and West Coast seafood. www.rockwatersecretcoveresort.com [2]
When it comes to local organics, the 100-mile diet, or Slow Food*, Sinclair Philip and his artistic French-born wife Frédérique were the first to effectively implement all three when they opened the oceanfront Sooke Harbour House in 1979. Under their stewardship, Sooke Harbour House has gained international attention for a kitchen dedicated to fresh, natural and very local. It’s worth stopping at the 1931 remodeled white-clapboard house, even if you’re not staying, just to stroll through the herb gardens and sniff the mix of sea, brown fennel, and lemon verbena. (Garden tours begin daily at 10:30.) Over 200 organically grown herbs, greens, flowers, and vegetables found at Sooke Harbour House are edible at least in some way. Each of the 28 rooms boasts a name that inspired the eclectic decor, among them The Sea Gull Room, The Ichthyologist’s Study, and The Underwater Orchard. Most rooms offer a Jacuzzi or soaker tub, and all serve up ocean views, balconies, wood-burning fireplaces, fresh flowers, butter cookie , and decanters of port. After a morning stroll along the adjacent Whiffen Spit, enjoy a lavish breakfast of hazelnut-maple syrup waffles with loganberry purée or a fresh garden vegetable quiche in the privacy of your room. An outstanding box lunch is prepared upon request and both meals are included in the price of your stay. The dinner menu, which changes daily, relies primarily on the area’s local produce including seaweed, fish, mushrooms, heritage vegetables, pastured chicken and ducks, their own rare breed pigs, edible garden offerings and an award-winning wine cellar. www.sookeharbourhouse.com [3]
* Slow Food is a movement founded in Italy, to combat fast food.
Year-round, no road trip is more awe-inspiring than the 90-minute scenic drive between Vancouver and Whistler on the aptly named Seato- Sky Highway (Highway 99). Rated as one of the “Most Romantic Drives in North America” by the Robb Report and one of the “Ten Best Drives” by National Geographic Traveler, the 125-kilometre route from West Vancouver winds through Squamish to North America’s top-ranked ski resort. About an hour north, you’ll find Shannon Falls, the fifth-largest waterfall in the world, plummeting 335 metres, six times the vertical drop of Niagara Falls. Near the town of Squamish, the highway climbs beyond Howe Sound into spectacular Garibaldi Provincial Park which is surrounded by 10,000-foot peaks and crowned by the exploded volcanic remnant known as Black Tusk. You can watch rock climbers from around the world scale Smoke Bluffs or the imposing 650-metre granite mass that is Stawamus Chief (reputedly the second-largest granite monolith in the world after the Rock of Gibraltar). The remaining stretch to Whistler winds its way past the town of Brackendale, home of the annual bald eagle count, and Alice Lake and Brandywine Falls Provincial Parks, both of which border on Garibaldi Provincial Park, before reaching Alta Lake and Whistler’s town limits.
Five cedar longhouses line up just beyond the high tide line on a white sand beach. In front, six totem poles telling the story of 14 Haida clans stand sentinel. To a visitor approaching Haida Gwaii (“islands of the people”) on BC Ferries’ Queen of Prince Rupert, the new $26-million Haida Heritage Centre near Skidegate, BC looks like it might have come straight out of an Emily Carr painting. Authentic. Tranquil. Striking, yet subdued. But unlike the abandoned Aboriginal villages moodily rendered by Carr (and protected now within the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site), this modern seaside settlement bustles with life. On a recent misty morning, preschoolers learned a traditional eagle dance in the shadow of potlatch poles at one end of the museum. At the other, local artisans carved cedarcanoes - the first since renowned Haida artist Bill Reid created Loo Taas for the 1986 World’s Fair. With its focus on Haida food, music, song, storytelling and dance, lore and craft, the centre preserves a storied past while looking hopefully to the next chapter. Forget the guidebooks. The centre is the source for understanding Haida culture. It is also a mandatory stop if you plan to travel solo into the park, with access to some 500 archaeological and historic sites within the protected area. Sure, those exploring the park accompanied by a licensed commercial tour operator are excused from the formal classroom orientation. But you won’t want to miss it. The hour-and-a-half long session with a Parks Canada interpreter gives invaluable insight into Haida Gwaii’s complex, politically charged history. For a look back at the archipelago formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, take in Skedans, SGang Gwaay and Tanu, the spectral villages decimated by smallpox in the late 1800s; and for a look ahead: the Haida Heritage Centre. Haida Gwai portion written by Julie Ovenell-Carter.
Pick a season - any season - and British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley will reward you. In summer, Okanagan Lake’s hundred miles of shoreline and marinas offer rentals for water skiing, kayaking, canoeing and parasailing. In the South Okanagan, it’s hot enough for the prickly pear cacti to flourish in Canada’s only desert down by the U.S. border and frosty enough in winter for the production of ice wine. It’s also just right for putting fine powder on the ski slopes at Big White, which boasts the highest elevation of any ski resort in British Columbia (5,760 feet). Golfing in the Okanagan is good news for duffers and scratch players alike; there are more than 50 courses, from par 3 to 9, 18 and 27-hole courses. The valley is laden with orchards, making it especially appealing in spring when the apple, cherry, peach, pear, and plum trees erupt in full bloom. Mid-summer to fall, pick up heirloom tomatoes, peaches and cherries at roadside stands throughout the valley. In October, celebrate the harvest at the Okanagan Wine Festival with more than 150 wine and food events throughout the valley.
Links:
[1] http://www.wildretreat.com
[2] http://www.rockwatersecretcoveresort.com
[3] http://www.sookeharbourhouse.com