Wickaninnish Inn

"Tofino is like the Pacific Northwest’s older teenage cousin—loud, a little dangerous and always up for an adventure. The rugged cliffs and dense forests of Oregon and Washington to the south seem almost quaint compared to those of this remote district on Vancouver Island, off Canada’s west coast, where storm watching is a sport and cedars live to be 1,000 years old. In 1996, a decade before the area became a destination for outdoorsy professionals in Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vans—the former fishing town’s popularity has risen in direct proportion to improved wetsuit technology—the Wick opened its hand-carved wooden doors overlooking Chesterman Beach. When one of those gales is blowing, it’s tempting to hunker down, pulling up a cloud-like duvet and watching the ocean rage, settling fireside with a bowl of chowder and an inch of Macallan, or sampling regional cooking at the restaurant (excellent, although the beachfront summertime crab cookouts of whole Dungeness and corn-on-the-cob are even better). But that’s missing the point of the place, which is all for getting visitors outdoors, as the hurricane lantern and bright-yellow rain gear in every room attest. The weather changes in a blink, and the last thing guests need to worry about when hiking the Big Tree Trail on nearby Meares Island—or hiding behind a blackberry bush to spy on a black bear foraging for starfish at low tide—is wet socks." - Rebecca Misner