Wickaninnish Inn

Opened in 1996 by the McDiarmid family, the Wickaninnish Inn set The Pointe Restaurant going on its first night with double the meals it had planned for. That early scramble, told and retold by staff, became part of the inn's own lore, later collected in a 290-page cookbook tracing its kitchen's history. The inn sits on a rocky point at the north end of Chesterman Beach, on the Esowista Peninsula a short drive south of Tofino. Rooms and suites are split between the Pointe Building and the Beach Building, each with flat-screen televisions, Bluetooth speakers, and bathrobes as standard. The Beach Building holds the Beachcomber, Frank Island, and Chesterman Loft suites, along with the two-storey Canopy Suite. Dr. Howard McDiarmid, father of current managing director Charles McDiarmid, helped push for the creation of Pacific Rim National Park Reserve in 1971, after unregulated camping threatened the coastline nearby. That park, spanning 511 sq km within the Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, now borders the inn's own stretch of shore. Guests can walk its trails or watch storms roll in over Long Beach from the inn's own terraces. Ancient Cedars Spa occupies the ocean level of the Pointe Building, with a treatment room set on rocks above the water. The Pointe Restaurant still runs on the same local-sourcing principle that opened it, now under executive chef Warren Barr.