These guys and gals have a passion for diving that is absolutely infectious! There is no such…read morething as a bad dive with them, and the scenery is amazing! Robyn Fyfe and Scott are a joy to dive with and know all the great places because it's quite literally their back yard! Ron Nelson in particular is likely the best instructor you can ever hope to have. Sincerely loves diving and has the patience of two or three saints.

I get over to Vancouver Island as often as I can to dive, and Pacific Pro Dive is the shop I go to…read moreevery time. They've got an awesome location, with some of the best boat diving close by. With another boat up and running for marine and eco tours, I find myself over there twice as much now! I've had great sea lion dives, wall dives comparable to Port Hardy, and awesome wreck dives. They're a full service shop with a great atmosphere. Of all the dive stores I've been to, Pacific Pro Dive really knows what they're doing & has the best charters and events!

This was our third wildlife tour in a span of four days so at this point we had become…read morepseudo-experts. What I liked about Adventure Tofino Wildlife Tours is they are the most efficient. It was the shortest tour and within that time we saw harbour seals, a black bear and a raft of sea otters. The tour guide said his boat was the fastest in the fleet so we seemed to get to places quite quickly. The guide warned us we may not see black bears because they hadn't seen many. But then he heard where there was one and after fifteen or so minutes we got to the black bear. And like every tour we were respectfully far away from the black bear. I've attached a photo of the bear and it's at 30x zoom. For the harbor seals we were closer and even closer to the raft of sea otters, which was the highlight of the tour. I know that the black bear is supposed to be the highlight but I would rather see animals closer and it appeared that sea otters were not as skittish. As for equipment, this tour started at the nicest office though you have to pay for parking. The flotation suits looked quite new and very clean. This tour's boat was the most comfortable and easiest for viewing all around. Only one binocular was supplied for the whole tour to share so I was glad we brought our own. The whole tour cost almost $500 CAD. It's questionable whether it was worth it to see a black bear far away for twenty minutes, some harbor seals for a few minutes and a raft of sea otters for fifteen minutes. But I am glad we did it.

I took two tours with this team and was incredibly impressed. Our guides were incredibly…read moreknowledgeable and explained a lot of the environmental issues the island faces in ways that made clear the importance of addressing them, but without it becoming too negative. I would 1000% recommend them

PSA (that did not change my star rating) If you're a Tesla driver thinking of booking here because…read moretesla destination chargers are advertised, be aware that they do not exist as of Labor Day 2023. There is a now a single, high demand, off brand charger here. It works fine but there is much higher charging demand than there are chargers in tofino. So, if you get lucky enough to plug in here please keep an eye on your charging and move your car promptly so everyone can charge up as needed. It looks like there were additional chargers here recently and they were out of order and then removed but the internet hasn't yet caught up. Tofino Resort & Marina has a beautiful website that really sells you on the property. It is not as much a resort as it is a group of three associated businesses. The buildings are exterior entry older construction, which has somewhat been updated. We ended up with a first floor room. It faced the water and sort of had a view from outside. We weren't expecting a view so this was fine. The unit had a separate living and sleeping room, which was nice and gave plenty of room for all our gear. There was even a spot outside to hang your wet gear and plenty of room for shoes and what not. The walls featured beautiful photos and the white on white look was nice. But, overall the rooms were just not very cozy. Tofino is in a level three drought so we skipped showering since we were only there two nights. We did enjoy dinner at shelter both evenings. We didn't get to experience the adventure center because we arrived late on day 1 and their hot springs excursion was booked up the full day we were in town. They do have a variety of interesting looking excursions though! We liked that the location was walkable to town. We also walked down to Tofino brewing one afternoon. It would be awesome if they added a rental bike fleet to their offerings so you could just park your car and easily get around to the further flung places. I would maybe stay here again as I thought the price was resonable-ish for the area. The hotel itself felt very mid-- not great, not bad.

We stayed here for 2 nights and did the remote kayaking trip through the Adventure Centre. The room…read morewas super clean and had everything we needed. There's a little deck area in front with two chairs if you want to hang out. I like the nice design touches on the furniture/hooks, it all felt very fresh and modern. The kayak tour was great too, esp since we could just walk across to the marina. As hotel guests, you get 10% off. Our guides were Johanna and Kali, who were both great. They gave great recs, we're knowledgable, and made sure we were all safe. I'm glad we could explore more protected water rather than fight the open sea winds. Overall would recommend this hotel and the kayaking tour! I only wish we could've stayed longer!

Nice easy hike that is safe for dogs. However, this hike does have some rocky sections. There's…read morelots of wide open spaces, bodies of water, and some wild life.

Beautiful waters here! Short hike, easy access, be prepared to swim…read more PARKING It's a small parking lot, maybe 10 spots, with overflow on the road around it. I've been here in the afternoon on a weekday in July and midday in a weekday in August. Both times we were lucky and one spot was open. Generally there's turnover since it's a short hike and you can get a spot. AMENITIES There is a bathroom at the trailhead, no water. There are tons of educational signage about the wildlife and plants in the area. DIFFICULTY & TIME Short hike, very little elevation change. You can get to the actual Smuggler Cove in about 30-40 minutes with a 4 and a 6 year old in tow (this is right before the loop starts). I've done the entire full lollipop loop in exactly one hour with only adults. SHADE The hike is 95% shaded. RECEPTION I had 5G reception for most of the hike (T-mobile). CROWDS It was busy but not too crowded both times I went. It was more empty when I went in the afternoon (July 2023). There were many more swimmers during my midday visit in August 2024, but still easy to get your own little private small cove to swim in. SWIMMING In August, we went swimming in the cove. It's not tropical, but it's not nearly as cold as other parts of the ocean. Lots of people were swimming, and a lot of people brought inflatable stand up paddleboards or kayaks.

We did the hot springs tour with Captain Alastair. We had the chance to book a slightly cheaper…read moretour with our hotel, but I'm so glad we stuck with the Whale Centre bc of Captain Alastair. He was exactly who I imagine a wise grey-haired sea captain to be. He started the tour by acknowledging that we're in the unceded lands of First Nation tribes and shared many stories about the islands and animals we saw. He also knew that there were swells and took us on a slightly longer route that kept us out of super bumpy water. We heard later that the other boats took the typical route and a ton of ppl got seasick, while we were all fine. We saw otters, seas, hawks, and Captain Alastair even took "a diversion" to make sure we got to see a grey whale. We were also in a "cabin cruiser" which was covered and made it a very comfortable ride. I also appreciated their grey life buoy vests which were less obstructive/bulky than the usual life vests. The hot springs were as we expected based on reading reviews. Cramped but still so cool being in a natural hot spring. We enjoyed the long walking there and back too (prepare for a lot of up and down)! It was a great experience overall and I highly recommend the Whale Centre if you can get captain Alastair!

Manuel was our guide and was a wealth of local and sea life knowledge. We really enjoyed the biat…read moreride, walk and springs. Although, the hot springs were smaller than expected, but overall a great experience!