Every generation of sophisticated travelers seeks new destinations, and every generation of enterprising hoteliers wisely seeks to accommodate them. And so Tofino, British Columbia, once a quiet fishing village 180 miles from Victoria, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, has become a lively year-round resort. Its newest fine hotel is Long Beach Lodge Resort.
"This project was a natural for me," says Tim Hackett, the Victoria builder and developer who created the lodge with architect Michael Nixon, of Broadmead Designs. "I've been coming here since the '60s. Back then I slept on the beach. I love the ocean, so when I decided to build my first hotel, I chose an eight-acre beachfront site between Pacific Rim National Park and Clayoquot Sound, with spectacular views of Cox Bay. I wanted the hotel to look as if it had always been here; therefore, its style is Canadian West Coast traditional."
Vancouver Island-based designer Kimberly Williams had done Hackett's residence and had worked on a housing development for him. Together with her colleagues, Elaine Martel and Chantelle Taylor, she was his choice to design the hotel's 43 guest rooms, reception area, dining room, bar and great room. Williams considers the great room, which is 39 feet wide and 66 feet long, the highlight of Long Beach Lodge. Its ocean-to-sky windows bring in the wide-open views. From all parts of the room, guests can look out on surfers gliding toward the beach, admire multicolored sunsets or—during the November-to-March storm-watching season—see and hear the waves of the not-so-pacific Pacific crashing ashore.
Tofino is in one of the most extensive coastal temperate rain forests in the world and is surrounded by coniferous trees—spruce, Sitka spruce, cedar, hemlock and Douglas fir. Douglas fir was used for the oversize doors under the lodge's portico, as well as for the post-and-beam construction of the portico and great room. The great room's huge granite fireplace has a Douglas fir mantel. A particularly handsome woven wall, also made of Douglas fir, stands between the restaurant and the bar.
"We needed something to separate those two rooms, and I first proposed etched glass," Williams says. "But Tim told me he didn't want a trendy glass-and-brass look for the hotel, so we went with wood and wrought iron. The hardware on the front doors is wrought iron, shaped like branches, as are the saddle brackets supporting the beams and the chandelier that hangs from the great room's ceiling. The great room is painted a sage green. I pulled the color from the outside in to reflect the surroundings."
The furniture is large-scale, with simple legs, straight lines and sturdy fabrics that can withstand the wear and tear of sand and surf. "There are eight clusters of furniture where guests may choose to chat, read or play cards and board games," Williams says. "Oriental and tribal area rugs add warmth and texture to the room. I've used leather and rattan chairs and durable chenille-covered pieces and stain-resistant fabrics on the upholstered chairs in the restaurant and bar and in the rooms on the first floor that welcome cats and dogs."
The oceanfront dining room is furnished with chairs and tables custom-designed by Kimberly Williams Interiors.
The chairs' backs have a wave design. "The theme is repeated throughout the hotel, to mirror the ocean's waves," Williams says. "The hand-forged wrought iron sconces in the dining room are wavy, and so are the stained maple chairs in the bar."
The art in the hotel is local. An oil painting by Mark Hobson, a Tofino artist, hangs above the fireplace in the great room, and a raven mask, carved in cedar by Chief Bill George, a member of the nearby Ahousat tribe, occupies a high spot on a post. The bird, which has a fanciful bark mane, appears to be surveying the room with amused eyes and an open beak. The lodge's chef takes pride in serving seafood from nearby waters—Dungeness crab, wild salmon, halibut—and free-range organic poultry raised in Vancouver Island's Cowichan Valley, together with pinot blancs and merlots from the island's Okanagan wine country.
The guest rooms, like the public spaces, have been designed for comfort in tones of the earth and surrounding salal. A suite has a king-size four-poster bed made with edge-grain fir and accents of gumwood, a tumbled-slate fireplace and a chaise longue. Oceanfront rooms have private balconies with custom cedar deck furniture. Some rooms offer whirlpool tubs, others soaker tubs; all rooms have separate showers, high-thread-count Egyptian cotton sheets and duvet covers, and duvets filled with a nonallergenic alternative to down.
Guests at Long Beach Lodge Resort may walk, bicycle, drive or be driven five miles into Tofino for lunch (it has a variety of restaurants) or to shop (for First Nation handicrafts and a-cut-above-average souvenirs). Tofino has three surfing schools, and its docks serve as launching points for numerous sports and expeditions: kayaking, bear-watching, bird-watching and whale-watching. Resident pods of whales are frequently sighted, as are seals and sea lions, haughty bald eagles and comical-looking tufted puffins. The lodge places books on western birds and on the plants of coastal British Columbia in each room, along with rain gear.
Tim Hackett has just built a dozen two-bedroom, two-bath cottages with complete kitchens and private hot tubs near the lodge. "As children, we went to cottages, and there's something romantic about returning to cottages," he says. "In mid-December I'm planning to put a fresh tree with Christmas lights in each cottage. Guests will bring their own ornaments, but each year we'll have a local artist design an ornament. Those who return will someday have a nice collection and, I hope, nice memories."
