Tofino

A long sweep of sand within Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, strewn with huge drift logs washed down from the forests. Parking at the beach lots requires a national park pass displayed on the windscreen.

The wide beach closest to town, where low water uncovers starfish and anemones in the rock pools. A small islet becomes reachable on foot at low tide but is cut off once the water returns, so read the tide chart before crossing.

A bay where waves roll in evenly enough to host surf contests, with shops by the beach renting boards and wetsuits. The ocean stays chilly in midsummer too, so without a thick wetsuit nobody lasts long.

More than an hour north by boat, then a 2km boardwalk through rainforest, lie natural hot pools in clefts of rock. Many boardwalk planks bear the carved names of visiting boats, so you end up reading as you walk.

Two short boardwalk loops wind through ancient cedar forest inside the national park. The moss reaches its deepest green on rainy days, and the wet boards turn slippery, so hold the rail on the stairs.

A path along the coastal cliffs of Ucluelet to the south, starting from the Amphitrite Point lighthouse. In storms the spray flies up over the clifftops, and trailside signs warn walkers off the seaward rocks.

About 10 minutes across the harbour by water taxi stands an old growth forest of red cedars over a millennium old. In 1984 residents and First Nations held the island against logging, and past the first boardwalk stretch the path is muddy enough to need boots.

In March and April tens of thousands of gray whales pass this coast on the way from Mexico to Alaska. Some stay all summer to feed, so from a small inflatable the whales surface right beside the boat.

From a boat you watch black bears come down to the exposed shore, turning over rocks to eat the crabs beneath. The bears only work the shoreline at low tide, so departure times shift every day with the tides.

A gallery for the prints of the Indigenous artist Roy Henry Vickers, housed in a red cedar longhouse. It stands on Campbell Street, the main street through town, and each print hangs beside a written account of the story behind it.

A small sandy beach within walking distance of town, reached down a forest path and wooden stairs. It faces west toward the sunset between rocky islets, so people gather here at dusk.

12 acres of forest and gardens on Clayoquot Sound, known as the Tofino Botanical Gardens before the name changed. The mossy trails come out where the forest meets the mudflats.

A small aquarium in Ucluelet, the harbour town south of Tofino, that displays creatures caught in nearby waters and returns them to the sea when the season ends. The low tanks let children reach in, with guides explaining alongside.

From the north end of Pacific Rim National Park, about 1km of boardwalk and stairs through the rainforest leads to the beach at Long Beach's far northern end. On the ebb, sand surfaces between the beach and the offshore rock islets.

From November to February, Pacific storms roll in and send huge waves crashing on the rocks, and visitors come to watch. Most beachfront lodgings drop their rates then; logs tossed by big surf can roll and injure, so watch from well back.