Latest / Phil and H Travel - Is It Worth It? Top Travel Destinations Explored! / Ucluelet's Beautiful Misery: Why You WANT The Rain

Transcript

Ucluelet's Beautiful Misery: Why You WANT The Rain · Phil and H Travel - Is It Worth It? Top Travel Destinations Explored!

• 0:00
  OK, so if you're listening to this in your car right now,
• 0:03
  maybe on Vancouver Island, maybe you're even waiting for a ferry
• 0:07
  and you're thinking you're heading to ukulele for a, you
• 0:10
  know, a cheaper, quieter Tofino with those sunny California surf
• 0:14
  fives you saw on Instagram. Just park the car, turn off the
• 0:19
  engine and listen because you are making a huge mistake if you
• 0:23
  don't change your expectations right now.
• 0:25
  That's a that's a pretty strong way to kick things off.
• 0:28
  It has to be the necessary start, yeah, because Euclulit,
• 0:31
  or U Quay, as everyone calls it, is not a resort town.
• 0:35
  Not at all. It's a working harbor.
• 0:37
  It's an industrial outpost built by logging and fishing.
• 0:40
  And it is literally at the end of a dead end road on the edge
• 0:44
  of the continent. And you have to understand that
• 0:46
  raw, rugged, sometimes kind of hostile reality upfront.
• 0:49
  If you go there looking for like, polished luxury, you're
• 0:52
  just going to be frustrated. And that reality that that
• 0:54
  feeling of being on the actual frontier, that's exactly what
• 0:57
  makes the place so magical. I mean, we're talking about the
• 0:59
  Pacific Rim here. This is a landscape that's all
• 1:02
  about ancient cedar forests, these jagged black rocks and
• 1:06
  massive waves that could, you know, snap a fishing boat in
• 1:09
  half. It gives you this profound,
• 1:11
  almost spiritual feeling that civilization has just stopped.
• 1:16
  Yeah, it just ends there. So today we're doing a deep dive
• 1:18
  into you cluelit British Columbia, and our mention is
• 1:22
  simple, really. It's to give you the operational
• 1:24
  reality check you need to plan a trip there.
• 1:27
  We want to cut through every single Instagram filter, every
• 1:30
  glossy tourist brochure, to get to what this trip is actually
• 1:33
  like, from how hard it is to get there to how shockingly
• 1:36
  expensive it is to stay. There, let's just lay out some
• 1:39
  of those harsh realities right now before we even get going.
• 1:42
  Three things that really surprise people.
• 1:43
  One forget swimming in the ocean.
• 1:46
  Oh yeah, big one. The water temperature, even in
• 1:49
  the middle of summer it barely gets above 55°F.
• 1:52
  You just can't swim in it unless you have a 5 mil wet suit or
• 1:55
  thicker. You get hypothermia.
• 1:56
  It's it's literally a death wish.
• 1:58
  It is. Yeah, 2 When you're hungry after
• 2:01
  a long day hiking, the best food you're going to find it's not in
• 2:04
  some fancy restaurant with white tablecloths.
• 2:07
  No. It is almost certainly from a
• 2:09
  food truck, probably jiggers, which might not even be open
• 2:13
  when you get there. They're seasonal or they just
• 2:15
  close when they run out of fish for the day.
• 2:17
  You have to plan your dinner like you plan your ferry ticket.
• 2:19
  And three, the rain, you mentioned it, but we have to
• 2:24
  talk about how much rain we're talking about.
• 2:26
  It gets 3.3 meters. That's over 10 feet of rain
• 2:30
  every single year. 10 feet. And this is not, you know, a
• 2:35
  light, pleasant sprinkle. We're talking about Gale force
• 2:38
  storms that create what the locals call horizontal water.
• 2:42
  It's rain that's so windy, just gets into everything, every
• 2:45
  zipper, every seam of your waterproof jacket.
• 2:47
  This is not a casual beach vacation.
• 2:49
  But here's the thing, and this is the key to the whole eucalypt
• 2:52
  mood. This is what makes The Division
• 2:53
  a great trip and a terrible 1. You want the rain, you do.
• 2:56
  You want the storms? That's when the place really
• 2:58
  comes alive. Whole landscape just transforms.
• 3:01
  It forces you to put your phone away, forget your schedule, and
• 3:04
  just be there in the face of all that raw power.
• 3:06
  Exactly. It's a different kind of travel.
• 3:08
  The weather isn't something you're trying to avoid, it's the
• 3:11
  main attraction. It kind of sorts the tourists
• 3:13
  from the adventurers. OK, so here's my bold claim for
• 3:16
  this deep dive based on the numbers.
• 3:19
  Unless you're a really high earner or you're OK sleeping in
• 3:23
  a damp expensive car, this place is fast becoming financially
• 3:28
  impossible for the average person.
• 3:30
  I'm saying the Tofino tax, that crazy premium you pay for
• 3:33
  everything in Tofino, has officially migrated S to uclue
• 3:36
  it. And my bold claim is sort of the
• 3:38
  counter to that. I think the price is justified
• 3:40
  because of the experience you get.
• 3:42
  I believe if you skip Ucluelet and just go to Tofino, you are
• 3:44
  trading Seoul for souvenir shops.
• 3:47
  Ucluelet is the last authentic frontier on Vancouver Island.
• 3:50
  And that authenticity, that rawness, it's worth the premium
• 3:54
  you have to pay to get there. OK, so we've got a lot to get
• 3:57
  through. We're going to lay out exact
• 3:58
  budget ranges. We're going to talk about the
• 4:00
  absolute nightmare of getting ABC Ferry reservation,
• 4:03
  navigating that fragile Hwy. 4. We've got safety briefings,
• 4:06
  bears, wolves, those terrifying sneaker waves, and a final
• 4:10
  verdict matrix for different kinds of travelers.
• 4:12
  Yeah, our mission is to make sure you know exactly what
• 4:15
  you're paying for, why it cost so much, and what gear you
• 4:18
  actually need to bring to survive and, you know, really
• 4:20
  enjoy yourself on the edge of the world.
• 4:22
  All right, let's unpack this. Why?
• 4:23
  Why you cluel it? Why now?
• 4:25
  I mean, the whole reason it's on the radar is because of its
• 4:27
  neighbor, Tefino. That's the whole story right
• 4:30
  there. Tefino is, to put it mildly,
• 4:33
  just bursting at the seams. A lot of locals call it the
• 4:36
  Aspen of Canada now. It's beautiful, it's famous,
• 4:39
  it's very polished, but it is completely saturated.
• 4:42
  You can't find a place to stay, you have to book a year ahead
• 4:45
  for summer, and ukulele historically was just the
• 4:48
  spillover town. Right.
• 4:50
  It was the affordable option. Yeah, the place you stayed when
• 4:52
  you couldn't get a room at the Wiccanish Inn.
• 4:53
  Exactly. You sort of resigned yourself to
• 4:55
  staying in Yuki. But that whole dynamic, you clue
• 4:58
  it being the cheaper choice that has completely fallen apart in
• 5:01
  the last few years. We were looking at the data from
• 5:04
  after the post COVID travel boom and the prices in ukulele have
• 5:09
  basically equalized with Defino. Or even gone higher for basic
• 5:12
  places. Right.
• 5:14
  And that's the core problem for a traveler.
• 5:16
  You're paying these astronomical defino prices.
• 5:19
  But Euclid's infrastructure is still, you know, largely
• 5:23
  industrial and remote. You're paying luxury resort
• 5:26
  rates for a working harbour town.
• 5:27
  And that industrial grit is what makes the culture so different
• 5:31
  between the two towns, even though they're only, what, 30
• 5:33
  minutes apart? Yeah, the short drive.
• 5:35
  Tofino is all surf culture. It's about leisure, aesthetics,
• 5:38
  curated little shops, those long sandy beaches.
• 5:42
  You clue. It is fishing and logging
• 5:45
  culture. It's rugged, it's pragmatic.
• 5:47
  You see a lot more steel toed boots than you see flip flops.
• 5:50
  The geography totally reinforces that.
• 5:53
  I mean, when people see pictures of the Pacific Rim on social
• 5:55
  media, they're seeing those long, wide, sandy beaches.
• 5:57
  Grand Beach, yeah, perfect for learning to surf, for having a
• 6:00
  bonfire. But The thing is, almost all of
• 6:03
  those beaches, Long Beach, Cox Bay, Chesterman, they're
• 6:06
  actually in the National Park and they're closer to Tefino.
• 6:09
  Ukulele itself is on this rough hook shaped peninsula.
• 6:13
  One side is the calm harbor, the inlet, that's where the boats
• 6:16
  are, the fish plants. It's totally protected, but the
• 6:19
  other side, the side with the lighthouse and the trail.
• 6:21
  That's the open Pacific just smashing into these huge jagged
• 6:25
  black rocks. Delentlessly.
• 6:27
  So that's the key thing to understand before you book.
• 6:30
  If you want to walk on soft sand and have sunset fires, you have
• 6:33
  to be ready to drive north into the park every day.
• 6:37
  But if you want those dramatic cliffs, the old growth forest
• 6:40
  meeting the sea, these amazing tidal pools, then Uki is your
• 6:43
  home base. Which brings us right back to
• 6:45
  the weather. The amount of rain.
• 6:47
  It isn't just a fact, it defines the whole atmosphere. 3.3
• 6:50
  meters, 10 feet of rain a year. I mean, for context, that is way
• 6:54
  more than Seattle or London. Or even parts of the Amazon is
• 6:57
  really the wettest places in North America.
• 6:58
  Yeah, and the locals have these great names for it.
• 7:01
  My favorite is Foggerary. Yes, foggery.
• 7:05
  It's perfect because that thick marine layer can just roll in
• 7:08
  and sit there. Even in July or August, you can
• 7:11
  wake up to this dense Gray fog and it might not burn off until
• 7:16
  2:00 in the afternoon. If you're picturing a sunny
• 7:18
  California style vacation, you're just setting yourself up
• 7:21
  for a miserable time. Totally.
• 7:23
  You are going for the moodiness. You're going to be wet, you're
• 7:26
  probably going to be a little cold and you're going to be
• 7:28
  looking at spectacular ancient rain soaked trees and you have
• 7:32
  to embrace that. It sounds so weird, right, to
• 7:35
  pay thousands of dollars to be wet and looking at trees.
• 7:39
  But when you're there, it's it's profound.
• 7:42
  The whole atmosphere, it's this mix of smells, the sharp salt,
• 7:45
  the rotting kelp, and then this clean, almost sweet smell of
• 7:49
  cedar sawdust. It feels ancient.
• 7:50
  I like the landscape, doesn't care about you at all.
• 7:53
  That sense of deep time is what makes the journey so memorable.
• 7:56
  And we should talk about that journey, The hall, to get there.
• 7:58
  It's not easy. No, it's a huge part of the
• 8:00
  story. It's a significant hall.
• 8:02
  Usually it starts with the BC Fairies dance from Vancouver to
• 8:06
  Nanaimo, then once you're off the ferry you still have that
• 8:09
  long winding drive on Hwy. 4. We'll get into the details of
• 8:13
  the ferry traps later, but that final approach when you're
• 8:16
  finally getting close to ukulele, it's a specific
• 8:20
  feeling. It's a huge release of tension.
• 8:22
  You've been winding through these massive mountain passes,
• 8:25
  stuck behind logging trucks, and then you drive past Kennedy
• 8:28
  Lake, which feels like it goes on forever.
• 8:30
  And then you hit that junction fork in the road, right for
• 8:33
  Tofino, left for Ukulet. That left turn is the moment the
• 8:38
  landscape immediately gets Wilder.
• 8:40
  The trees are more gnarled and windswept.
• 8:43
  You can see they've been battered by storms for
• 8:45
  centuries. I was really struck last time by
• 8:47
  all the construction everywhere, new condos, subdivisions being
• 8:51
  carved right out of the forest. It feels like a town caught in
• 8:54
  this battle between its gritty past and its luxury future.
• 8:58
  You see it in the traffic on Peninsula Rd., the main drag.
• 9:01
  You've got these rusted out pickup trucks from the fishing
• 9:04
  crews next to $100,000 Sprinter van with solar panels.
• 9:08
  It's a real mix. But then you see the real locals
• 9:10
  and it puts it all in perspective.
• 9:12
  The deer. The deer, we saw three of them
• 9:15
  just walking down the Main Street, not caring about traffic
• 9:18
  at all, just treating the road like it's their backyard.
• 9:21
  I love that seeing a super expensive van have to stop for a
• 9:25
  deer that just couldn't care less.
• 9:26
  It's perfect. It shows Eucalypt refuses to be
• 9:29
  fully tamed. OK, so the layout of the town.
• 9:32
  This is important. It's not a cute, walkable little
• 9:36
  grid. No, not at all.
• 9:37
  It's a long strip. You need a car.
• 9:39
  You absolutely need a car to get from your hotel to the trails to
• 9:43
  the Co-op grocery store. Unless you're staying right in
• 9:46
  that little downtown harbor area.
• 9:47
  And the main orientation point, the spiritual center of the
• 9:50
  whole Yuki experience, is the Amphitrate Point Lighthouse.
• 9:53
  You have to go there. It's the postcard shot, and it's
• 9:56
  the gateway to the wild Pacific Trail.
• 9:58
  The thing that always gets me when I go out there is the
• 10:00
  sound. Just the sound.
• 10:03
  The ocean is deafening. It's hitting the shore with this
• 10:06
  relentless force and you can feel it in your.
• 10:09
  Chest and the lighthouse itself says everything about the town.
• 10:12
  It's not tall and elegant. It's the squat, sturdy little
• 10:15
  building. It was built for one reason, to
• 10:17
  survive. Built to survive.
• 10:18
  That's the perfect motto for the whole town.
• 10:21
  And the feeling you get out there is just isolation to Fino
• 10:25
  is a party, you Cluelette is an outpost, and when the power goes
• 10:30
  out, which it does in the winter, you really feel how far
• 10:33
  away you are from everything. OK, let's get into the hard
• 10:36
  part, The money, the financial frontier.
• 10:39
  This is where my Tofino tax claim really becomes clear.
• 10:42
  Everything is expensive because everything has to be trucked in
• 10:45
  on that one Rd. Everything.
• 10:47
  We're talking Western Europe prices for a remote Canadian
• 10:50
  fishing village. So we need to break this down.
• 10:52
  A standard 4 day three night trip accommodation is the big
• 10:56
  one. It's the budget killer.
• 10:57
  It's a low budget. Your best bet is the Greenpoint
• 11:00
  Campground in the National Park. Yeah, it's what, 3540 bucks a
• 11:03
  night? Something like that.
• 11:05
  But, and this is a huge but, you have to book at the second the
• 11:08
  reservation. My window opens months ahead of
• 11:10
  time or you will not get a spot in the summer.
• 11:13
  It's gone instantly. And if you need a roof like a
• 11:16
  hostel or a motel, you're struggling to find anything
• 11:19
  under 180 Canadian dollars a night in peak season, and
• 11:24
  they're usually pretty dated. The floor price is high.
• 11:26
  OK, so mid range, this is where most people land.
• 11:29
  You're looking at 300 to $450 a night Canadian.
• 11:33
  Yeah, that gets you a standard room at a place like the
• 11:35
  Canadian Princess or a basic Airbnb cabin in the woods.
• 11:38
  And then you've got the high end, the BlackRock Oceanfront
• 11:41
  Resort. That's the big one.
• 11:42
  You're looking at 600 to over $1000 a night. $1000 yeah.
• 11:46
  So we have to ask, is it worth it?
• 11:48
  Is BlackRock at maybe 800 bucks a night worth that kind of
• 11:52
  money? We stayed there to find out and
• 11:55
  it's complicated. The views are insane.
• 11:58
  I mean truly insane. Floor to ceiling windows right
• 12:01
  over the crashing waves. You are paying for a world class
• 12:05
  view, but the furniture, the amenities in the suite, you're
• 12:09
  starting to look a little dated. You're paying for the location
• 12:12
  for that access to the view, not for, you know, luxury sheets.
• 12:17
  And that's the theme of the whole trip, isn't it?
• 12:19
  Paying for access to nature, not for luxury amenities.
• 12:23
  Now food. Food costs a lot more so budget
• 12:26
  options. Jiggers, fish and chips.
• 12:28
  It's legendary and it's great, but a two piece cod and chips is
• 12:32
  still going to run you 1820 bucks.
• 12:34
  Right. And your other option is the
• 12:36
  Co-op grocery store? And this is a huge warning.
• 12:38
  Co-op prices are about 30% higher than on the mainland.
• 12:42
  A bag of chips is $7.00. 7 bucks for chips.
• 12:46
  Yeah, the smart move is to stock up on basics in Nanaimo before
• 12:49
  you drive out. For mid range dining you're
• 12:51
  looking at pub food place like Howlers or the Float House.
• 12:55
  A burger and a beer is going to be $4045 a person with a tip.
• 12:59
  Easy. It's good Hardy food but the
• 13:00
  prices reflect the location. And then there's the high end.
• 13:04
  Pluvio. Pluvio is it's absolutely a
• 13:06
  Michelin level spot. It's incredible.
• 13:08
  If you do the tasting menu with the wine pairings, which focuses
• 13:10
  on foraged local ingredients, you're looking at $200 plus per
• 13:15
  person. But that's one of those
• 13:16
  experiences that kind of justifies the cost, right?
• 13:19
  It delivers something truly world class.
• 13:21
  It really does. Now activities.
• 13:23
  The good news is the main activity, hiking the wild
• 13:26
  Pacific Trail is free. That's a big one.
• 13:28
  But if you want to get on the water, you have to pay whale
• 13:31
  watching or bear watching tours. You're looking at 140 to $160 a
• 13:37
  person. Kayaking maybe 90 to 120 for
• 13:41
  half day and surfing lessons with a rental that's going to be
• 13:45
  over 100 bucks. Because you need the thick wet
• 13:47
  suit and all the. Gear.
• 13:48
  So let's sum it up. Daily budget.
• 13:50
  What's the bottom line? The backpacker camper.
• 13:52
  If you got a campsite and you're splitting gas, you still need a
• 13:55
  minimum of 120 Canadian dollars a day just for food and basics.
• 13:59
  The mid range couple if you want a comfortable room, dinner out,
• 14:02
  a few activities, you are looking at 600 to $700.00 a day.
• 14:06
  A day. Wait, hold on $700.00 a day for
• 14:08
  a mid range trip to a working harbor town?
• 14:11
  That's luxury city money in other parts of the world.
• 14:14
  Where is all that money going? That's the reality of the
• 14:17
  Canadian frontier. It's the cost of logistics, it's
• 14:20
  the high wages to get staffed to live there, and it's scarcity.
• 14:23
  There are only a handful of hotels and restaurants for a
• 14:25
  huge number of tourists. You're paying a premium for the
• 14:29
  isolation itself. A scarcity tax?
• 14:31
  Exactly. And finally, the luxury
• 14:34
  traveler. Staying at BlackRock Private
• 14:37
  Tours, you're easily spending over $1500 a day.
• 14:41
  So the conclusion on value is simple.
• 14:43
  Yeah, you are paying for access to wild nature.
• 14:46
  If you're not going to hike for hours in the rain or stare at
• 14:49
  the ocean, it is not worth the money.
• 14:50
  Absolutely. You have to use the landscape.
• 14:52
  Which brings us to logistics. Because if you don't plan this
• 14:55
  trip meticulously, you might not even get there.
• 14:57
  This is the logistics combo trap #1 the fairy choke point.
• 15:02
  BC Ferries. The trap is thinking you can
• 15:04
  just show up on a summer Friday with your car.
• 15:06
  Don't do it. The wait times can be 6 to 9
• 15:08
  hours. You could miss the last boat.
• 15:10
  The fix is non negotiable. You have to book a reservation
• 15:13
  two to three months in advance for a summer weekend and if you
• 15:16
  miss your check in window your reservation is gone.
• 15:18
  You go to the back of the line. Trap #2 The highway Hwy. 4 is
• 15:22
  the only Rd. in and out. The only one.
• 15:25
  And while the big construction project is mostly done, the road
• 15:28
  is still fragile. A single accident, a rot slide,
• 15:32
  a forest fire. It can shut the road down for
• 15:35
  hours or days. So fix is crucial.
• 15:39
  Buffer time. Do not book a flight out of
• 15:42
  Nanaimo or Vancouver on the same day you leave you clewlette.
• 15:45
  If that road closes, you are stuck.
• 15:48
  Trap #3 the gear gap. We see this all the time.
• 15:51
  Tourists show up in like vans and a Jean jacket.
• 15:54
  You will be soaked and freezing in 20 minutes.
• 15:57
  The fix is layers. Synthetic layers.
• 15:59
  No cotton. Cotton gets wet and stays wet
• 16:01
  and makes you cold. You need proper waterproof
• 16:04
  hiking boots, not just water resistant ones.
• 16:06
  And a real rain shell. A good one.
• 16:09
  And a quick note on cell service, it's fine in town but
• 16:11
  10 minutes out towards the park it's a total dead zone.
• 16:13
  Download your maps offline. So when's the best time to go?
• 16:17
  My pragmatic answer is the shoulder season.
• 16:19
  May or October. Prices drop 2530%.
• 16:23
  The crowds are gone. Whether it's a bit of a gamble,
• 16:26
  but you avoid the July and August chaos.
• 16:29
  My experiential answer is winter November to February, storm
• 16:33
  watching season. Oh yeah.
• 16:34
  Lowest prices. Terrifyingly huge waves, Cozy
• 16:37
  fires. The only trade off is you only
• 16:40
  get about 8 hours of daylight, but for raw power it's the best.
• 16:43
  OK, let's talk safety because this is not a theme park.
• 16:46
  It is genuinely wild. Respect for the wilderness is
• 16:49
  number 1. So wildlife, this is black bear
• 16:52
  country. They are everywhere.
• 16:54
  We saw one by the high school. The risks are startling one on a
• 16:57
  trail or leaving food in your car.
• 16:59
  The protocol is firm. Keep 100 meters distance.
• 17:01
  Do not feed them. Carry bear spray if you're
• 17:04
  hiking in the Backcountry and know how to use it.
• 17:06
  And they're wolves and Cougars too.
• 17:08
  Keep small kids close and dogs on a leash, always.
• 17:11
  Wolves have been known to take dogs there.
• 17:13
  Now the biggest killer in the region?
• 17:15
  It's the ocean. The ocean, yeah.
• 17:17
  The main hazard is something called sneaker waves.
• 17:19
  They're terrifying. You're standing on a rock that
• 17:22
  seems perfectly safe. The ocean looks calm and then
• 17:25
  out of nowhere a single massive wave comes in way higher than
• 17:29
  the others and just sweeps people off the rocks.
• 17:32
  And the water is so cold you go into shock instantly.
• 17:35
  The undertow is massive. The.
• 17:36
  Protocol is simple and absolute. Never turn your back on the
• 17:40
  ocean. Ever.
• 17:41
  If the rocks are wet, it means the waves can get there.
• 17:44
  Stay off the wet rocks. And finally, the geological
• 17:46
  hazard ukulele is in the Cascadia subduction zone.
• 17:50
  It's a major earthquake and tsunami risk area.
• 17:53
  And the response time is short. If you feel an earthquake that's
• 17:56
  strong or last more than 15 seconds, you don't wait for a
• 18:00
  siren, You just go to high ground immediately.
• 18:02
  The locals take it very seriously.
• 18:04
  You have to too, follow the tsunami evacuation science.
• 18:07
  On a lighter note, comfort for mobility issues.
• 18:09
  It's surprisingly decent in some spots.
• 18:12
  The lighthouse loop on the Wild Pacific Trail is pretty
• 18:15
  accessible, wide and graveled. But a mental health note, if
• 18:18
  you're prone to seasonal affective disorder, that heavy,
• 18:21
  Gray, rainy canopy for days on end can be really oppressive.
• 18:25
  You have to be ready for that mood.
• 18:26
  And scams. The town's too small for that.
• 18:29
  The only real RIP off is the price of firewood at the gas
• 18:31
  station. Buy it from a local selling
• 18:34
  bundles on the side of the road instead.
• 18:36
  OK, now for the good stuff, the moments of magic that make all
• 18:39
  the cost and planning worth it, contrasted with the practical
• 18:43
  disappointments. You go first, the quiet magic.
• 18:46
  My best moment was out super early, maybe 7:00 AM.
• 18:50
  I was walking the Artist Loops section of the trail.
• 18:53
  The fog was so thick you could almost drink it.
• 18:56
  I just sat on a bench watching the kelp beds heave in the
• 18:59
  swell. No sound but the water.
• 19:01
  And then a bald eagle just flew past, right at eye level, maybe
• 19:04
  20 feet away. And that feeling of being
• 19:07
  completely insignificant, that's the magic for me.
• 19:11
  That's beautiful. My best moment was all about raw
• 19:13
  power. It was on one of those expensive
• 19:15
  Zodiac boat tours out to the Broken Group islands.
• 19:18
  We saw humpback whales, bubble net feeding.
• 19:21
  Oh amazing. Seeing a creature the size of a
• 19:23
  school bus breach. It's overwhelming.
• 19:25
  It made every dollar that tour worth it instantly.
• 19:28
  OK, common disappointments. They almost always come down to
• 19:30
  logistics. For me it was the coffee.
• 19:32
  I love my morning coffee and the places are good, but the lines
• 19:37
  standing in the rain for 45 minutes for a latte because
• 19:40
  they're only like 2 baristas in the whole pound?
• 19:43
  It tests your patience. My disappointment is seeing that
• 19:45
  Tofino surf vibes start to bleed over.
• 19:48
  Oh cool, that was always so unpretentious.
• 19:50
  Now you see these curated shops selling $200 flannel shirts.
• 19:54
  It feels like it's losing some of its grit.
• 19:56
  And my final one is food availability.
• 19:58
  The town shuts down early. We tried to get dinner at 8:30
• 20:01
  on a Tuesday. We got turned away from three
• 20:03
  places. They were closed.
• 20:05
  Or full if you don't have a reservation by 7:00 PM, your
• 20:08
  option become gas station jerky pretty fast.
• 20:10
  So if you Colette sounds like too much or it's booked solid,
• 20:13
  what are the alternatives? Option one, Port Renfrew.
• 20:16
  The vibe there is basically what you Colette was 20 years ago.
• 20:19
  Right, it's got botanical beach with amazing tide pools and
• 20:22
  Avatar Grove with huge trees. But the trade off is even fewer
• 20:26
  amenities like one pub. Option 2 The Oregon Coast,
• 20:31
  Cannon Beach Bands, nita. Similar rugged vibe, sea stacks,
• 20:34
  fog, and for US travelers it's way cheaper and easier to get
• 20:38
  to. The trade off is that it's more
• 20:39
  developed. It feels less like a true wild
• 20:41
  frontier. Or the third option is the
• 20:44
  Pacific Marine Circle Rd. itinerary.
• 20:47
  Vic de Souk, Port Renfrew, Lake Cowichan.
• 20:50
  You have the rainforest and coast experience for less money
• 20:53
  and less driving and you skip the whole ferry and Hwy. 4 choke
• 20:57
  point. Or if you have the time and
• 20:59
  money, do the split trip. Two nights in Tofino for the
• 21:02
  beaches, two nights in Yuki for the trails.
• 21:04
  They're only 30 minutes apart. OK, final verdict matrix.
• 21:08
  Is it worth it? Let's start with the backpacker.
• 21:10
  Hard no. Just no.
• 21:12
  It is hostile to budget travelers.
• 21:14
  Transit doesn't exist. Hostiles are overpriced.
• 21:16
  Just don't go to Southeast Asia. The mid range couple.
• 21:19
  A decisive depth. Yes, this is the sweet spot.
• 21:21
  It's Moody, romantic, great for bonding.
• 21:24
  You just have to accept that 600 to $700.00 a day budget.
• 21:27
  The family trip. Yes, with caveats.
• 21:30
  The aquarium is great, kids love the tide pools, but this is a
• 21:33
  put on muddy boots every morning trip, not a relax by the pool
• 21:36
  trip. If your kids hate walking in the
• 21:39
  rain, don't go. And the luxury traveller A.
• 21:41
  Hard yes. If money is no object, it's
• 21:44
  world class isolation. Private guides.
• 21:47
  BlackRock Suites. You're paying for magnificent
• 21:51
  solitude, and you get it. So our overall final.
• 21:55
  Verdicts you first. For me it's a soft yes.
• 21:58
  It's unique, it's beautiful, the logistics are manageable if you
• 22:01
  plan, but the value for money is dropping fast.
• 22:05
  I'd say go now before it's completely unaffordable.
• 22:08
  For me, it's a hard yes. Despite the cost and the hassle,
• 22:12
  there are very few places left where you can stand on the edge
• 22:14
  of a continent and feel the earth breathing, the rain, the
• 22:17
  fog. It forces you to disconnect in a
• 22:20
  way that's invaluable. So that's our deep dive.
• 22:22
  We've given you the reality of the Pacific Rainforest adventure
• 22:25
  at the cost the gear you need. Final tips Book that ferry, buy
• 22:29
  a good raincoat, watch for bears, and never ever turn your
• 22:32
  back on the ocean. Best time to go, we think is
• 22:34
  September. Crowds are gone, weather is
• 22:36
  still decent. Best place to stay?
• 22:37
  I'd say a cabin on the harbor side.
• 22:39
  You get to watch the boats and the seals.
• 22:41
  It connects each of the soul of the town.
• 22:43
  And here's the final thought. The thing to really chew on the
• 22:45
  clula is caught in this battle between being a working port and
• 22:49
  a high end resort. You see that tension everywhere.
• 22:52
  Development versus tradition. So the question for you is,
• 22:55
  you're planning on spending maybe $700.00 a day to be there.
• 22:59
  Is this how long can a place keep its soul and its
• 23:03
  authenticity when the price of admission makes it exclusive
• 23:06
  only to the wealthy? Yeah.
• 23:08
  That's the real question, the economics of authenticity.
• 23:11
  It's a tough one. Safe travels.