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In last year's Georgia Straight BEST OF awards we took home an editor's pick for "Best Navel Gazing Web Site", and while our non-profit organization that supports our web site (Vancouver Is Awesome, Inc) is focused on celebrating all of the awesome things that make up our city one of those things is it's proximity to other awesome places. In this new series of features entitled Super, Neighbours in British Columbia we'll be taking you on adventures to other BC locales that we think you should check out. |
For part one I'm sharing my favourite things about our room that we stayed in. It was on the third floor (right next to the library, but we'll get to that in a later post) and it looked out onto the forest and the ocean. The Inn is half located on a sortof craggy outcropping into the ocean and half in the forest and the intention was to build around the trees so you really get a feeling of being in the forest... because you are. HERE is a larger version of this image below. I actually had my feet kicked up on the cedar trim of the windows but decided to crop them out so you can enjoy this view.
Of course binoculars are provided so you can get a look at the surf, the wildlife and Sarah Mclachlan's house which is actually just a little further down the beach.
The Inn is one of only 14 Relais & Châteaux properties in Canada and is... well... fancy to say the least. Every year only a select few properties in the world are invited to join Relais & Châteaux and The Wickaninnish Inn is proud to have been called upon for association in 1997, in just its second year of operation. A little more about R&S, in their own words:
Founded in France in 1954, Relais & Châteaux represents the highest benchmark in hotel accommodations and fine dining, with a select group of over 450 privately owned hotels and restaurants worldwide. The concept grew from the vacationing traditions of well-heeled French society, who traveled to a variety of "relais" (lodges) and "châteaux" (castles) which, while different in architecture, scenery and cuisine, presented consistently high standards.
People with high standards like to have other people come in and draw back their sheets and get their bed and their robes ready for them every night while they're having dinner, and that's exactly what we were greeted with! Nice.
To me it's always the small things that catch my eye and while there were a great many comforts that made the room incredible (2 person bathtub/jacuzzi looking out onto that view, a fireplace, complimentary music/movies/beauty products, Helly Hansen raincoats in the closet, locally sourced furniture and artwork), the offering of BC outdoors-related books on the shelf next to the bed was perhaps the thing I most appreciated about our room. We enjoyed the view outside the window between flipping through a few of these on one afternoon, and it really felt like we had "unplugged" as it were.
Come back tomorrow for part two of Super, Neighbours in British Columbia: The Wickaninnish Inn, Tofino.
