Tofino Long Beach
Tofino Long Beach
Approximately one million tourists a year come to visit the Tofino Long Beach and the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. Miles of pristine beaches within Pacific Rim Park, just south of Tofino, provide hours of tranquility and beach-combing for sea creatures and treasures washed up on shore. The beaches’ consistent surf and exposure to the open Pacific Ocean, established this area as one of the most popular surfing locations in British Columbia.
Location: Long Beach (which is really a series of beaches) is located between the villages of Ucluelet and Tofino. The Long Beach portion of the Pacific Rim National Park is the most accessible and most developed component of the Pacific Rim National Park. Long Beach, covers over 13,500 hectres of coastal temperate rainforest. Long Beach is a rare Canadian natural treasure – it has a diversed eco-system along its coastline and the rugged, pristine wilderness forest inland. The wave-washed sandy beaches of Long Beach are popular with tourists.
Photo used under Creative Commons from synthia_c
Long Beach stretches for more than 10 kilometres of coastline, and it is made up of a number of beaches; Schooner Cove and Long Beach proper in the north, Green Point and Combers Beach in the middle and Wickanninnish Beach in the south. The long rolling waves of Long Beach make surfing a favourite past time for beginners and the most experienced. In winter, powerful winds stirred up huge storm waves produces the best peeling surf of long, rolling waves for surfing.
Long Beach boasts the only Surf Camp of its kind in Canada, providing popular adult camps, youth camps, and daily surfing lessons. The camps provide an intense coaching on surfing techniques and cater to surfers at different skill levels. A major and important part of the coaching is on local surf and tide conditions along the coast.
Surf Sister Surf School in Tofino is the only all female surfing school in Canada, recognized and accredited by the NSSIA (National Surf Schools and Instructors Association).
Long Beach – a tourist destination
There are a full range of accommodations from world-class oceanfront resorts, hotels, motels and lodges, bed and breakfast homes to hostels and camp sites for the budget visitors. The fine dining facilities in the area include many excellent restaurants, and there are many pubs and cafes catering to the more casual holiday makers.
You can also enjoy browsing in the town center of Tofino, where local stores and gift shops feature local arts and crafts. The area is also renown for sea kayaking, whale watching as Pacific Gray Whales pass through the area in the spring and fall, excellent fishing and hiking trails. Some of the trails cut through wild and remote temperate rainforests, along cliffs, beaches and sandstone ledges, and some trails involve climbing up or down hills and spanning rivers and streams.
