Vancouver Bed And Breakfasts

Vancouver Island escape, Tiny Sooke offers much more than famed Harbour House

SOOKE, British Columbia —

If you’ve never heard of this small town on Canada’s Vancouver Island, don’t feel bad. You’re not alone.

But if you do manage to find your way to Sooke (the name rhymes with “Duke”), you may find yourself wanting to come back — again and again.

During a recent visit to British Columbia’s capital city of Victoria, I took advantage of the opportunity to detour 37 kilometers (23 miles) and a 40-minute drive southwest to Sooke for two nights.

Specifically, I went to visit Sooke Harbour House, a small European-style inn with a seamless reputation.

Sinclair and Frederique Philip’s European-style hotel-restaurant was on the cutting edge of farm-to-fork cuisine before that term had even been coined. Way back in 1979, they bought a quiet country inn with five shared-bath guest rooms and a small dining room. At the same time, they planted a garden to grow their own vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers. They even added a seaweed garden to nourish the bounty of the adjacent Strait of Juan de Fuca.

In less than a decade, Sooke Harbour House became the poster child for what Canadians call West Coast cuisine, much as residents of Oregon and Washington like to brag about Pacific Northwest cuisine. Twenty-five years ago, a restaurant that served its home-grown produce, purchasing meat and seafood only from nearby farmers and fishermen, was a novelty.

As the Philips’ fame grew internationally, they gradually expanded their hotel. Today, Sooke Harbour House has 28 spacious guest rooms, all of them with fireplaces and bathtubs for two, most with a wonderful view across the strait to Washington’s Olympic Mountains.

But in this isolated location, I found more than a stunning place to sleep and eat. I found a lovely beach with a long, park-like spit separating a serene harbor from rocky, wave-washed seabird rookeries. I found dense, old-growth rainforests that shroud myriad hiking trails, a river famous for its swimming holes, and a zip-lining adventure. I found a quiet highway that runs past small wineries and farms, one of them producing the ancient beverage mead with its own bees.

And I learned about the oldest independent settlement in British Columbia, a town of about 10,000 with a proud history of native villages and English homesteads. Named for the indigenous T’Sou-ke tribe of First Nations people (the preferred term for native Canadians), Sooke has a burgeoning arts-and-crafts community and a bustling economy tied, in part, to such recreational pursuits as fishing, whale watching, kayaking and bicycling.

Chesterman Beach Bed and Breakfast Tofino BC on - Vancouver Island ...

Chesterman Beach Bed and Breakfast is one of the finer accommodations in Tofino. There are two suites and one cottage on the property for rent. The buildings are constructed out of cedar which has been naturally maintained giving the property a rustic appearance. After our stay, we coined the phrase rustic elegance to aptly describe the accommodations. The accommodations are filled with wood floors and features adding much warmth to the feel. All the amenities you will ever need are there. Todd and Linda re-wrote the book on customer service and provide an exceptional stay. The breakfast are first class as is everything at this B&B. They go the extra mile to make sure your stay is the best it can be. All of the art on the walls is Todd's photography nicely presented as Canvas Giclees. The best part is that you are steps from the beach which is phenomenal.

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