mommabuck

Need Hotel suggestions and places to stop along the way.
Leaving Victoria on August 27, have reservations at Best Western Resort in Tofino on August 29.
Couldn't get hotel reservations--waited too long. Any good B and B's to recommend?
Any thoughts on interesting stops along the way.
Will be needing to Ferry back to Anacortes
can we catch one at Nanaimo Or is there one closer to Tofino?
Thank you very much.,
Marjorie

Cruiseryyc

Qualicum Beach area would be a good stopping off point there are lots of hotels, motels, B&B's there (type Qualicum in your search engine) But just wondering why you're taking two days to get from Victoria to Tofino? It's only about a five hour drive. An interesting place to stop for lunch and a wander around is Chemainus which is about 1.5 hours north of Victoria.

NWWanderer

What day will you be coming back to Washington? I ask because normally the best route to take back to the Seattle area is to take the ferry from Nanaimo to Tsawwassen (it saves a couple hours of driving) and then cross the border into the US. But if you're coming back on Labor Day weekend then the wait at the border could be quite long and you might be better off doing the ferry from Sidney to Anacortes, even though it's more travel time.

mommabuck

Thank you for the prompt replies. We will leave Tofino on Aug 31-- which I guess is Labor Day weekend. If we got there early would it help the lines? Question I have is how to get from Tsawassessen to Anacortes? Is there another Ferry or does one drive it? Another question: Anyone heard of Solwood Healing Arts Retreat? They were the only place with rooms avail on the 29 and 30 so far. Is it seedy? The deluxe room is 205 per night.

Thanks for your advice, folks.
Marjorie

NWWanderer

Well, you can't get to the border early since it'll take you 5 plus hours from Tofino to Tsawwassen, unless you want to leave at 5 AM or something. So you'll just have to suck it up and wait at the border (it could easily be an hour or more), or plan on taking the other ferry from Sidney to Anacortes. Either way, definitely make a reservation for the ferry you plan on taking.

If you go to Tsawwassen, you just drive to Anacortes--it's about a 1.5 hour trip not including the border waiting time.

I doubt very much any place in Tofino would be "seedy" but I'm not familiar with Solwood.

mommabuck

Thanks. I'm a little confused tho-- I thought it was a shorter ride to Nanaimo, like about 3 hours from Tofino-- my thought was to follow your earlier advice and take the Ferry from Nanaimo to Tsawwassen-- THEN drive to Anacortes.
Does that make sense??
Thanks.
Marjorie

Cruiseryyc

Well you can take the ferry from Nanaimo, but I highly suggest you make a reservation on the ferry. Secondly, it's a two hour crossing fron Nanaimo to Tswassen, so you're still looking at 5+ hours to get there.

NWWanderer

Exactly--like the previous poster said, it's a 3 hour drive then a 2 hour ferry ride, and then another half hour to the border or so, so you won't be at the border until at LEAST 5.5 hours after you leave Tofino, probably closer to 6 or 6.5.