Please comment revised Vancouver Coast itinerary
 

Following advice I have revised my itinerary which now looks like this. I have checked driving times and they seem ok. Just a little worried about the ferries.
Does this look like a good feasible itinerary? (we like moving around a lot and changing hotels)Are Parksville and Sechelt good places for stopovers?
Thanks!!
Day 1-5
Vancouver
Day 6
Drive to victoria 2 nights
Day 8
Victoria to parksville 1 night
Day 9
Parksville to campbell river 1 night
Day 10-11-12
Knight Inlet 3 nights
Day 13
Campbell river to Comox, ferry to – saltery bay - ferry to earl’s cove to Sechelt 1 night
Day 14
Sechelt to whistler 3 nights
(via Langdale ferry to Horse Shoe bay)
Day 17
Whistler to Vancouver 1 night

It looks like it could work. However, I just think it would be a shame to come to this part of the world with that much time, and not see Tofino.

So, I would take a night away from Vancouver and one either from Victoria or Whistler, and not stay in Parksville for that 1 night, and spend 3 nights over there in between Victoria and Campbell River (it's about a 5 hour drive from Victoria to Tofino, and about 3, maybe 4 hours from Tofino to Campbell River so a Parksville stopover really isn't necessary). I do think that if you're going to go, you should go for at least 3 nights (2 full days) to make it worthwhile.

As for where to stop on the Sunshine coast, I think the Ruby Lake cottages are very cute for a one night stay. That's a little north of Sechelt but anywhere on that lower peninsula will be ok to break up the trip to Whistler the next day, I think (it's just not that far from one end to the other). I've also stayed at Lord Jim's but it's been years--not sure if that's even still around--ah, I just googled it and it's now called the Rockwater Secret Cove Resort.

I was under the impression that if we drove to Tofino we would have to drive back the same way. Am I wrong? is it a scenic drive?
The reason we thought of stopping in Parksville was because we wanted to do a full day of winery visits from Victoria to Nanaimo.
Thanks for accommodation suggestions. Will look them up.

You need more than a day if you want to drive to Tofino. It is doable but you wouldn't have a chance to see anything. You can drive directly from Victoria to Tofino - spend a night or two there and then on up to Campbell River. If you have to take a day off one of the locations I would cut Whistler to two nights.

Yes, you do have to backtrack over the mountains (Rt. 4) to get to and from Tofino, but it's a gorgeous drive (although very twisty and turny for part of it). Tofino is well worth it, IMO.