Your Wellbeing Gift Guide
Duffin Cove
Jordyn Giesbrecht | Hideaway Creative
December's long nights are the perfect time to reminisce and invite some rest into our routines.
The stormy coast is the ideal backdrop for a cozy stay and to retreat into grounding wellness practices - whatever that may look like to you. Give the gift of relaxation to a loved one or add a little bit of Tofino to your daily practice at home with items like candles, teas, or care products made here on the West Coast.
The Gift of Rest
Picture yourself waking up to windswept beaches during storm season, meandering along trails under old growth forest canopies, or indulging in West Coast cuisine. This might just sound like your ideal vacation for disconnecting from your daily life and reconnecting to yourself and nature. This also makes an ideal gift for someone with a busy lifestyle - take some of the planning off a loved one's plate with a gift card for a stay in Tofino.
Do they already have a trip planned? Maybe a gift card to their favourite restaurant, shop, or experience is the way to go. You could also share a favourite spot of your own that you think they should try. Want to add a thoughtful touch? Whether their first trip or seventh, make them an itinerary of some of your must-dos while in Tofino and share your memories of those experiences. It both helps them plan and is a beautiful way to connect.
Anthony Redpath for the Wickanninish Inn
Cristina Gareau for Merge Curated Goods
Supporting local businesses
We all know that shopping locally matters, especially in a town like Tofino, where about 85% of businesses are independently-owned. Here is a sample of Tofino products and services that someone needing some R&R this season may like:
- Candles - Check out the 'Balmy Summer' candle from Merge Curated Goods, with notes of honey resin, warm vanilla, spruce trees, and anise.
- Spa - With 9 different spas in Tofino, you have multiple options for deep relaxation. Staying at a vacation rental? You can have a massage service brought right to your doorstep with Tofino Mobile Massage, or get a Lomi Lomi massage (Hawaiian technique) with By the Sea Massage & Bodywork. Want the elements to play into your experience? Try a treatment under a canvas tent where you can hear birdsong or rainfall at Stillwater Nature Spa (only available from spring to fall) or in a cedar cabin overlooking the ocean at Ancient Cedars Spa.
- Tea - Tofino Tea Company has a host of curated blends of organic, whole-leaf tea blends.
- Sauna Packages - There are two remote floating saunas - Tofino Boating Co. and Tofino Resort + Marina - both a short boat ride away, in Clayoquot Sound. These locations make for a super unique day trip for an intimate group of friends. You will want to pack a picnic and get ready to hop into the Pacific Ocean. There are also three beachfront sauna locations through Tuff City Saunas: one at č̓aḥayiis (Cox Bay) at Pacific Sands Resort, and two on tinwis (MacKenzie Beach), located at Mackenzie Beach Resort and at Tin Wis Resort.
Jordyn Giesbrecht | Duffin Cove
Clarity Apothecary
Jeremy Koreski
Bring Home the Coast
Scent is one of the most powerful triggers for memory. “You can think of the original [ancestral] brain as being a sense of smell plus a sense of navigation plus a sense of memory,” stated researcher Sandeep Robert Datta to Harvard Medical Magazine - a potent way to relive feelings of being grounded in place. Here are a few local products to bring you right back to the beach and the rainforest in between visits:
- Room Spray - The Caravan Beach Shop Home & Body Line is a line of products from Emerald Earth made bespoke for Caravan, including the Old Growth Room Spray with notes of Douglas fir, Cedar, and eucalyptus to bring you right back to the Rainforest Loop Trails in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve.
- For Good - While all of The Hobbyist products are mindfully handcrafted with care in Tofino by Tamara and her team (think candles, shower steamers, soaps and perfumes), this winter, they have teamed up with Evergreen Co., a vacation rental management company, to create a product that also gives back to the community: Evergreen Botanical Bubble Bath. All the proceeds from this collaboration project will go to the Westcoast Community Resource Society - providing essential family and youth support for housing, crisis response and community outreach. The essential oils combined in this specialty bubble bath include fir, cedarwood, pine, sandalwood, vetiver, and a bright note of sweet orange.
- Sea Wench Naturals - Sharon Whalen and Chris Taylor founded Sea Wench Naturals in 1990 on Clayoquot Island when they became stewards of this island, just a stone's throw from Tofino Harbour. Now an Indigenous-owned company under the new ownership of long-time team member, Cosy Lawson, the company continues to produce beautifully handcrafted products rooted in sustainability, Indigenous knowledge, and herbal traditions. Try the FOG Coastal Face Mist for the feeling of a misty beach walk, or the Shampoo and Conditioner with seaweed extracts and cedar, to remind you of coastal forests.
- A Moment to Pause - Throughout our busy days, sometimes we just need a moment of clarity, literally. Clarity Apothecary offers essential oil-based products, rooted in the founder, Claire's, work in massage therapy. Take care during cold and flu season with the West Coast Sanitizers - a collaboration with Tofino Distillery. Or get a whole starter pack with the Market Canvas (a local leather goods company) collaboration travel kit, including body butter, roll-on, face mask spray, and sanitizer, all packaged in a leather travel tote.
