Canada
Pacific Rim National Park Reserve
Storm-watching from a cabin as twenty-metre waves detonate against ancient sea stacks.
The wave hits the sea stack and detonates โ a twenty-metre wall of Pacific spray that hangs in the air long enough to photograph before the next one follows. From the storm-watching cabin, the glass vibrates. This is Pacific Rim National Park Reserve on Vancouver Island's west coast, where the open ocean meets old-growth rainforest.
Pacific Rim is divided into three units: Long Beach, the Broken Group Islands, and the West Coast Trail. Long Beach offers 16 kilometres of unbroken sand backed by temperate rainforest, with year-round surf. The West Coast Trail is a legendary 75-kilometre multi-day hike through shipwreck-strewn coastline, requiring ladders, cable cars, and river crossings. Storm-watching season from November to February draws visitors to the lodges, where twenty-metre waves hitting the rocks can be observed from heated windows. Bioluminescent plankton light up the shallows on dark nights between July and October, glowing blue-green with each wave. Hot springs at the park's north end bubble into rock pools overlooking the open Pacific.
Solo
The West Coast Trail is one of the great solo multi-day hikes in the world โ 75 kilometres of shipwreck coast, old-growth forest, and physical challenge that demands self-reliance.
Couple
Storm-watching from a heated cabin while the Pacific rages outside, followed by hot springs and bioluminescent beach walks โ Pacific Rim does wild romance better than anywhere in Canada.
Friends
The West Coast Trail is a bonding experience โ multi-day hiking, shared cooking, cable-car river crossings, and the satisfaction of completing one of North America's toughest coastal trails together.
- Storm-watching cabins let you sit in warmth while twenty-metre waves detonate against ancient sea stacks outside.
- The West Coast Trail is a legendary 75-kilometre multi-day hike through shipwreck-strewn coastline and old-growth forest.
- Bioluminescent plankton light up the shallows on dark nights between July and October, glowing blue-green with each wave.
- Hot springs at the north end of the park bubble into rock pools overlooking the open Pacific.
Fresh-shucked Fanny Bay oysters with mignonette, eaten at a shack on the Long Beach road.
Storm-watching hot chocolate spiked with local whisky at Wickaninnish Inn.
Dungeness crab rolls from Tacofino โ the surfer food truck turned West Coast institution.
Raglan
New Zealand
One of the world's longest left-hand point breaks rolling into a harbour of black volcanic sand.
South West Rocks
Australia
Grey nurse sharks circle through underwater caves beneath a convict-built granite gaol on the headland.
Kaล
Turkey
Lycian tombs glow orange at sunset above a harbour where sea kayaks launch toward sunken ruins.
Dibba
United Arab Emirates
Three countries share one fishing bay โ dhows bob between Omani, Emirati, and Sharjah-claimed shores.
Banff
Canada
Turquoise glacial lakes so impossibly blue they look digitally edited.
Jasper
Canada
The world's second-largest dark sky preserve, where galaxies appear close enough to scoop.
Bella Coola
Canada
A Nuxalk village at the foot of a highway so steep they call it Freedom Road.
Kejimkujik National Park
Canada
Mi'kmaw petroglyphs line canoe routes through a dark sky reserve where paddling feels like time travel.