Tofino

Misty bus ride
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This place was the reason I came out to vancouver island - and that's purely on the basis of what the guidebooks told me. The bus ride alone was comparable with the trip along the icefield parkway north of Banff for brilliant scenery. I even saw a bear scuttle off into the woods a fraction of a second before the bus claimed it as spectacular road kill (imagine scraping one of them from your wheel arch and finishing it off with a tyre iron). The town itself was in a perfect location - surrounded by the bay on one side, dense forests on another and the pacific (nearest landfall out west was Japan). The hostel was was well above par, and the fact it cost about a tenner a night was almost tragic for the normally priced hotels.

Tofino beach.
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Took a whale/otter/sealion/rainforest and hotsprings tour. This 6 hour bargin cost about 40 quid and took us right up the coast to where a hotspring dribbled out the rock amidst a rainforest and into the sea. I chose it on the basis that they had a full sized whale skeleton in the office as proof of the effectiveness of their whaling tours. When I commented on this I just got a blank look. Determined to get a rise out of the hippy behind the counter, I repeated the observation when I checked in for the tour. Nothing. I swear, sometimes it's like wading through treacle with these people. Good job I didn't waste my breath andask if I should bring my own harpoon, seeing as mine had got stuck in customs.

Krill. The fuel of whales. Isn't it. (Apologies to Nick and Colin)
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Someone had seen fit to dam a little outlet so the hot water (40 deg C ish) would pool before being mixed with the sea. Very bracing to sit there and boil until a wave rolls in and strikes everyone dumb into a frenzy of teeth chattering.

To sum up, go to Tofino. It's probably one of the nicest places I've ever been to. Shame it's not next door to Nantucket.