Tofino Map: Town, Park, Beaches and the Boat-Only Places

Downtown Tofino, the blue pins, is walkable: the harbour, the gallery and the hospital sit within a few blocks of each other. Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, the green pins, is a drive south, and every green pin on this map needs the US$8.69 (C$12.25) day pass to be on that ground at all, even for the free-standing Rainforest Trail. Treat these as two different outings on two different days rather than one loop, since the park unit alone can fill an afternoon.

Tonquin Beach sits north of downtown, walkable. South of downtown, Chesterman Beach, MacKenzie Beach and Cox Bay string along the road toward the park boundary, each a short drive apart. A visitor without a car is limited to Tonquin on foot; anyone with a car or a bike can string the southern three together in an afternoon before crossing into the park itself for Long Beach.

Hot Springs Cove and Meares Island are plotted at an approximate bearing rather than a precise, to-scale distance, because doing so accurately would push Hot Springs Cove well off the edge of a map still legible for downtown Tofino. Both need a boat: Meares Island a short water taxi run at about US$28.39 (C$40), and Hot Springs Cove a half-day tour at $222.00. Neither has a walking or driving route, which is the single fact this map cannot show at any zoom level.

Hotels are not pinned here. Instead, where to stay in Tofino groups accommodation by area with its own map, since a hotel pin mixed into a sightseeing map crowds out the sights and hotel choice deserves its own comparison rather than a single dot. Restaurants are not pinned either, since only a handful of Tofino venues (covered on where to eat) are citable against an independent source, and pinning the rest would mean printing names this site cannot back up.

Ucluelet's own sights, the Wild Pacific Trail and Ucluelet Aquarium, sit far enough south that they get their own map on the day trips page rather than crowding this one at a scale that still reads clearly for Tofino itself.

Pin to Pin, Practically

Start from the harbour and work outward. Tonquin Beach is the one beach pin you can reach on foot from downtown. The three southern beach pins each have their own access lot and are reached by separate short turns off the same road.

The park pins are a further drive south, past the airport, and the pass rules change once you cross the park boundary. For the airport pin, check your own map app for current drive time rather than trusting any single published figure.

Two Different Parking Fees

This is the detail that catches visitors out. The green park pins are covered by one fee, the Pacific Rim National Park day pass, which pays for the park unit only. That pass does nothing for the orange beach pins.

The beaches outside the park, at Chesterman, MacKenzie (tinwis), Cox Bay and Tonquin, are free to visit, but the District of Tofino meters the access lots. Parking there costs US$2.13 (C$3.00) per hour or US$10.65 (C$15.00) per day, enforced from 08:00 to 23:00. So if your day includes both Long Beach and Chesterman Beach, expect two separate parking costs.

See our Pacific Rim park pass page for the park side of this, and our Tofino beaches pages for the lots themselves.

Which Pins You Can Actually Reach

On foot, you can cover the blue town pins and Tonquin Beach, which connects to downtown by a short trail. The beach corridor to the south is partially covered by the West Coast Transit local bus. The adult single fare is US$3.55 (C$5.00) and the DayPASS is US$7.10 (C$10.00).

The purple boat-only pins need no car at all, since you reach them by water either way. That leaves the park pins as the awkward ones without wheels. Our getting around Tofino guide compares every option in detail, and car rental or bike rental are the two standard ways to extend your reach to the full set of pins.

The 25 km paved pathway through the park also links the corridor for cyclists.

No Lifeguards, and Leash Rules in the Park

There have been no lifeguards on any beach in the Tofino area since 2012, at the town beaches and inside the national park alike. A pin on this map is not a claim that a beach is supervised. If you bring a dog, Pacific Rim National Park requires dogs on a leash at all times, everywhere inside the park boundary, including beaches, trails, parking lots and the water.

Our Tofino Safety page covers rip currents, cold water and wildlife basics.