Things to do in Tofino, Vancouver Island: The Best Sights & Landmarks

The mission of the Raincoast Education Society is to help shape an environmentally sustainable future for the Clayoquot and Barkley Sound region through education and community stewardship.

The Tofino Float'em Garden is an outdoor public art installation comprised of 11 individual assemblages made entirely from marine debris. Pete Clarkson, the artist and a park warden, is based in Tofino. He's been creating his unique marine debris art since 2000. For Pete, making art is mostly about celebrating the everyday and the beauty around us, even our trash. Still, the marine debris used in this installation carries it’s own message. Hopefully you’ll take a moment in this spectacular place to enjoy the Float’em Garden, and consider your own role in the marine debris story. As these objects remind us, there’s no longer an ‘away’ when we throw things away. Everywhere is somewhere, and the ocean is downstream of everything. The daily decisions we make - what we buy, what we throw away, what we value and support - can add up to a chorus of positive action. Let your actions show how much you care. Join a shoreline cleanup - guaranteed it’ll change how you view plastic.

Tofino Botanical Gardens are 12 acres of gardens, forest, and shoreline that explore the relationship between culture and nature. A network of paths and boardwalk will take you through our Cultivated Gardens, Sculpture Park, and Old-Growth Temperate Rainforest, where clearings have been transformed into a series of pocket gardens. Some of these gardens display plants that thrive in temperate rainforests around the world including Chile and Japan. Others celebrate cultural groups that have made Clayoquot Sound their home now and in the past, particularly the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations, early Japanese fishing families, and, of course, hippies. The Gardens extend to the Tofino Mudflats, an incredible expanse of intertidal mud teeming with life, revealed twice a day at low tide. Events including Tofino Winterlights, Tofino Lantern Festival, Surfrider Foundation film festival, Food and Wine,Musicians, Weddings and more are hosted within the eclectic scenery.