Build it and they will come

Two very different but exceptional Relais and Chateaux properties on Vancouver Island

By Sandra Phillips

It is very odd indeed to go on vacation and pray for rain. But at the Wickaninnish Inn in Tofino, British Columbia, not only should you pray for rain, but get down on your knees and hope for a huge raging storm.

Whereas the area is normally overloaded with summer visitors and empties out in the inclement winter, Charles McDiarmid and his family who built this hotel took this meteorological  lemon and made award-winning lemonade. They made it possible for storm watching to become exciting, romantic, safe and cozy.

When building the perfect resort McDiarmid, hoping to become a member of the prestigious Relais & Chateaux properties, called to find out what he needed to do to build to their specifications. The imperious  reply, "Sir, you either are or you are not a Relais and Chateaux Property." Within a year, he was.

The buildings flow into and from both the rocks and the ancient rainforest. Green, reflecting the surrounding trees, is the only accent color along with weathered cedar structure, doors and furniture. The luxurious calming rooms were conceived so that the view is the centerpiece - you can watch the crashing waves from all of the privacy-designed glass-fronted rooms. You can choose to watch from your bed, while warming your toes at the fireplace, from your own balcony, while brushing your teeth, from the library, from the reception desk or the lounge, or while getting a massage at the Ancient Cedars Spa. Heck, you can even watch while sitting with your loved one in the double soaking tub while sipping champagne.

The Pointe Restaurant is so named because it juts out onto the rocky promontory point allowing you a full 240 degree ocean panorama. The hand-adzed cedar post and beams, circular wood fireplace and copper elements meld right back into the landscape. The wine cellar is built under the restaurant, on the rock itself... a fine chilling system. Frank Lloyd Wright would surely have given the McDiarmids an “A+”.

Every detail has been thought of - they have even placed microphones under the outside eaves, in order to allow you to enjoy the soothing sound of the sea as you dine. Chef Andrew Springett has full reign over the menu of coastal seafood and island organic ingredients interspersed with the meat of the land.

The menu, like the hotel itself, reflects the land and sea, with smoked black cod caught nearby that morning sitting on toasted pecan potato puree in a prawn butter apple celery sauce or a glazed breast of duck as soft as filet mignon sided by confit duck leg and potato in a blood orange sauce, or perhaps the perfect juxtaposed textures of a handsome slice of foie gras on toasted orange brioche with quince jelly. A signature sea-earth dish is the smoked salmon and foie gras mousseline layered on potato and poached radish salad with horseradish creme fraiche and Sevruga caviar dressing.

A relaxing vacation can start at the Ancient Cedars Spa’s daily yoga class and move on to one of many treatments, all of which start with their signature soothing foot bath. Your toesies sit  in a galvanized bucket bottomed with marbles to roll them around on while you are reclining outdoors in an Adirondack chair facing that ocean. You might then choose a Caribbean therapy filled with textures, scents and imagery or the hot stone therapy, which again reverts back to the land.

Fill your days with a tranquil rainforest walk which offers secret spots for picnics or take a beach stroll and climb the  rocky outcroppings. In Tofino you can go whale watching, kayaking, bear watching or even learn to surf, but really at the Wickaninnish you may never want to leave your coddled and cosseted room.

Speaking of Cossette, in “Les Miserables” the young Cossette enchantingly sings the words “There is a castle on a cloud...”; Andrew Lloyd Webber could have been inspired to write this after spending time at another Relais & Chateaux property, the Aerie Resort in Malahat, British Columbia.

Owner Maria Schuster, who originally hailed from Vienna, Austria was drawn back a number of times to the eden-like area on Malahat Ridge, and each time she visited this mountaintop she felt she had found her place of comfort. Maria and her then-husband Leo came back a final time, convinced a farmer to sell them a portion of his hilltop and took a chance on building a twelve-room bed and breakfast inn in an area only known for weekend cabins.

That business eventually evolved into a magnificent Mediterranean-style villa terraced into the mountainside cliff of the Malahat Ridge, which quickly earned the prestigious Relais and Chateaux hotel designation. The Aerie Resort has consistently been rated one of the top hotels in the world by Travel & Leisure Magazine, # 1 in Conde Nast Traveler for both the hotel and food and funnest of all - one of the Best Places to Kiss in the Pacific Northwest.

Maria has recently built her castle on a cloud, a 6-room French Riviera/Amalfi Coast style grand estate appropriately called Villa Cielo, because it is perched on the tippy tippy top of her mountain. Staying there, you feel as if you are lord of the manor as you are handed the keys to the Villa to stay in your 750 sq. ft. room which features sweeping panoramas of the mountains, valleys, lakes and the Pacific Ocean. It sports a closet so large that it has its own viewing window. Smell the fresh flowers as you step onto Brazilian cherry wood floors and watch the sunset from your very own Romeo and Juliet balcony. Luxuriate in the bathroom with its heated tiles, two-headed showers and generous soaker tubs or simply touch a button to light up your fireplace - and your life.

The five star property, the views, the quality of life and most of all, the freshest local organic ingredients have kept Christophe Letard, the Executive Chef who hails from Michelin-starred restaurants, at the helm of their mult-room columned restaurant. Tables are spaced far apart, in niches, so that you feel you are dining privately, and each is highlighted with that panoramic view.

A special homey touch is the 4 p.m. chef’s discussion of the evening menu, since it is important to him that guests understand the stories behind the food they eat. Letard is bubbling with enthusiasm about the island’s fresh ingredients and waxes elegant over his newest find, the local seaweeds. His eyes dance as he divulges his purveyor, a woman who scours the pristine coasts for hundreds of varieties. Of course, the ability to buy thirty varieties of lettuce and fifty types of apples from about sixty farms nearby on the island along with lamb, veal, venison, ostrich, emu, game birds, rabbit, every kind of vegetable(certified organic yet!), mushrooms, fiddleheads and berries from the forests would make any chef swoon. Add to that the daily fresh fish and shellfish catch and the local wine list from Vancouver Island and British Columbia, and you have quite a palette of food to work with.

Even if I mention the marvelous foie gras with onion confit alongside a partridge and chestnut sausage with fino cherry syrup, or the prosciuto stuffed red wine marinated halibut or the cream of trout soup, you probably won’t find them on the menu, as this inventive chef changes it about every two days. Only on vegetarian-haven Vancouver Island would you have a classically trained French chef prepare “green lentils and white truffle marinated tofu gratin with raclette cheese shavings”.

Where else would you encounter the option of a picnic basket filled with foie gras and a toasted brioche which you might munch on by the reflecting pools, water falls, Mediterranean rock gardens, on the thirty forested hectares of hiking trails or at the swimming pool with those same awe-inspiring mountain views?

You can work out any stress on the tennis courts, if you can pay attention and not look at the view, or get your kinks smoothed out at the Wellness and Beauty Center spa, where even men can get a Facial, Back Facial and Mud Wrap or an Acupressure Massage. If you prefer, you can enjoy the privacy of the massages in your own room or take a massage lesson to carry home the Aerie experience.

If your visit to the resort is in the right season you can partake of the gourmet farm tours, mushroom foraging or the Villa Cielo cooking classes led by a member of their kitchen team. If your budget allows you can even arrive by helicopter, since they have a pad.

To achieve the status of a Relais and Chateaux property, a hotel must adhere to the five tenets of: character, courtesy, cuisine, comfort and calm. These two properties achieve that, of course, but as well they encompass all five senses: the sight of their buildings in astounding settings of ocean or mountain; the sound of wind, waves and birds; the smell of outdoors - forest, ocean and fresh air; the relaxing touches in their spa and in their decadently comfortable rooms; and the memorable tastes of perfect food.

The Wickaninnish Inn,  Box 250 Tofino BC V0R 2Z0 Phone: 800-333-4604 or 250-725-3100 www.wickinn.com

The AerieResort, P.O. Box 108 Malahat, British Columbia V0R 2L0 Phone: 800-518-1933 or 250-243-7115 www.aerie.bc.ca