For the past four years I’ve been taking mini-vacations on Vancouver Island. Vancouver Island is very close to where I live, just a short-ish ferry ride away, and cities on the Island are different enough that you feel like you’re in a completely new place.
I like to go to Vancouver Island to get away from the hustle and bustle of big city life. There are lots of nice places to visit on the Island, and seeing all the cities and sites on the Island is definitely not something you can do in a day or two. I’ve been going for four years (3-4 days at a time) and I still have quite a bit of the island to see. When most people go to Vancouver Island, they visit the bigger cities like Nanaimo, Victoria, Tofino, Ucluelet, etc, which I’ve visited over the last few years.
This year I decided to go somewhere more remote, to a small city called Port Renfrew, located in the South Western corner of Vancouver Island, about 2 hours drive from Victoria. I’ve been down to Victoria many times but never went further west. I didn’t think there was much to see, but my brother took a trip last year and told me about Port Renfrew.
This year we decided to stay at places that were a little different, not your typical hotels. On our first night, we stayed at Wild Renfrew Seaside Cottages, which is located right next to the water. You can find out more about this resort on their website and below is their physical address:
Wild Renfrew Seaside Cottages
17310 Parkinson Road
Port Renfrew, BC V0S 1K0
Wild Renfrew has two different locations, offering two different types of accommodations: Seaside Cottages and West Coast Trail Lodges. Our stay was at the Seaside Cottages, so this is a review of the Wild Renfrew Seaside Cottages. With the cottages, you still have a few options to choose from, depending on party size, budget, and what types of views you’re looking for. You can choose between Viewpoint Penthouse, Beachfront 2 Bedroom, Beachfront 2 Bedroom with private fire pit, and Wharf-side Studio, with the exception of the Wharf-side Studio (1 – 2 people), all other cottages can house 1 to 6 people. Below is a list of prices for the cottages, depending on season. Winter season is from December 1 to March 31, Summer is from May 19 to September 30, and Shoulder is from October 1 to November 30 and April 1 to May 18.
We stayed in the Beachfront 2 Bedroom cottage and our stay was at the end of April (shoulder).
The Wild Renfrew is located near the Renfrew Pub. It’s a bit hidden in the corner, so you’ll need to drive towards the marina, passing by the Wild Renfrew gift shop (which is also the front desk) on the left, before you reach a small parking lot with parking stalls with assigned numbers corresponding to your cottage number. If you bring more than one car, additional parking is available at the Renfrew Pub’s parking lot.
Our Beachfront 2 Bedroom cottage was the third cottage, one away from the cottage with the private fire pit. If making outdoor fires is your thing, spending the extra $25 is totally worth it. These cottages are literally meters away from the water, with the sound of the ocean waves welcoming you as you enter your cottage.
As you enter the cottage, you’re greeted by a beautiful rustic living room with a love seat and two single seats, which feel very comfortable after a few hours of driving time. To the left of the entrance is a small four person dining table (and of course the beautiful ocean view) and on the right is a full kitchen. The living room is spacious and feels very homely, there’s a flat screen TV with cable – not that you’d be watching TV with beautiful views outside – and an electric fireplace. WiFi is also included with the room; it’s on the slower side, but then again, the purpose of our trip was to get away from the city life and everything that comes with it.
Outside there’s a nice long balcony/deck, where you get to enjoy the scenic mountains and ocean view of the Jaun De Fuca straight. This is where we spent quite a bit of time enjoying the sounds of the ocean, the nice breeze, and just listened to nature for many hours. The deck also comes with a gas fire pit, unfortunately it wasn’t hooked up yet, denying us the opportunity to spend even more time on the deck, especially at night when the temperatures were much cooler.
The kitchen is pretty decent sized and includes everything you think you’d need and more. There’s a full-size fridge, stove (no oven), microwave, coffee machine, pots and pans, and cutlery. Coffee, hot chocolate, and tea packages are provided, in addition to creamers, sugar, and sweeteners. You should plan on bringing food with you because there aren’t many places to eat at in Port Renfrew, the few places that do exist aren’t open year round and some places close pretty early. So plan ahead, like we did, we brought a barbeque and meat, for a seaside BBQ.
Our cottage had two bedrooms, one with a king size bed and the other with two single beds, the sofa in the living room can be turned into a bed if needed. The rooms are decent size and the beds and pillows were very comfortable. The bedroom, bathroom, linens, and the rest of the cottage was very clean, it was a very comfortable place to stay in. Unlike a lot of hotels I’ve been to, Wild Renfrew is a very quiet and relaxing place to stay at, the only noise you’ll hear is the sound of the ocean and the occasional bird. It was a very relaxing stay, just the way I like it.
The bathroom is also a comfortable size and was very clean. It included a tub, a toilet, and a sink, the standard stuff you’d find in the average bathroom. Nothing really to report on that, the bathroom did what it’s supposed to do.
Overall we were very pleased with our stay at the Wild Renfrew Seaside Cottages. It is a beautiful place to say at and is a bit out of the ordinary. The front desk staff were very friendly and were more than happy to assist us with our stay and tell us about local attractions.
Our stay at the cottages was very relaxing; we definitely recommend Wild Renfrew Seaside Cottages to people that want to get away from the city, even for a short time, and get closer to nature, without having to go full-out camping. I felt very rejuvenated after my one night stay at the cottage, and I would’ve loved to spend more time there, but we had to go our next place to stay, which we’ll write about shortly.
My wife and I give the Wild Renfrew resort two thumbs up. We would like to thank the friendly staff at Wild Renfrew Seaside Cottages for having us and giving us a unique experience. We definitely recommend you check out the city or Port Renfrew and the Wild Renfrew cottages. We’ll definitely come back in a few years. Check out our day two post from Port Renfrew.
