COFFEE ON THE WILD WEST COAST

SoBo started as a purple food truck parked at the Tofino Botanical Gardens. It is now a proper restaurant on Olsen Road, but the ethos is the same: local ingredients, honest cooking, and a coffee program that takes the beans as seriously as the food. The espresso is a rotating single origin from Fernwood Coffee in Victoria. The flat white is excellent.

On Campbell Street, Rhino is the surfer's coffee shop. Boards lean against the wall outside, the music is always good, and the baristas know their regulars by name. The house blend is a medium roast with notes of chocolate and dried fruit. The pastries are made in-house and the cinnamon roll is worth the calories.

Technically a restaurant, but the coffee bar at Wolf in the Fog deserves a mention. The cortado is precise. The view from the window — looking out over the inlet toward Meares Island — is the best coffee view in British Columbia.

If you're coming from the east on Highway 4, Ucluelet is 8km south of the junction and worth the detour. Zoe's Bakery on Peninsula Road opens at 7am and the sourdough is out of the oven by 7:30. The Americano is strong and the seating is outside on a covered deck overlooking the harbour. Start here before the drive to Tofino.