Places to Be: One night at the Lone Cone Mountain Hostel

How do you go about traveling when you’re a broke college kid? You get creative.

Being a fresh-faced UBC student in my first year of university, I definitely wanted explore as much of Vancouver itself. I also wanted to explore the surrounding national parks and of course, Vancouver Island. My Gage apartment does have quite the impressive view, but it wouldn’t cut it. I actually needed to get out there and experience what British Columbia has to offer in person.

After some consideration, a couple of roommates, friends and myself decided to plan a weekend getaway to Vancouver Island. The best part of going to there that it was dirt cheap. Any hotel or hostel won’t cost you more than $35 a night.

After planning our trip, we came up with a long weekend itinerary that consisted of one night in Nanaimo and one night in Tofino. Nanaimo is a quaint coastal town, but it's nothing compared to what the rest of the island has to offer in terms of sights and adventure.

At a point, we thought Nanaimo was all we were going to see. This was after we had been denied a car by at least three different rental agencies. We needed one to get across the island from Nanaimo because bus prices are downright astronomical.

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Luckily, we managed to get ourselves a vehicle and thank the heavens for that. The drive from Nanaimo to Tofino is a breathtaking experience. The narrow road paved into the mountainside overlooking Kennedy Lake in the last stretch is beyond amazing.

Finally getting to Tofino delved us into the world of the small surf town. As pretty as it seemed, exploration would have to wait as our accommodations for the night lay across the strait, just off Mears Island at the Lone Cone Mountain Hostel.

We had to take a water taxi to the island where the hotel is. The price of using it is included in the price of stay (about $30 per night), so don’t worry about paying extra.

After finally reaching the furthest point of our trip and seeing the grounds of the hostels, we all had one instant regret — why in the world did we book only one night at this place? We rushed to throw our bags away in our rooms so that we could catch a sunset that was nothing short of majestic.

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That night, we were treated with freshly caught Dungeness crab caught by some of the staff at Lone Coast. The fresh meal was a much needed change from a college diet of pop-ramen and Nutella. After stuffing ourselves, we relaxed in Lone Cone’s hot tub — a key amenity to the place. Later, we sat around a campfire with a guitar and beers. To cap off the night, we stood and looked up into the sky in complete silence, marveling at the cluster of stars above.

The next morning, we all woke up fairly early. We had to leave early if we wanted to visit Tofino and make it back in time for the 6 p.m. ferry back to Horseshoe Bay. We all still managed to take advantage of at least one or two of the activities that Lone Cone had to offer — a list that includes scenic hiking, kayaking, stand-up paddling and more.

Eventually we had to leave, yet none of us wanted to. But a long weekend is only so long and it's not like we wanted our professors to hate us more than they already did. As we took the boat back to Tofino, with the hostel slowing fading in the distance, all I could think about was when I was going to plan my next trip back.