About a month ago, I went camping in Canada. I stayed at the Green Point Campground on Long Beach in the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. When I was researching various campgrounds near Tofino, it was really hard for me to get a sense of the best campground. I was torn between Green Point, Surf Junction, and Bella Pacifica. It definitely took me a couple hours of browsing and debating (and list making) to settle on Green Point and I’ll happily tell you why.

Location

Green Point is the choice campground because of the combination of the beachside location, campsite privacy, and well-rounded facilities. Walking to the beach was important to the group and initially, I was worried that Green Point was too far from Tofino, but the twenty-minute drive was quite nice and it forced us to go out and have a full day of fun before coming back to the campsite for the night.

Green Point Campground is situated on a bluff overlooking Long Beach with easy beach access via a quarter mile trail. Surf Junction is a drive from the beach and Bella Pacifica’s beachfront sites looked a little crowded for my taste. I also liked that Green Point was part of Canada’s park system. Sometimes an extra step, like buying a park pass, will discourage the crowds,  although the campground was merrily full the entire weekend.

Privacy

After scouring the internet for photos of Green Point Campground, Surf Junction, and Bella Pacifica, I came to the conclusion that I liked the campsite layout and more specifically the privacy of individual sites better than the other two campgrounds. Green Point had plenty of trees, foliage, and scrubby stuff to give one plenty of privacy between neighbors. See my campground map of the best sites below.

Amenities

Man, this was a tough one. Surf Junction has a hot tub and sauna, but after investigating all the campground bathrooms on google images, I found out that Green Point had great facilities overall and recently erected brand new bathhouses. Hot showers after a long day outdoors? Yes, please. The bathrooms washrooms did not disappoint. The new bathhouse had a bright simple interior, a large counter area, and the shower stalls had plenty of functional space. You could actually hang your fresh clothes and set stuff on the bench inside the stall without it getting soaking wet. Can you imagine?

Beyond the washrooms, Green Point also had a convenient outdoor dishwashing space and plenty of trash facilities. Each campsite had electric, except the few walk-in sites and all sites had a picnic table and fire ring. The walk-in sites also have a metal locker for equipment and food, etc. The Green Point campground has a strict clean campsite rule whereas you can’t leave anything with human or food smells on it out at the campsite while you aren’t there. This was no trouble for us as we could keep everything in the car unless we needed it at that moment.

I’m so pleased with our campsite decision and I would absolutely stay at Green Point Campground again. While I’m not big on planning, in this case, a little bit of research really helped me make a great decision. I would have been disappointed with the location of Surf Junction and the crowds and closeness at Bella Pacifica.

This post is really just encouragement to use the internet to your advantage when it comes to the little things that make a big difference on vacation. If you’re curious about bathrooms, google and yelp that stuff. If you want to pick the best campsite at the campground, there is probably someone out there who has defined that already – see what they have to say. If you’re headed to Tofino and you’re looking for a laid back campground where you feel nestled right into nature, you should stay at Green Point. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments or send me an email at liveseasoned@gmail.com.

Oooo and here’s the great part, it only cost $105 for three nights of camping and two three-day adult Canadian Parks passes.