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Solwood Healing Arts Retreat & Spa – reviews, photos

1298 Lynn Road, Tofino, British Columbia V0R 2Z0, Canada
Hotel amenities
Solwood Healing Arts Retreat & Spa
Ranked #36 of 47 Tofino B&B and Inns
3.5 of 5 stars 12 Reviews
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12 reviews from our community

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Munich
Senior Reviewer
9 reviews 9 reviews
Reviews in 9 cities Reviews in 9 cities
3 helpful votes 3 helpful votes
“A good place with a special vibe”
5 of 5 stars Reviewed 8 October 2009

My boyfriend and me stayed in one of the B&B rooms at Solwood and were pleasantly surprised about this place: everything was clean (the shared bathroom, our bedroom etc.), the room was set up in a very practical way with storage facilities and a closet, we had fresh beautiful garden flowers on our bedtable and just loved the whole arrangement in the living area, with quite unique furniture pieces made of local woods, the lovingly prepared breakfast (fresh wholemeal muffins and breads, scrambled eggs with avocado, waffles with REAL maple syrup etc. - all made from scratch) and last but not least the relaxed but still caring staff. All these things are not self understood - we have seen a lot of Bed&Breakfasts and guesthouses during our 2 month trip through B.C. and are surely very picky when it comes to accommodation. Apart from all this the Solwood is perfectly located by the Ocean, at Chesterman beach, one of the most beautiful and popular beaches in Tofino, where you can sit around the fire, play guitar and gaze at the stars on clear nights. You can actually hear the ocean roaring in some of the rooms.
People who wrote those negative reviews must really have had bad luck with some too young and halfhearted volunteers who stayed there for short time and seem to not have cared enough. The people who manage the place at the moment (and they will be there too in the next season 2010) are lovely hosts and very conscientious about keeping the place clean, comfortable and enjoyable.
After my boyfriend had to leave I stayed at the Solwood for a couple of weeks in one of the small B&B rooms and got to know the place and people working there really well. I have seen guests, truly discerning travellers, who came there to find peace, freedom but still a bit of pampering leaving the Solwood happy and satisfied ... definitely a special place with a "soul", offering more than just accommodation.

  • Stayed September 2009, travelled as a couple
    • 5 of 5 stars Location
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Central Massachusetts
Senior Reviewer
9 reviews 9 reviews
Reviews in 5 cities Reviews in 5 cities
10 helpful votes 10 helpful votes
“Boy, was this a mistake!!”
1 of 5 stars Reviewed 10 August 2009

I must have been asleep when I consulted Tripadvisor about this place. If I had read the recent reviews I NEVER would have booked it. There is virtually nothing positive to say about Solwood, except its location is pretty much as advertised. This is NO RETREAT/SPA. It felt more like a glorified campsite. There was no one to greet us, check us in or check in with us. We stayed in the Forest Den. It was dank and musty. No soap in the bathroom. No instructions on turning on the heat. (It was 55 degrees and damp). Not enough towels. (Didn't matter. We didn't want to use the dirty bathroom.) We stayed one night and left. (Have no idea whether we will get our money back as we have had no correspondence from owner). The Forest Den does not come with breakfast, but I had made arrangements to join the B and B guests for breakfast, confirmed in an email. They had no record of it when we arrived.

This was a complete disappointment and definitely false advertising.

  • Stayed August 2009, travelled with family
    • 1 of 5 stars Value
    • 3 of 5 stars Location
    • 1 of 5 stars Rooms
    • 1 of 5 stars Cleanliness
    • 1 of 5 stars Service
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“Horrible”
1 of 5 stars Reviewed 19 May 2009
1
person found this review helpful

I've stayed at Solwood 5 times. Each time I stay there it gets worse. The first time I stayed, it was great for a large party of 8, great price. However, the lady that is regularly there is very snarky to customers. The yard area has a lot of garbage around. One time I stayed in the main house for bed and breakfast. The room was ok, breakfast was good but the kitchen is dirty. They have a lot of piled up garbage. The outdoor shower is a great feature, however it's dirty with slugs crawling all over.

The Forest Den cabin has water issues. Sometimes the water doesn't work. The shower water pressure isn't very good. Drainage in the sink is poor. There's no proper stove, just a hot plate that doesn't heat up well since the electrical outlet has issues. The place is very damp and we found a slug in the washroom!

I wouldn't recommend this place. It would be best to stay somewhere else like Crystal Cove, Heart Garden or Long Beach Lodge. I have stayed at many places in Tofino, and this place is the worst. The only great thing is that its close to the beach.

  • Stayed May 2009, travelled with friends
    • 2 of 5 stars Value
    • 5 of 5 stars Location
    • 1 of 5 stars Rooms
    • 1 of 5 stars Cleanliness
    • 1 of 5 stars Service
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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
ZRH
1 review
2 helpful votes 2 helpful votes
“B&B??????Youth Hostel-yes”
2 of 5 stars Reviewed 25 August 2008
2
people found this review helpful

The other reviews from august '08 say it well. We stayed the first 3 days of august. Don't let the website and price (high) fool you. This is no B&B. And the owner doesn't live there, she lives in Ucluelet 30 miles away.
The 'kids' who run it are just recruits looking for a room and board. We got very lucky in that our hosts happened to speak english and could actually put a breakfast together. They (a different one works everyday) were very honest about their job there and were very surprized they weren't asked if they could speak english and cook when applying for the job from their home country. Germany in our case. But I think we got lucky.
Secondly, we stayed in the cathedral room. No shower. Carpeted bathroom is pretty rough. Towels smelled moldy. Even the fresh ones. The whole room was kind of clean. The pics on the website are probably from 10 years ago. The layout is all correct but the condition is way off.
Those cool little cottages you see on the website are crammed into a normal size frontyard. They don't look so cozy when you're standing outside. I was glad we booked the cathedral room. Except you don't know that there are 2 other TINY rooms they rent out in the house. Closet like things. So, its not just you and your host for breakfast. In our case they had families of 4 in both rooms. We were lucky the families were nice people and equally as disappointed as us. Except I think they only paid $100 for their closets per day. Our cost of $270/night was just wrong.
The good part is it's really just across the street from the beach. Yes you do have to walk down a path and across some driftwood at the beach edge but it's maybe 2-3 min. there. Did I mention you may not have a parking place? Seems everytime we came back we had to park somewhere else. Oh and forget about that Spa, Workshop, Healing arts stuff. The handwritten note to contact Natasha for a massage was it. Natasha is one of the kids there BTW. I sure hope the rest of the B&B's there are really B&B's but this one is NOT.

Stayed August 2008
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Burnaby, Canada
Reviewer
3 reviews 3 reviews
Reviews in 2 cities Reviews in 2 cities
1 helpful vote 1 helpful vote
“Solwood overbooked us”
2 of 5 stars Reviewed 14 August 2008

We never actually got to stay in this location.

We called Solwood and booked our stay on Tuesday for our weekend getaway.

In the morning of our departure date, one lady called us and told us they overbooked us! Besides overbooking, they even got the wrong date!

So I guess I should consider myself lucky, cause if they never overbooked us, we would not have a place to stay anyway.

Solwood did find us an alternative accommodation, but at a higher price with no kitchenette at this new location.

  • Liked — I don't know. I never got to stay there.
  • Disliked — The fact that they over booked us while we booked this place three days before.
  • Stayed August 2008, travelled with family
    • 3 of 5 stars Value
    • 2 of 5 stars Service
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