If you crave the beauty of the ocean in ways you've never seen then Ucluelet is the place! To enhance the experience even more, I would say that Waters Edge Resort at Pacific Rim is a great choice. Groupon chose the resort for us by offering an excellent weekend deal and we decided to take a weekend escape a couple weeks before Christmas. There were good and bad points to this decision --- great because there were not a lot of other tourists to make congest the resort or the local trails and sites. Bad because we drove for over an hour looking for a reasonably priced, OPEN restaurant.

Our trip started with a late arrival - after check-in hours, however the resort does have lock boxes which they will provide you the combination for if you phone in the day of your check-in. This was a great feature for us as we had no chance of braving the twists and turns of the roads which lead from Victoria to Ucluelet before the front desk closed.

A great point about our room was that it had a fully furnished kitchen and dining room table! So even though we couldn't find an open, reasonably priced restaurant, Waters Edge Resort had us covered. All the cooking supplies, utensils, pots and pans you could want were pre-stocked so we went to the local Co-op market and bought some groceries. Probably saved money in the long run so it definitely was not the worst outcome to not finding an open restaurant.

In addition to the kitchen and dining nook our room came with a living room furnished with a leather couch and arm chair, coffee table, entertainment center with TV, DVD player and CD player as well as a corner gas powered fireplace. A nice feature of this fireplace is that it actually gave off heat. We've stayed in hotels where they advertise fireplace and you only get the look of one, not the function. In addition there was one bathroom which had access from the main entryway and the bedroom which was nice, though the layout of the doors ended up being more of a hassle than a convenience in my opinion. The bathroom was very nice and well stocked with soaps, shampoos, lotions and toilet paper. I must say that the shower heads in this unit were nicer than other hotels/resorts which is always a plus in my book.

The bedroom was fairly standard though it was spacious which is nice. Full closet for hanging clothes as well as a full dresser for folding them as well. 2 night stands and lamps for either side as well. Of course the main highlight of the room was the back porch accessible through the living room which had a hot tub. Keep in mind that when I say hot tub, I don't mean one of those fancy jacuzzis. Picture it more as a HUGE bath tup with about 10 small jets dispersed throughout. I won't lie, it was cold the night we used it but once you got in after filling it up it was fine. I will also say that the buildings are organized in such a way that if your neighbors looked out their window they wouldn't have a problem spying at the action in the tub. This is more of a warning to those who are shy rather than a tip for voyeurs!

Another downer about being the off season is that we couldn't take advantage of the equipment the resort stocks such as kayaks etc however they do have rain gear to borrow and it was North Face brand so it was nice as it was threatening rain most of our trip. Apart from that the lobby also has DVD's to borrow for your room which was nice as well.

All in all, we had a great experience at this resort and if you're able to find a Groupon deal or something similar than it makes the cost effectiveness all the better. Our only issue with the visit was the drive from Victoria and even that was absolutely gorgeous (in the daytime!) At night you can't see anything on either side of you and with all the twists in turns in the road it can be a bit intimidating. But we cannot hold that against the resort as it's not really in their power to control the roads!