Kingfisher Pacific Resort & Spa: A Vancouver Island Wellness Escape

The east coast of Vancouver Island is the isle’s quieter side. Without the dramatic rolling surf of Canada’s west coast, it offers a more peaceful oceanside getaway. While newer lodgings such as Naturally Pacific Resort in Campbell River have opened on the island’s eastern shores, long established properties have continued to upgrade to draw new guests. Kingfisher Pacific Resort & Spa, which first opened in 1979, is one such property.

Here’s the scoop on this British Columbia resort:

About Kingfisher Pacific Resort & Spa

Kingfisher Pacific Resort & Spa sits on a rocky beach overlooking the ocean, just south of the town of Courtenay, in Vancouver Island’s Comox Valley. The property has expanded from one room block to three, built around a lush central garden, where Adirondack chairs positioned around several firepits offer secluded spots to relax with a drink, a book, or a significant other. 

On one side of the garden is the restaurant building. On the other side is the Pacific Mist Spa, with an extensive menu of wellness options that are a main attraction for hotel guests. 

Kingfisher’s Wellness Options 

All guests can use Kingfisher’s small outdoor heated pool, as well as the nearby outdoor hot tub, infrared sauna, and steam room. The property also has a spacious fitness center that gives you glimpses of the sea while you work out.

The spa offers a full menu of treatments, from massages to facials, as well as two more distinctive offerings.

The Pacific Mist Hydropath, a 60-minute water-based wellness circuit, has been drawing visitors since 2003. Available for solos, couples, or groups of up to four, the Hydropath starts with a shower and a relaxing soak in a bubbling mineral pool. Next is a “waterfall massage,” a series of showers with different levels of pressure and intensity, followed by time in the “steam cave.” 

When you’re nice and hot, you can refresh in the glacial shower (yes, it’s cold!). The next step is a “river walk,” two pathways where you walk in thigh-deep water; one side is warm, the other refreshingly cool, designed to stimulate the blood circulation in your legs. You follow your river walk with a soak in another mineral pool, this one enhanced with more than 100 trace elements and minerals intended to benefit your skin. In the final step, you rub yourself with the spa’s signature mineral scrub in a warm tub, then head for the window-lined relaxation lounge to stretch out on a chaise overlooking the sea.

Another Kingfisher wellness option launched in 2025 — the Healing Caves, a sequence of six varied environments in cave-like settings, designed to release tension, stress, and toxins, and to restore and replenish your body. The full circuit takes 75-90 minutes.

The first cave is a desert environment, a dry sauna with a video of desert rock formations to entertain you as you heat up. The second is an aromatherapy steam cave, followed by an ice cave, an unexpectedly refreshing stop with videos of snow, ice, and rushing glacial rivers. 

The next cave offers red light therapy, then you enter a salt cave with salt air gently blown into the room and coarse salt on the floor to rub into your feet. The final experience is the storm cave, a large jetted tub where you can choose between a gentle rainforest storm or a raging ocean tempest, with crashing waves, crackling lightning, and booming thunder. Both versions offer a warm soak with refreshing “rain” to rinse; the rainforest videos are more calming, which the storm version feels more invigorating.

Both the Hydropath and the Healing Caves offer different but equally relaxing experiences. Many guests opt for one when they arrive and the other the following day.

Kingfisher’s Restaurants

Kingfisher’s two restaurants share a building overlooking the water, next to the garden. AQUA Bistro & Wine Bar is the more casual eatery, while Ocean7 Restaurant is more upscale. Executive chef Danai Hongwanishkul, who came to the resort from Notch 8, the dining room at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, oversees both restaurants.

Throughout the day, you can dine outdoors on the terrace overlooking the ocean, in the cozy AQUA lounge, or in Ocean7’s spacious window-lined dining room. 

Both restaurants offer the same menu for brunch, and whether you order eggs, brioche French toast, or chicken and waffles, the portions are ample. The “healthy start” breakfast — two poached eggs, toast, an artfully arranged avocado, and an overflowing bowl of fresh fruit — impressed me, as did the generous bowl of granola sprinkled with edible flowers, served with yogurt and more fresh fruit. 

The brunch menu continues through midday with options like the Pacific Mist Spa bowl — a colorful assortment of fresh and pickled vegetables with a tahini dressing, seafood chowder, or the popular Korean-style fried chicken bowl, which is available on AQUA’s evening menu as well.

Both restaurants highlight seafood, especially at dinner. I can recommend the “Seacuterie” board, a sea-centered spread of scallop crudo, smoked tuna, and candied salmon, alongside seaweed salad, pickled vegetables, and addictively salty nori potato chips. Other delicious options include the tuna nigiri served on crispy rice, the charred octopus paired with papaya salad, and the sablefish, crisp-fried atop risotto dotted with fresh peas and summer tomatoes.

If you want something other than seafood, pair your cocktails or mocktails with Brie from local cheesemaker Natural Pastures, wrapped in pastry and served warm with a watermelon-tomato salsa. 

Guest Rooms and Amenities

Kingfisher Pacific Resort has 65 rooms spread across three different room blocks, each with different decor and amenities. 

The most economical rooms are the Ocean Standard units in the property’s original building overlooking the garden. These rooms have either one king bed or one queen plus one double bed, with a walk-out patio in the first-floor units and a balcony in the second-floor rooms. These rooms don’t have air-conditioning, although they do have windows that open to the sea breezes

The next tier of rooms are the Ocean Courtyard units, which were updated in 2018 with more modern decor and either one king or two queen beds. They also feature more contemporary bathrooms with heated floors and a rainfall shower. The first-floor rooms have patios facing the garden. From the balconies in the second floor rooms, you have views over the plants and flowers to the ocean. 

Amenities in both the Ocean Standard and Ocean Courtyard rooms include a coffeemaker and mini-fridge. These two-story buildings have stair access only.

The Beachfront suites building directly faces the ocean, offering sea views from both the first- and second-floor units. The property’s more upscale accommodations, updated in 2023-24, the Beachfront suites come in different configurations, accommodating couples, families, or groups of friends. Some have separate living room areas with kitchenettes, while others are open-concept studios. All have gas fireplaces, and either a patio or balcony.

The Beachfront building is down a set of stairs from the property’s garden but has elevator access to both levels. While all guests can park in the open lots in front of the hotel, there’s a dedicated parking garage beneath the Beachfront building for direct access to these suites.

Among the Beachfront suites are three “penthouse” units. Penthouse 3 on the lower level and Penthouse 2 on the second floor are both corner units, with windows on two sides — the better to watch the sunrise. Penthouse 3, a slightly smaller junior suite, has a king bed in the sleeping area opening to a living/dining room with a kitchenette, while the larger Penthouse 2 also has a soaker tub in the living area where you can bathe with ocean views.

Penthouse 1 is a one-of-a-kind unit, an extremely large, eclectically decorated studio with a king bed, spacious living/dining area with a chandelier over the dining table, and a kitchenette. The mirrored wall reflects the ocean views, which of course, are also visible through the large windows and out on the private balcony.

Penthouse 1 also has a distinctive bathroom, with a freestanding soaker tub, a Japanese washlet toilet, and a rainshower with a dramatically colored wall.

Rates at Kingfisher Pacific Resort & Spa

Room rates vary significantly depending on the room type and season, with the highest rates in the busy summer months. Off-season double rates for the Ocean Standard rooms start at CAD$250/night (US$175), while high-season nightly rates for the most expensive unit, Penthouse 1, are approximately CAD$1250 (US$895). Most units fall within the center of this range, with details on the Kingfisher Pacific website. 

You can also check rates online at Expedia, Booking.com, Agoda.com, or Hotels.com.

Yet whatever room you choose at Kingfisher Pacific Resort & Spa, wellness options — and delicious meals — are just steps away, here on the quieter side of Vancouver Island.

Hotel feature by Vancouver-based travel, food, and feature writer Carolyn B. Heller. Photos © Carolyn B. Heller. Kingfisher Pacific Resort & Spa arranged my stay for review purposes, with support from 4VI, Vancouver Island Travel.