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| Marie's Bed & Breakfast Bamfield Reviews |
Address: 468 Pachena Road Bamfield BC V0R 1B0
Tel: 1 250 728-3091
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| "A happy returning customer: I've come back year after year!" |
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by Patricia (from Victoria)
November 2007 - I have stayed at Marie's well over a dozen times over the last few years. I have travelled to Bamfield for both business and pleasure. I have travelled alone and with others in my party (and at my recommendation). Marie's is ALWAYS my first choice of accomodation for this rawly beautiful town. It compares extremely well to all of the places I have visited for both business and pleasure over the last 10 years.
First a disclaimer: Bamfield is a real working town. This is not your usual tourist desination nor is it a place for someone looking for luxurious relaxation and indolence. The people here are kind and friendly but they are also busy and hardworking. Most people get by through piecing together multiple jobs. In a tiny place like Bamfield, most people have to play multiple roles so that the community can function. This is fascinating if you are open to the experience, but excruciating if you are looking for something more resort-like.
I have always enjoyed Bamfield's lack of pretention. I am not the sort who want my hand held. Marie has always respected my privacy yet has always had time for a friendly word. I hate feeling intruded upon and loath B&Bs where the host feels they have to fake some sort of instant intimate friendship. It is so crass and servile.
As noted, Bamfield is a small working town and as a result there are few amenities. It is often difficult to get a meal somewhere and there is little entertainment in the evenings. Marie has gone to great lengths to make up for this with her guests. There are movies in your room, lots of good books to borrow, dishes and a microwave so that you can cook for yourself, local art, and extra snacks with your breakfast tray so that you can pack the extras for a bag lunch. The place has a lot of stuff in it, but that is the nature of remote living; the nearest town of any size for supplies is a two hour gravel road drive away. This place is amazing value for money.
The house is a split-level with guest rooms on the bottom level so you can walk out onto a patio that leads to the garden. I have always found the rooms clean and hygenic. My sister has multiple allergies and she has been very happy staying at Marie's with me. The bathrooms are not ensuites, but there are still two bathrooms to two bedrooms. The beds are comfortable and I enjoy sitting and looking at the garden.
Be warned that this is not the typical flowery foofy garden. It is instead a garden for sophisticated tastes, incorporating a lot of underappreciated and misunderstood local plantings. As an amateur botanist I was thrilled. You can see the inlet from different parts of the property. Most of the main businesses that are the economic heart of the town are near to Marie's, so that is handy (store, pub, restaurant, fire hall, school, marine supplies, building supplies, Marine Sciences Centre). The aboriginal centres and the West Coast Trail are a short drive outside of town.
There are a few pretty little spots on the other side of the inlet and worth the price of a water taxi. There part of town is accessable only by boat. There is a Coast Guard, store, and post office. Sometimes there is an Arts & Crafts gallery. It is the closest Bamfield comes to being touristy.
I have been very happy at Marie's and will continue to stay there whenever I can. Bamfield is definitely not for everyone and I am kind of glad of that; some places should stay revealed only to those who can appreciate unconvential charm.
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| "Worst B&B stay" |
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by B & H (from Surrey BC Canada)
May 2007 - Some people should not operate a B & B and Marie is one of these people. We have been staying at B&B's for over 10 years and this is the first that we have been disgusted with our choice. The room is so crowded with junk it was like sleeping in a thrift shop. The room has not been properly cleaned for years. Very heavy dust bunnies behind and under all furninture. I suffer from asthmatic allergies and it took 2 days for my health to return after staying here. On the 2nd night while having dinner in the room my wife discovered she had multiple ants crawling over her, the meal and our bed. When we called Marie down to point out this unacceptable condition, she stated she knew about the problem and still rented out the room, she was prepared to just go back upstairs. We demanded to change rooms as the other room was vacant on our 2nd night. As she had not yet cleaned this room, she did a quick clean up from the previous nights guests, we realized later she did not fully change all the bedding from the prior guests. The breakfast is more of a large assortment of snacks put in your room the night before and dirty dished are not removed until the next evening (no wonder there was an ant problem). There is not a comfortable place to sit and the room is crowded with unnessarary clutter, dozens of cups, plates, towels, bedding and unnecessary storage units crammed with stuff. We found her webside very misleading. She was not hospitable, seemed only interest in her money, she displayed no interest in us or our plans. The bed linen was completely mismatched and the room had no ambiance. There were no view from the room, if there were any views from upstairs it is redundant as guests have no access to the upstairs as your time is spend in a cluttered smelly basement. The garden is a weed patch, the patio was surrounded by dirty plastic flowers and looks over a weedy gravel parking spot. The web also says this is close to the centre of town. Her opinion of the centre of town is a small grocery store, you are across the harbour from what I would consider centre of town and must use a water taxi to cross. The bed in the second room was the most uncomforable bed in recent memory. The bathrooms were not very nice and definetely not "your own private bathroom" as there was no lock and the other room guests prefered "our" bathroom to the poor set up that was their's. In our bathroom there were over 35 partial bottles of shampoos, body wash products and stacks of mismatched towels cluttering up the space along with more dust. We arrived on foot from the boat and Marie scammed us into paying in advance stating she was going into Port Alberni and wanted to do her banking. So not only did we feel trapped, we did not notice till later that the house next door was also a B & B and we wished we had looked into moving. We also had to deal with several insect bites we suspect were from the room.
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| "The Best Customer Service" |
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by apple (from Seattle, WA)
May 2007 - We had a really great time at one of the coolest places for a real bargain!
If you are an outdoorsy kind of person, and love to eat big breakfasts, sleep in luxurious beds, and then get up and kayak your brains out, then Bamfield is the location, and Marie’s B&B is the place!
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| "Simply perfect" |
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by Tom (from Saint Louis)
June 2006 - As I now plan my annual vacation, I am again returning to Marie's B&B. When I stayed there last year, I was originally drawn to the place because of its closeness to hiking trail and the inexpensive lodging costs. I found the place much like the home I had grown up in yet Marie also made it a point to give me privacy when I wanted it. I found the room clean, the food more than adequate, and value for my money beyond comparison. Quite simply, you can't go wrong with Marie's B&B if you are concerned about cost and want a place to relax and unwind. I am certainly going to return to this B&B.
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| "The Best B&B" |
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by Sally (from Peterborough, Ontario)
May 2006 - My stay at Marie’s Bed and Breakfast was wonderful!!!! The food was great, and the rooms were really comfortable and clean. Both rooms (my party occupied both of the available rooms) had a really great view of the inlet. The location is close to the heart of the town—the main store, government dock, and main roads in and out of the village—and to the Marine station (the reason for our trip).
There is another portion of the town across the inlet, but you will need a boat or to set up transportation with the local water taxi to get across the inlet. This is not a problem, as the town and its tourist industry are set up for this kind of water transportation.
It is by far the most affordable option in town, and the host is really friendly and accommodating. She helped us with our plans and getting around (eg calling the water taxi and she even helped us get out to the west coast trail head).
This is a bed and breakfast—i.e. a room in someone’s house. But you still have a lot of privacy and all the amenities of a hotel. Your room is set off on its own floor in the lower level of the house. You have your own private enterance and share bathrooms with the other guests. But there are three bathrooms, all very lovely with tons of extra towels and supplies (should you run out, like we did!), so “needing to go right now!” is never a problem.
The rooms also have a lot of extra features, like entertainment like tons of movies and information resources such as local guidebooks, history books, and local art. You also have the option of preparing meals in your own room—a real rarity in any kind of accommodation.
I strongly recommend Pacena Beach, the west coast trail, and the marine station!
If you are looking for a real deal and a home-away-from home, then this is the place for you!!!!!
--S. C.
Peterborough, Ontario
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| Note about Marie's Bed & Breakfast Bamfield Reviews: Please note that the above reviews about Marie's Bed & Breakfast Bamfield reflect the subjective opinion of individual readers and not the opinion of ReviewBlue.com or its affiliates. If you represent the Marie's Bed & Breakfast Bamfield and wish to comment on any of these reviews, we encourage you to use the management response feature. |
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