Sail, cruise or fly by float plane from Tofino. We took a boat with six other people to this series of natural rock pools fed by underground hot springs. We were dropped at the dock and hiked a mile through a rainforest boardwalk toward steam clouds at trail's end. The series of connected pools starts with a waterfall that provides a hot, hard shower. We stood under it for about four or five minutes--got as red as lobsters and loved it. I went down three pools closer to the ocean waves, where the cool ocean water mixes with the geothermally heated spring water and soaked in the lava rock pool until I started to feel guilty because there were other tourists and not enough "ideal" pools to go around.
I reluctantly relinquished my natural jacuzzi and we broke out our picnic lunch. Many of the people didn't seem to have thought of bringing any food and, again, I felt badly for them--but, we had only packed in enough for ourselves and our hungry kids. If you go bring water and food. You will get hungry and thirsty. There's something about a brisk hour-long boat ride, a brisk one mile uphill boardwalk in a rainforest, followed by a climb down a lava cliff through various connected soothing hot springs that just makes you ravenous.
You should also bring "water shoes" because the rocks are sharp. It can get cool even in August, so bring a towel so that when you get out, all red-skinned and warm, you can stay that way while you eat your lunch. Then, when you're dry you can get dressed in the clothes that you wore out there. We wore our bathing suits underneath our clothes so that we were the first to get undressed and into the springs--which is good if it's crowded.
The boat left us there for three hours and after we'd eaten and hiked back to the dock we were a little bored for about fifteen minutes until we figured out that there were cool featherdusters and other marine life attached to the dock pilings. That kept us entertained as the fog rolled in. That, and the sound of a new high pitched foghorn that was very different than the two-note tuba fog horn at Chesterman beach.
We got to see about a dozen whales, gray and humpback, on our way back to Tofino. The boat captain said that it is really common to see whales year-round. We were there in August. He stopped the boat and let us watch a mother and baby gray whale.
Some people prefer to take the boat one way to the springs and then go back by float plane; that way you can see the coast from an eagle's perspective. And it's quicker. But, I don't remember the boat ride seeming long.