Western Canada is a natural paradise: mind-blowingly, breath-robbingly beautiful. Such splendor is best enjoyed from one of the region's new sort of ecolodges, which are bringing a high level of comfort and sophistication to the wilderness experience. The sheer profusion of fauna (the place is crawling, creeping, and swimming with wildlife), the off-the-grid unspoiled nature, and the muscular ruggedness of the landscape would be formidable obstacles to contend with on your own. How fortunate, then, that the following places offer not mere insulating accommodations but memorably luxurious ones.

The area code is 604 except where noted. Rates quoted are for the month of May, when most of the lodges open for the season; package rates are per person.

The Lodges North of Tofino on Vancouver Island, Clayoquot Wilderness Resorts has a split personality. The Wilderness Outpost, which opened in 2000, is a sumptuous yet rustic tent encampment in a storybook setting. At the 16-room floating Quait Bay lodge, everything is included, from round-trip airfare from Vancouver and food and wine to horseback riding, kayaking, hiking, and even massage in a spa or tent billowing with the breeze off the river (888-333-5405; wildretreat.com Outpost, three nights, $2,533; Quait Bay, three nights, $1,866-$3,040; other packages available).

Opened in 1999 and partnered with the posh Rosewood hotel group in 2001, the magical King Pacific Lodge has 17 guest rooms that range from the simplest wilderness-view standard to a suite facing the water, where Kevin Costner stayed (987-5452; www.kingpacificlodge.com three days, about $3,100, including round-trip airfare from Vancouver, food, drinks, and most activities. Ocean-fishing and heli-fly-fishing packages cost more).

If your jones for British Columbia carries past the summer season, consider the new 11-room Torwood Lodge, near Fort St. John, in central B.C., which is open year-round. Summer adventures include wildlife viewing, heli-fly-fishing, hiking; in winter, there's heli-snowboarding, -skiing, and -snowshoeing, as well as plain old terrestrial snowmobiling. A three-day heli-fly-fishing package is a comparatively reasonable $1,700, and a six-day multiventure package, including heli-hiking, river cruising, and wildlife viewing, is $2,300 to $2,500. The lodge opened last August (250-787-6406; peacereachadventures.com/torwood_lodge.html).

The Minette Bay Lodge, near the town of Kitimat (pop. 11,000), is also open year-round. It has only seven rooms, a sitting room, and a library, and therefore the feel of a B&B with thrills—heli-hiking, heli-fly-fishing, kayaking, saltwater fishing, bear viewing. Packages include a seven-day helicopter adventure for $8,678 and the Coastal Wilderness Activities package, also seven days, with tamer hiking, bird-watching, and ocean fishing for $2,112 (250-632-2907; minettebaylodge.com).

Worth considering, too, is Sentry Mountain Lodge, near Golden, which opened last year: Although not as fancy as some of the others, it is certainly exclusive, with just four rooms and accessible only by helicopter (250-344-7227; sentrymountainlodge.com three-night packages from $700).