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A Northwest Snapshot

British Columbia | Canada

As you leave the hustle and bustle of cosmopolitan VANCOUVER and cross the Port Mann Bridge, the pastoral Fraser Valley opens up before you. You see a mixture of cityscapes and cows or graceful horses on green meadows.

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VICTORIA

British Columbia | Canada

300C FEATURE DESTINATION: Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

VICTORIA has a lot to live up to. Leading US travel magazine Condé Nast Traveler has voted it one of the world’s top-ten cities to visit, and world number one for ambience and environment. And it’s not named after a queen and an era for nothing. Victoria has gone to town in serving up lashings of fake Victoriana and chintzy commercialism – tearooms, Union Jacks, bagpipers, pubs and ersatz echoes of empire confront you at every turn. Much of the waterfront area has an undeniably quaint and likeable English feel – “Brighton Pavilion with the Himalayas for a backdrop”, as Kipling remarked – and Victoria has more British-born residents than anywhere in Canada, but its tourist potential is exploited chiefly for American visitors who make the short sea journey from across the border. Despite the seasonal influx, and the sometimes atrociously tacky attractions designed to part tourists from their money, it’s a small, relaxed and pleasantly sophisticated place, worth lingering in if only for its inspirational museum. It’s also rather genteel in parts, something underlined by the number of gardens around the place and some nine hundred hanging baskets that adorn much of the downtown area during the summer. Though often damp, the weather here is extremely mild: Victoria’s meteorological station has the distinction of being the only one in Canada to record a winter in which the temperature never fell below freezing.

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WHISTLER

British Columbia | Canada

300C FEATURE DESTINATION: Whistler, British Columbia, Canada

WHISTLER , 56km beyond Squamish, is Canada’s finest four-season resort, and frequently ranks among most people’s world top-five winter ski resorts. In 1996, for the first time ever, Ski , Snow Country and Skiing magazines were unanimous in voting it North America’s top skiing destination. Skiing and snowboarding are clearly the main activities, but all manner of other winter sports are possible and in summer the lifts keep running to provide supreme highline hiking and other outdoor activities (not to mention North America’s finest summer skiing). Standards are high, and for those raised on the queues and waits at European resorts, the ease with which you can get onto the slopes here will come as a pleasant surprise.

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VANCOUVER

British Columbia | Canada

300C FEATURE DESTINATION: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

World Class City by many standards. Has been declared for several years in a row as one of the most liveable cities on the globe. Global focus will be on Vancouver and premier ski resort Whistler in 2010.

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RICHMOND

British Columbia | Canada

300C FEATURE DESTINATION: Richmond, British Columbia, Canada

On an island at the mouth of the Fraser River, Richmond first was settled in 1879. The town grew and prospered with its farming, fishing and waterborne trade industries. Today, Richmond’s major industries include aviation, berry farming, high technology and manufacturing.

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KELOWNA

British Columbia | Canada

300C DESTINATION FEATURE: Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada

That said, the lakefront and beaches, though heavily developed, aren’t too bad, and off-season Kelowna’s undeniably pretty downtown can make a good couple of days’ respite from mountains and forests. Its attractions are increasingly well-known across BC and remarkable jumps in population have taken place over the last few years: 37,000 people, many of them retirees, have moved here since 1990, creating something of a development nightmare for local planners. Main attractions are the public beach off City Park , a lovely green space that fronts downtown, and the strips along Lakeshore Road south of Kelowna’s famed pontoon bridge, which tend to attract a younger, trendier crowd – Rotary Beach here is a windsurfers’ hangout, and Boyce Gyro Park , just north, is where the town’s teenagers practice their preening. Across the bridge and 2km and 14km respectively up the lake’s west bank, Bear Creek and Fintry Provincial Parks are lovely spots with great beaches and campsites, but they are also horrendously popular (reservations possible at both ).

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KAMLOOPS

British Columbia | Canada

300C DESTINATION FEATURE: Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada

Almost any trip in southern British Columbia brings you sooner or later to KAMLOOPS , a town which has been a transport centre from time immemorial – its name derives from the Shuswap word for “meeting of the rivers” – and which today marks the meeting point of the Trans-Canada and Yellowhead (South) highways, the region’s principal transcontinental roads, as well as the junction of the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National railways. The largest interior town in southern British Columbia (pop. 82,000), it’s fairly unobjectionable, except when the wind blows from the uptown sawmills, bringing in a putrid smell that hangs heavy in the air. If you’re on public transport, there’s no particular need to spend any time here; if you’re camping or driving, however, it makes a convenient provisions stop, especially for those heading north on Hwy 5 or south on the Coquihalla Hwy, neither of which has much in the way of facilities.

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