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Destination Cities
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- A Northwest Snapshot
- ACAPULCO
- ANAHEIM
- ANCHORAGE
- AUCKLAND
- BANFF
- CALGARY
- CANCUN
- CAPE BRETON
- DENVER
- DISNEY WORLD & DISNEYLAND
- Edinburgh
- EDMONTON
- FLORIDA, USA
- HALIFAX
- HONOLULU
- JASPER
- KAMLOOPS
- KAUA'I
- KELOWNA
- KINGSTON
- LAKE LOUISE
- LAKE TAHOE
- LAS VEGAS
- LONDON
- LONDON Canada
- LONG BEACH
- LOS ANGELEES
- LOS CABOS
- MAUI
- MEXICO CITY
- MIAMI
- MISSISSAUGA
- MONTREAL
- NEW ORLEANS
- NEW YORK CITY
- NIAGARA FALLS
- OTTAWA
- PALM SPRINGS
- PLAYA DEL CARMEN
- QUEBEC CITY
- REGINA
- RENO
- RICHMOND
- SAN DIEGO
- SAN FRANCISCO
- SASKATOON
- SEATTLE
- SYDNEY
- TORONTO
- VANCOUVER
- VICTORIA
- WHISTLER
- WINDSOR
- WINNIPEG
A Northwest Snapshot
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.
JASPER
300C FEATURE DESTINATION: Jasper, Alberta, Canada
- JASPER TOWNSITE *
JASPER ’s small-town feel comes as a relief after the razzmatazz of Banff: its streets still have the windswept, open look of a frontier town and, though the mountains don’t ring it with quite the same majesty as Banff, you’ll probably feel the town better suits its wild surroundings. Situated at the confluence of the Miette and Athabasca rivers, its core centres around just two streets: Connaught Drive , which contains the bus and train terminal, restaurants, motels and park information centre, and – a block to the west – the parallel Patricia Street , lined with more shops, restaurants and the odd hotel. The rest of the central grid consists of homely little houses and the fixtures of small-town life: the post office, library, school and public swimming pool. Apart from the Yellowhead Museum & Archives at 400 Pyramid Rd, with its fur trade and railroad displays (mid-May to early Sept daily 10am-9pm; early Sept to Oct daily 10am-5pm; Nov to mid-May Thurs-Sun 10am-5pm; $3 or donation; tel 852-3013) and a cable car , nothing here even pretends to be a tourist attraction; this is a place to sleep, eat and stock up. If you’re interested in getting to know a little more about the town or park from the locals, contact the Friends of Jasper National Park (tel 852-4767), who offer guided walks between July and August, or pick up Jasper: A Walk in the Past from local bookshops. If you’re still itching for something to do and have a car, a lot of people head 58km northeast of town for a dip in Miette Hot Springs .
BANFF
300C FEATURE DESTINATION: Banff, Alberta, Canada
Banff and Lake Louise have been welcoming international visitors for more than a century. In 1883 the attempts of three Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) workers to stake a claim to the natural hot springs they had discovered bubbling from the base of Sulphur Mountain led to the establishment of Canada’s first national park.
Today, Banff National Park (6,641 square km / 2,564 square miles) is one of four adjoining mountain parks comprising more than 20,235 square km / 7,813 square miles of spectacular Canadian Rocky Mountain landscape. For current visitors, bathing in these same hot springs is but one of many activities offered in Canada’s foremost National Park. When you visit the Banff/Lake Louise area you will see why each year more than 4.5 million visitors come to enjoy the unique feeling of the Canadian Rockies and to experience why the United Nations in 1985 declared our area a “World Heritage Site”.
VICTORIA
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.
WHISTLER
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.
VANCOUVER
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.
RICHMOND
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.
CAPE BRETON
| Canada
300C FEATURE DESTINATION: Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada
Cape Breton Island is Nova Scotia’s northernmost land mass, and a place of unsurpassed natural beauty. One of its main attractions is wildly scenic Cape Breton Highlands National Park, located at the far north edge of the island’s western tip. Others are the authentically restored fort at Louisbourg and scenic Bras d’Or Lake, the inland saltwater lake that almost bisects the island.
By air, road, rail or sea, Cape Breton Island is easily accessible. The visitor is immediately swept up in the striking beauty of the landscape and the warmth and welcome of the people living there.
LAKE LOUISE
300C DESTINATION FEATURE: Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada
LAKE LOUISE VILLAGE doesn’t amount to much, but it’s an essential supply stop, with more or less everything you need in terms of food and shelter (at a price). Most of it centres round a single mall, Samson Mall, and car park, with a smart youth hostel and a few outlying motels dotted along the service road to the north. There’s almost nothing to do in the village, and unless you have a vehicle to take you to the lakes (or rent a bike) you’re likely to be bored. The impressive Lake Louise Information Centre , a few steps from the car park, offers not only information but also high-tech natural-history exhibits (daily: mid-June to early Sept 8am-8pm; early Sept to late Sept & early to mid-June 8am-6pm; Oct-May 9am-4pm; tel 522-3833). Almost as useful is the excellent Woodruff and Blum bookshop (tel 522-3842) in the mall, which has a full range of maps, guides and background reading. A couple of doors down, Wilson Mountain Sports (tel 522-3636) is good for bike rental (from $8-12 per hour, $29-45 a day), rollerblade rentals (from $5-8 per hour), fishing tackle for sale or rent (fly rod $11, spin rod $7 and waders $10) and equipment rental (stoves $7, pack $9 and tent $19). They’ll also fill you in on the possiblity of canoe rentals for trips downstream on the Bow River to Banff.
KELOWNA
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 ).