Destination Guide: Canada

Canada is a vast country, in fact it is the world’s second largest nation. Most of the population is clustered in a relatively narrow southern belt that boasts all the nation’s large cities and nearly all its industries. The silent Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, where 100,000 people dot 2.4 million sq. km (1.5 million sq. miles) remain a frontier, stretching to the arctic shores and embracing thousands of lakes no one has ever charted, counted, or named.

Elements of the Canadian economy are still adapting to the landmark North American Free Trade Agreement concluded with the States in 1989. While free trade hasn’t done much to revive the smokestack industries that once were the engines of eastern Canada, the agreement, combined with a weak Canadian dollar in the 1990s, was actually good for much of Canada’s huge agricultural heartland.

Bounded by the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic oceans, Canada is a land of extraordinary natural beauty, with dramatic land and seascapes, and vibrant cosmopolitan cities. The country is divided into 10 provinces and 3 territories.

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Nova Scotia, the heart of Canada’s maritime provinces, Nova Scotia has brooding landscapes, wild seacoasts, and historic fishing villages. Its name means New Scotland, after all. Centered on a beautiful natural harbor, Halifax is one of Canada’s most charming small cities, with an abundance of 19th-century stone architecture. New Brunswick is wedged between the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick is truly maritime. At Fundy National Park, you can view some of the world’s most powerful tides along a wilderness coastline. Grand Manan and Campobello Islands are famed for wildlife and birding opportunities. The cities of Fredericton and Saint John ooze historic charm.

Niagara Falls(Ontario) is still a wonder of nature, despite its commercial exploitation. You can experience the falls from the cockpit of a helicopter or from the decks of the Maid of the Mist, which takes you into the roaring maelstrom. The least intimidating view is from the Skylon Tower.

Vancouver has most beautiful setting of any city in Canada or indeed the world, there are numerous places to take in the view of mountains, city, and ocean: on the oft-snow-clad peaks of Grouse Mountain, accessible via a quick tram ride; or from the window of your harbor-side hotel room in the Pan Pacific Hotel Vancouver. But the best way remains the cheapest: Round about sunset, wander to English Bay Beach near the corner of Denman and Davie streets, grab an ice cream or a coffee or nothing at all, and watch as the sun shimmers red, and then descends behind Vancouver Island, lighting the Coast Mountains, Vancouver, and English Bay in a warm red glow.

Highway 99, The Sea to Sky Highway from Vancouver to Lillooet takes you from a dramatic seacoast past glaciers, pine forests, and a waterfall that cascades from a mountaintop and through Whistler’s majestic glacial mountains. The next leg of the 4-hour drive winds up a series of switchbacks to the thickly forested Cayoosh Creek valley and on to the craggy mountains surrounding the Fraser River Gold Rush town of Lillooet.  Icefields Parkway is one of the world’s grandest mountain drives. Cruising along it is like a trip back to the ice ages. The parkway climbs past glacier-notched peaks to the Columbia Icefields, a sprawling cap of snow, ice, and glacier at the very crest of the Rockies.

The red-sand beaches of Prince Edward might turn white swim trunks a bit pinkish, but it’s hard to beat a day or two splashing around these tepid waters while admiring pastoral island landscapes. The island possesses several children’s amusements nearby, as well. The pearl of the Laurentians is Mont-Tremblant, just an hour and a half from Montréal and the highest peak in eastern Canada at 968m (3,176 ft.). It’s a mecca in the winter for skiers and snowboarders from all over and is repeatedly voted the top resort in eastern North America by Ski magazine. Development has been particularly heavy in the resort town; the area gains back some of its charm in the summer with thinned-out traffic.

Wherever you see wooden lobster traps piled on a wharf, you’ll know a fresh lobster meal isn’t far away. The most productive lobster fisheries are around Shediac, New Brunswick, and all along Nova Scotia’s Atlantic coast. Sunny days are ideal for cracking open a crustacean while sitting at a wharf-side picnic table, preferably with a locally brewed beer close at hand.  The unforgiving rocky and boggy soil of Newfoundland’s blustery island resists most crops, but it also produces some of the most delicious berries in Canada. Look for roadside stands or pick your own blueberries, strawberries, partridge berries, or bakeapples. Many restaurants add these berries to desserts (cheesecake, custard) when they’re in season, too.