Canada

It’s not just the land of hockey and moose, ya know!

Tame Winter Pushes Canadian Festival Organizers to Buy Snow

There’s no business like snow business ©blmiers2 Countries all over the world are singing praises of what seems to be a record winter with less snow and warmer temperatures. But the milder season isn’t helping Winnipeg, Manitoba. With less snow than usual, the city had to buy 200 loads of snow to accommodate their annual [...]

Human-Like Sculptures Cause Controversy Around the World

Mark Jenkins Installation / Pictoplasma 2011 ©MatiasR Artist Mark Jenkins has spent the last few years travelling the world and installing his controversial life-like sculptures. Civilians have been so shocked by his sculptures that they’ve called the ambulance and police to help what they thought were real struggling or dead people. Perhaps the most controversal [...]

Lesser-Known Groundhog Day Celebrations

A surprised Mayor Bloomberg with Staten Island Chuck © latimes.com North America’s favorite seasonal weatherman, Punxsutawney Phil, has a bit of competition on Groundhog Day. Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania has been home to the largest and oldest celebration, dating back to the late 1800′s. But other groundhogs stretching from Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia to Lilburn, Georgia offer more “unique” celebrations. [...]

Crossing the U.S. Border…There’s an App for That?

iPad © smemon A Canadian man purportedly used a scanned copy of his passport pulled up on his iPad to cross the U.S. border. Martin Reisch said Tuesday a slightly annoyed U.S. border officer let him cross into the United States from Quebec after he presented a scanned copy of his passport on his Apple [...]

Santas Take Over Whistler in Annual Santa Ski

Santa Ski ©whistlerblackcomb Didn’t matter who’s been naughty or nice, on December 17th, Whistler Blackcomb ski resort in British Columbia gave away free lift tickets to the first 75 costumed Sanata Clauses that came to the resort. The giveaway is part of the resort’s annual “Dress Like Santa Day.” There’s no registration for the event, [...]

Website Offers Globetrotters Virtual Passport Stamps

Passport Pages ©jonrawlinson In an era of open European borders and passports with digital chips the passport stamp is now almost the exception instead of the rule in international travel. Now, a new website and app called Visastamper is offering a virtual passport service to give travelers the souvenir stamps from all of the countries [...]

A Six Year Global Proposal

Wedding Rings ©Valerie’s Genealogy Photos A youtube video of a six year marriage proposal written letter-by-letter on paper and spelled out across the world has gone viral. For six years a Canadian pilot and his girlfriend travelled around the world taking pictures of themselves at famous landmarks holding letters spelling “We always knew”. On his [...]

Canada Unveils New Plastic $100 Bill, Will Abandon Paper Money [Video]

From the LA Times: This week, our friend to the north introduced the first in its new line of all-plastic notes — a cool $100 bill made out of a single sheet of plastic polymer and tricked out with all kinds of high-tech security features. In a statement, the Bank of Canada said that the [...]

Stunning 360-Degree View from Bottom of Inflight Helicopter [Video]

Putting aside the fact that this is an ad, it’s truly stunning indeed. One commenter on Gadling noted this may (I would say should) be the future of video advertising for adventure tour providers.

Explore Canada Like a Local: Chasing Whales in Quebec’s Saguenay-St. Lawrence Marine Park

After two days of hiking and exploring Quebec’s La Mauricie National Park, I quickly discovered that the province has plenty of stunning natural scenery to offer. My brief time in the park had quickly come to an end however. And it was now on to Saguenay-St. Lawrence Marine Park for two nights of beach camping, [...]

Explore Canada Like a Local: A Long Walk Through Quebec’s La Mauricie National Park

I had but one full day exploring Quebec City. But (thanks in no small part to Parcs Canada) in a mere eight hours, I relived and discovered more than 400 years of the city’s history. After which, it was time to push on towards the sprawling wilderness of the province’s National Parks.

Explore Canada Like a Local: How to Relive Quebec City’s Fascinating 400-Year History

I came to Quebec to backpack the province’s national parks. To step into the vast Canadian wilderness with nothing but a backpack and tent in tow. To live for nine full days not unlike Les Stroud … if Les traveled in a cush, four-wheel drive SUV, broke for daily coffee runs and relaxed on short-haul [...]

Explore Quebec (and Vancouver … and Toronto) Like a Local

Canada’s always held a special place in my heart. Some of my fondest travel memories are of cramming my five closest high school friends into a beat-up 70s Mercedes Benz and driving six hours north to the (at least to us school age Americans) Xanadu that was Montreal. My grandmother was born and raised on [...]

Toronto: An Underrated Destination

North America has become a very popular travel destination of late and people head to New York, Boston, San Francisco and Vancouver on a regular basis. These cities are all absolutely fantastic yet there are other spots in North America that are well worth visiting; one of the best of these is Canada’s largest city, [...]

Canadian Man Finishes 11 Year Walk

Shoes © poolie Jean Béliveau of Montreal will finish an 11-year uninterrupted walk around the world this month. From the Toronto Star: He walked through America, Mexico, Latin America, Africa, Europe and Asia. Through dozens of pairs of shoes. Through doubt. Joy. Imprisonment. Culture shock. Even, for a time, through puppy-dog love. …Béliveau began this [...]

Woman Sends Parents’ Ashes Traveling

Coffin © l2f1 A Canadian woman is demonstrating her parents’ true dedication to travel, even post-mortem: A Canadian woman is looking for volunteers to take her late parents’ ashes travelling around the world. Deb Green, 45, from Vancouver, says her mum and dad could never afford to fulfill their dreams of seeing the world. So, [...]

The Gap Sues Gap Adventures to Change Name

Gap © brownpau Toronto-based adventure travel company and backpacker favorite Gap Adventures is changing its name to G Adventures following a successful legal challenge from clothing retailer The Gap. From Gadling: American clothes retailing behemoth The Gap filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against the Canadian outfitters, claiming they unfairly made use of the word “gap,” [...]

Photo of the Moment: Northern Lights of Quebec, Canada

New Heli-Hiking Tours Take Off

Mountain & Helicopter © snappa2006 The newest trend in hiking and camping, called heli-hiking or heli-camping, is taking intrepid trekkers to new heights. MSNBC explains: Adventurous hikers and campers simply hitch a ride on a helicopter to a remote location that would otherwise take days to reach. At the top of a mountain, the helicopter [...]

Take the Train from New York to London

Train ©conner395 Forget flying, travelers in the near future may be able to take a train across North America, Asia and Europe. Russia has already given the go ahead to a nearly $100 billion tunnel project beneath the Bering Strait. The tunnel would be 65-miles long and link Russia to Alaska. The proposed tunnel is [...]

Tipsy Travel: Favorite Drinks from Around the World

Hawaiian Mai Tai © Sarah_Ackerman As a traveler you can explore a new country in a variety of ways. You can delve into its history and art at museums. You can taste the local flavors at markets and restaurants. … or you can get straight down to business and pull up a stool at the [...]

Tired of the Daily Grind, Japanese Man Walks Around the World

World At My Feet © Shahram Sharif Japanese man Masahito Yoshida has walked 20,000 km across Europe, Asia and North America. His motivation? Getting away from the daily grind. “When I was in Japan, the same every day. I wake up, I work, I ate. The next day, the same. I wake up, I work, [...]

Canadian Man Living in Vancouver Airport for 80 Days

Vancouver Airport © fujitariuji A Canadian man will be spending the next 80 days confined to the Vancouver airport. No, this is not a remake of Tom Hanks’ movie The Terminal. Jaeger Mah, 29, campaigned for two weeks until being named the clear winner of the Live@YVR contest. In celebration of the airport’s 80th anniversary, [...]

Canada Roundup: Cops, Lollipops, and Living at the Airport

Canadian Flag© Gavin St. Ours Time for a roundup of what’s happening with our friendly neighbors to north. First, from The Globe and Mail, comes the revelation that in order to pacify rambunctious drunken crowds of Canadians, all you have to do is hand them lollipops. According to Victoria Councillor Charlayne Thornton-Joe, this strategy successfully [...]

48 Hours in Whistler: A Summer Guide to British Columbia’s Outdoor Playground

The Whistler-Blackcomb resort area is routinely voted among the best of its kind in North America and with good reason. It’s a vibrant community that boasts world class skiing in the winter and a host of summertime activities, including endless hiking, cycling, nature watching and an après-ski scene that continues long after ski season. For [...]

One Day in Calgary: Backpacking Some of Canada’s Most Beautiful Landscapes

Backpackers all over the world are constantly looking for the next great adventure. However, many Americans are probably on a budget for both time and money and can’t afford an expensive plane ticket to a distant country. Luckily, American outdoors enthusiasts have an easily accessible option available to quench their thirst for adventure while still [...]

5 Great Summer Adventures in British Columbia

Scattered Clouds Over Victoria, British Columbia © Evan Leeson The Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games in Vancouver in 2010 are over, but that doesn’t mean that British Columbia is not worth visiting now. In fact, the Olympics brought a surge of infrastructure and development to the region, and this summer provides the ideal time for [...]

Toronto Artist Turns Abandoned Bike Into Sculpture, City Threatens Fine for “storing bike on public property”

© (unknown) A Toronto artist repainted an abandoned bike that had been locked in front of a storefront gallery for years, sanding it and spraypainting it eyepopping pink and adding a flower-basket. This eyesore-to-sculpture transition was well-loved in the neighbourhood, but the City of Toronto decided that the act of decorating the bike has converted [...]

Auto-Tuning, Fur Coats and a Casio Keyboard: The New Face of Tourism Vancouver?

Behold this: I can’t help wondering whether this is a real, honest-to-goodness effort at a tourism video … that thoroughly failed. Or is it an incredibly clever viral video? If the latter, kudos to you, Tourism Vancouver, because you got me. Truly. Who would’ve thought that auto-tuning this gussied up, fur coat-wearing “gal about town” [...]

5 Great Adventures in Ontario This Summer

40 Second Sunset, Ottawa, Ontario © ViaMoi “There’s more to discover in Ontario,” reads the slogan of the province’s tourism board. But what exactly can you do in Canada’s most populous province? With the summer fast approaching, it’s an ideal time to visit the country as a whole! But here are five trip ideas to [...]

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