To commemorate the 200th anniversary of the return of David Thompson (the greatest HBC explorer of his time) to Ontario, a fleet of canoes - the Thompson Brigade - will make its way from Rocky Mountain House to old Fort William (Thunder Bay , Ontario) this summer. This would be an amazing experience, covering more than 3,600km! I wish I had the time to go. It’s only a two month paddle.
Together with their top destinations, TripAdvisor also published their top 100 places to stay. Canada has three entries in the top luxury hotels:
17: Fairmont YVR airport hotel
27. Hotel Dominion 1912, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
95. Pan Pacific Whistler Village Centre, Whistler, British Columbia, Canada
I would have rated the Fairmont Waterfront in Vancouver or Chateau Lake Louise higher - I wouldn’t don’t see an airport hotel as a wonderful place to stay, no matter how luxurious.
The rest of the top 10 luxury hotels in Canada:
4. Auberge Saint-Antoine, Quebec City, Quebec
5. Loews Hotel Vogue, Montreal, Quebec
6. Hotel Nelligan, Montreal, Quebec
7. Four Seasons Resort Whistler, Whistler, British Columbia
8. Hotel Gault, Montreal, Quebec
9. Le Place d’Armes Hotel & Suites, Montreal, Quebec
10. Sofitel Montreal, Montreal, Quebec
Some interesting hotels among their top 10 hidden gems in Canada:
1. Harbour House Hotel, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario
4. Alpine Village - Jasper, Jasper National Park, Alberta
6. Mt. Engadine Lodge, Canmore, Alberta <- keep an eye out for this lodge. Up and coming.
8. Patricia Lake Bungalows, Jasper National Park, Alberta
9. Chateau Beauvallon Mont Tremblant, Mont Tremblant, Quebec
10. Artisan Inn, Trinity, Newfoundland and Labrador <- another property to keep an eye out for. Very cool place.
Another top 100 list, this time it’s TripAdvisor’s first ever top 100 destinations, as measured by ratings and popularity rankings.
The top destinations are:
1 Milford Sound
2 Queenstown
Canada has eight destinations in the top 100:
9 Banff
16 Victoria
19 Lake Louise
52 Vancouver
55 Niagara-on-the-Lake
61 Quebec City
77 Whistler
88 Jasper
Not bad, but what’s interesting about the entire list is that all the places are popular tourist spots; there really are no new or off-the-beaten track locations. This is obvious from the Canadian list - all tried and true locations. That is even the same for the top 25 Canadian destinations. No St. John’s Newfoundland, nothing in Nunavut, etc.
There is only one Indonesian location in the list - Ubud in Bali. But despite the smog and overcrowded streets, Beijing made it onto the list. Obviously, it’s still popular with mainstream travellers.
My friend Will Betz has a great collection of New Guinea photos, but never had a chance to post them online yet. He’s finally scanned and posted a sample. Check out the images of bowerbirds, they’re amazing. The males of these New Guinea birds build massive structures, and will collect all kinds of colourful objects to attract females. What guys won’t do to get the girl…
The sample includes some great shots from South America and Africa as well.
There has been a lot of news recently about the woes of the US airline industry. With the skyrocketing prices of fuel, airlines are starting to feel the pain - in a major way. My good friend Will Betz talks about some of the potential doomsday scenarios. If this trend continues, we could see some major impact on global tourism. Tourism in Canada would be heavily impacted as well, since we rely mainly on air travel for our international arrivals.
The travel writing industry is abuzz over the upcoming release of Thomas Kohnstamm’s book detailing his life as a Lonely Planet travel writer. He supposedly plagiarized content, didn’t visit the places he was supposed to go to, slept with waitresses, etc., etc. In reality, it turns out that it wasn’t all that bad. In a recent interview, he takes back some of the things he said in earlier interviews. Of course, by then the main stream media had picked up on the juicy tidbits.
So, are travel guides, just that - guides, or are they bibles? I have used a lot of guidebooks in my travels, and spent a lot of time sending updates to Lonely Planet’s guides. As far as I am concerned, they are just rough guides. Stuff will be missing, out of date, or wrong, but that is the fun of it. But if you find errors, don’t whine about them. Instead, take the time to write the publishers, or post an entry on the publisher’s forums.
Do I buy guidebooks when I travel? Always.
Which ones? Depends on the destination. I always compare Rough Guides, LP, and Moon Handbooks. For North America, Moon often has more in-depth titles. For other countries, Rough Guides tend to be more in-depth, with better writing (more background info, especially about culture, and more opinionated), and they cover more out-of-the-way places. But Lonely Planet covers more establishments, has more practical information, and offers more titles. For example, there are no Rough Guides for Mongolia and Bhutan.
When I go to a country for an extended period of time, I buy several guidebooks. For example, in Bhutan, you need the Lonely Planet, as well as Francoise Pommaret’s Odyssey guide, and Bart Jordan’s Bhutan, a trekker’s guide. For Mongolia, get the Lonely Planet guide and the Bradt guide.
Are the LP guides to Bhutan and Mongolia any good? Both will invariably have some errors, but Michael Kohn (Mongolia) lived there for three years, and knows the country as well as anyone writing about it. Stan Armington (who wrote earlier editions of the Bhutan guide, as well as several of the LP Nepal guides) has been in Nepal since the early 70s, and was one of LP’s first authors. He as good as they come.
There were a couple of bibles out there, though. The ultimate travel guide is probably the Indonesia Handbook by Bill Dalton, founder of Moon Publications. Sadly, it is out of print, but it put all other Indonesia guides to shame. It truly was the travel bible to Indonesia. Even so, it had its share of errors, and Bill was the first to admit it when I met him in Jayapura, West Papua. Bill spent about 20 years researching every edition of his Handbook. No travel writer has spent so much time criss-crossing the country. But in the end, it even became to much work for him.
The other one was the Moon handbook to Tibet (also out of print). About three times as thick as any other Tibet guide, it truly went into great depth. It’s a shame that both are gone now.
The National Post has listed some cool things to do in Canada this summer, such as a Mountie crash course in Regina, swimming with beluga in Churchill, to a sunset paddle off Gabriola island. Too bad that for the Far North, they only list three things in the NWT, and none in Nunavut or the Yukon. I guess Toronto reporters rarely venture north of 60.
Prince Edward Island isn’t as green in winter as it is in summer. In fact, it is rather snowy and a bit bleak. But that doesn’t mean there is nothing to do at this time of year. When I was on PEI for work recently, I decided to take a day off and meet some of the locals. I ran across Experience PEI, and asked the owners if they could organize a day for me to meet some of the locals.
Bill and Mary of Experience PEI most certainly lived up to their website’s claim of offering introduce guests to the neighbours. I started the day by carving a candle, made from coloured was and PEI sand at the Victoria Playhouse. The carving was fun, but hearing all of Ben Smith’s stories was even better. After a delightful lunch at the Maplethorpe B&B in Bedeque (best and freshest bacon in town!), we went ice fishing, or more accurately spearing. One spears small smelt with a small three-pronged spear. Apparently this is only done on PEI. It’s a lot of fun, and requires more skills than just sitting there waiting for a fish to bite a hook. Again, our guide and owner of the fish shack had many tales to tell. We finished the day with a delicious mussel and lobster dinner at the Briarcliffe Inn.
I learnt more about the island in one day than I could otherwise have in weeks. These trips are highly recommended.
People thinking of visiting Canada are looking beyond the Rockies, Niagara, and mounties, and are searching for new, exotic destinations. Undoubtedly, the hottest of these “new” destinations is Newfoundland. Of course, the Rock has been around for millions of years, but only in the past few years has it become an ” in” destination. We posted a couple of great essays on Newfoundland recently.
That is the question that the authors of a recent article on the new North Coast Trail (NCT; you saw the abbreviation here first!) asked. Their conclusion? It’s a close call, but they feel the scenery along the NCT is slightly better, and it’s more rugged. Think the WCT 20-30 years ago. This seems to be a truly hot trail. Combined with all the other attractions in the area (Cape Scott, Johnson Strait whalewatching, Sointula area) it will help put northern Vancouver Island on the map.