My friend Bart Jordans has just published the second edition of his excellent guide to trekking in Bhutan: Bhutan, a Trekker’s Guide. This comprehensive book is the only guide dedicated to trekking in Bhutan. It covers all the major treks, including the famous snowman trek, often said to be one of the world’s most difficult treks.
For additional information on trekking in Bhutan, check out Bart’s Bhutan Treks website, or my site on hiking and trekking in Bhutan.
The first ultra luxury expedition ship, the Prince Albert II, has just taken on its first passengers in London. Think marble-floored bathrooms, private balconies, a library, and to top it off, The Humidor, where connoisseurs can enjoy the finest cigars and cognacs.
It will take a cruise of Labrador this summer, including a visit to Torngat Mountains National Park, adding to the number of small cruise ships already exploring the Labrador coast. It will be a luxury cruise, for sure, but nowhere as authentic as a trip on the local Northern Ranger! Hmm, cigars or hanging out with the locals? I’ll hang out with the locals!
The Northern Ranger is back on its northern Labrador route for the summer. The schedule is available from the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador website.
Four years after the disastrous Okanagan wildfires destroyed the historic trestles in the Myra Canyon on the 455 km long Kettle Valley Rail trail, they are about to reopen. All trestles have been restored to historic specifications. The reopening celebrations are June 22.
Canada is blessed with a lot of excellent mainstream events, but it is not often that one comes across a new, small, local event as authentic as the Trails, Tales, and Tunes festival in Norris Point, Newfoundland and Labrador. This ten-day festival, in its second year this year, showcases local talent in nightly concerts, outdoor performances, and of course, kitchen parties. To round it out, there are interpretive walks, and even a traditional jiggs dinner.
The talent at this year’s concerts was amazing, but the best part were the kitchen parties. Here various artists got together in impromptu jam-sessions. Even the organizers agreed that the 1AM session in a local pub (pictured) featuring Daniel Payne and Bernard Felix was probably the best jam session they’d ever heard. BTW, Bernard is one of the world’s top accordion players.
If you are anywhere close to Gros Morne in May, then don’t miss next year’s installment, May 15-24.
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.