getting to know n Western Canada
n Vancouver’s Granville Island
when to go
Tourism Vancouver/John Sinal
Western Canada has a similar summer climate to that of the UK although parts of interior British Columbia enjoy hot summer days. The west coast is prone to some rain, but May-September will suit most for touring the country by car, coach or train. Ski the Rockies resorts or Whistler in BC from November through until early May.
n Yoho National Park, BC
Tourism British Columbia/JF Bergeron
western canada facts
getting there Air Canada (www.aircanada.com) flies daily from London Heathrow to Vancouver and Calgary year round and daily to Edmonton from April. Connecting flights to smaller interior airports are served by Air Canada Jazz. British Airways (www.ba.com) has daily flights to Calgary and Vancouver while Virgin Atlantic (www.virgin-atlantic.com) will fly to Vancouver four times a week from May-October. Canadian Affair (www.canadianaffair.com) has regular charter flights to Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary from May to October.
floral displays of 55-acre Butchart Gardens, a popular attraction. The city itself blossoms with plants and flowers, and it is the only place in Canada where palm trees grow. You can also take a boat trip from Victoria to see killer whales, otherwise known as orcas. There is a resident pod of about 80 which lives in its waters. Vancouver Island’s rugged Pacific coast is a long trek from Victoria but is worth it for its natural splendour. The road from Nanaimo to Tofino is one of the most spectacular in the world and goes through towering, oldgrowth forests and through the stunning Pacific Rim National Park.
getting around Canada’s roads make for easy driving and fly-drive holidays are the most popular offered by the tour operators below. You can also rent motorhomes or take an escorted coach tour. Brewster Tours (www.brewster.ca) operates coach sightseeing tours through the Rockies while the Rocky Mountaineer (www.rockymountaineer.com) scenic daylight rail journey has various routes through the Rockies to Vancouver and Whistler.
Lively downtown
12 tlm n the travel & leisure magazine
www.tlm-magazine.co.uk
tour operators Operators offering Canada include Bridge & Wickers (www.bridgeandwickers.co.uk), 1st Class Holidays (www.1stclassholidays.com), Canada4U (www.canada4u.co.uk), Frontier Canada (www.frontier-canada.co.uk), Prestige Holidays (www.prestigeholidays.co.uk), Audley Travel (www.audleytravel.com), Tailor Made Travel (www.tailor-made.co.uk) and Thomas Cook Holidays (www.thomascook.com). n Brewster Ice Explorer Travel Alberta
Vancouver enjoys a stunning peninsula setting flanked by mountains and sea. It pulsates with a lively downtown full of shops, restaurants and bars, a large Chinatown and the funky Gastown and Granville Island districts. Stanley Park is one of the most popular places for locals and visitors. A 1,000-acre forested park, it is Vancouver’s green lungs with wooded trails and a perimeter path offering joggers, walkers and cyclists a sweeping vista of downtown from across the water. A favourite stopping off point is the display of totem poles at Brockton Point while other attractions include the Vancouver Aquarium (www.vanaqua.org), which has beluga whales, sharks, sea lions and otters among its 60,000 marine creatures. Stanley Park’s totem poles are new, but you can see many excellent surviving examples of north-west coast First Nations totem poles at the Museum of Anthropology (www.moa.ubc.ca) Across Lions Gate Bridge on the North Shore are Grouse Mountain and the Capilano Suspension Bridge, both popular summer excursions. In summer, Vancouverites head to the coast to picnic, sunbathe or play. A favourite spot is English Bay Beach, where the annual Celebration of Light fireworks competition lights up the skies at the end of July. From Sunset Beach, another popular summer hangout, you can take a water bus resembling an overgrown bath-
tourist information Tourism British Columbia: http://uk.britishcolumbia.travel Travel Alberta: http://remembertobreathe.com Canadian Tourism Commission: http://uk.canada.travel
tub toy across to Granville Island to browse the public market and boutique shops and take a guided tour of Granville Island Brewing, Canada’s oldest microbrewery. Vancouver is actually my favourite city in the world and one I never tire of visiting, with its laid-back, outdoors lifestyle and a natural wonderland right on its doorstep. Like Calgary, it, too has hosted the world’s top winter athletes for an Olympiad. Unlike Calgary, I haven’t found somewhere high there to throw myself off.
Winter 2011/12