Lumberjacks, beavers, hockey fanatics, Mounties and maple syrup spring immediately to mind. While Canada certainly provides all of these traditional associations in abundance, this awe-inspiring country has so much more to offer than a slew of cliches. With its unrivalled outdoor adventure facilities, its unforgettable natural landscapes and its exceptionally cosmopolitan and progressive cities, Canada has plenty to offer those seeking cutting-edge culture as well as adventure junkies looking for a serious adrenaline kick. Popular tourist destinations include: the magnificent Rocky Mountains around Banff and Lake Louise, high-end luxury ski resorts such as Whistler and Blackcomb, the French-speaking cities of Montreal or Quebec, or the uber-cool and perpetually bustling urban centres of Vancouver or Toronto. Whether visiting an Inuit lodge in Nunavut, taking a dog-sled ride through the Yukon to view the spectacular northern lights blaze across the night sky, or indulging in some lovely high tea on Vancouver Island, you are bound to find plenty of activities to keep you blissfully engaged in this exceptionally diverse and incomprehensibly vast nation.
Extending across thousands of square kilometres of land and coast, Great Bear Rainforest makes up a vast section of the world’s biggest surviving coastal temperate rainforest. The park is situated on the Pacific coast of British Columbia, and is a natural wonderland of glacier-carved gorges, snow-capped mountains, ancient cedar groves and sparkling rivers that teem with salmon. Named for the bears that inhabit it, the park is the only place on earth that you have a chance of viewing the Kermode or ‘spirit’ bear – a subspecies of the black bear of which roughly one in 10 are pure white. Other species that inhabit the park include grizzly bears, wolves, cougars, and eagles, as well as whales, sea otters, dolphins and sea lions that frequent its coastal waters.
