A 'thank you' gift, made 60 years ago, from the Netherlands to Ottawa, Canada, of 100,000 tulip bulbs, was used to start the Canadian Tulip Festival. The festival has since grown into a kaleidoscope of color, with more than three million tulips decorating Canada's Capital each spring.
Reckoned to be the largest Tulip Festival in the world, all events are free and it is described as the 'festival without fences'. Canadian Tulip Festival May 2 to 19, 2008.
SEPAQ, the national park network in Québec have announced that they now have 99 ready-to-camp sites with 62 Huttopia tents and 37 tent trailers, in 13 national parks.
The French manufactured, Huttopia tents, are available from June 20, 2008 and are equipped to offer a comfortable stay, right in the heart of nature. They have a wooden platform, canvas walls and roof, two bedrooms separated by a curtain, and a living room fully furnished with camping style furniture. All the benefits of camping without the bother of transporting your own kit.
It will be possible to visit a Huttopia tent during the 7th Montréal Outdoor Festival. A tent will be set up at Parc Jean-Drapeau from May 23rd to 25th and will allow visitors to discover this latest addition to Sépaq's range of accommodation.
Canada's National History Society has recognised that special interest tourism is one of the most rapidly growing segments of the travel industry and Deborah Morrison describes on their website, how the society is now offering unique historical travel tours to satisfy their members' desire for trips with a history, or culture related activity.
Launched with the name, Beaver Travel Tours, the brand will offer tours having a strong historical focus and special guest appearances by experts. Participants will also receive a tour package that includes carefully selected reading materials from the society's archives pertinent to the tour. Initial tours will explore destinations in northern Ontario and Manitoba, in partnership with travel operators Heartland Travel International and Rail Travel Tours.
Spring has arrived in Canada but the Barrie Examiner reports that, following a major funding announcement, snowmobile clubs in the Ontario area are already looking forward to next winter.
The Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs will receive $3 million from the provincial government to help attract more sports and adventure tourists to use the province's 40,000 kilometres of snowmobile trails. It is part of an initiative to promote the province as a prime snowmobile tourism destination.
The Waterfront Trail is a waymarked trail following the shore of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River in Ontario, Canada. It connects 41 communities, 182 parks and natural areas, 152 arts and culture heritage attractions and 170 marinas and yacht clubs.
37 waterfront festivals are held annually along the trail and this year sees the first End-to-End Bike Tour, the Great Waterfront Trail Adventure. 680 km in 8 days, July 4th-11th, 2008, starting at Niagara-on-the-Lake and ending at the Quebec border.
You can register on the Great Waterfront Trail Adventure website, for the whole eight days tour, or just a part. Everyone is welcome, experienced cyclists, occasional cylists, lapsed riders, families, groups and single bikers; kids are encouraged to be a part of the adventure as well. Maps of the entire Trail, from Niagara-on-the-Lake to Brockville, are available for download.
Speed skating with a few bumps, twists and hairpin turns at the bottom of steep inclines. A measured cocktail to make sure participants are shaken and not a little stirred by the time they reach the end of the track. Enjoy this video clip, posted by rouizz, of last year's Red Bull Crashed Ice event in Quebec City.
The 400th anniversary of the founding of Québec City, takes place in 2008 (July 3rd). The year long celebrations are expected to draw many visitors to Québec, since besides anniversary celebrations, the region plays host to the World Men's Hockey Championship, the 49th Eucharistic Congress, the 4th World Youth Congress, the 73rd World Library and Information Congress, and the 12th Sommet de la Francophonie.
Reporter Jeannette J. Lee of Associated Press, has written an informative article in HeraldNet, about the Alyeska Ski Resort in Girdwood, Alaska, and the efforts by its wealthy owner, John Byrne III, a self-professed ski junkie from Utah, to encourage snow lovers to abandon the classic slopes of Whistler, Deer Valley and Aspen and head to the far north.
Jeannette J. Lee reports that this long-time niche venue for locals and adventure skiers, is undergoing a $25 million expansion, including refurbished guest rooms, to lure larger groups of winter vacationers, particularly families, to its peaks.
Negotiations are underway to open hundreds of acres of raw terrain in the Chugach Mountains to skilled off-piste or backcountry skiers and snow-boarders but beginners are also being catered for, with a new conveyor-belt lift and snow-making machines. It seems the competition on the slopes is getting hotter.
Project FeederWatch is a winter-long survey of birds that visit feeders in North American backyards, nature centers, community areas, and other locales. Participants count the highest numbers of each species they see at their feeders, from November through early April, and help scientists to track the broad-scale movements of winter bird populations and long-term trends in bird distribution and abundance.
Project FeederWatch is operated by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Bird Studies Canada and anyone with an interest in birds can participate. There are FeederWatchers of all skill levels and backgrounds, including children, families, individuals, classrooms, retired persons, youth groups, nature centers, and bird clubs.
The new season starts soon, so if your resident in North America, join up for the 2007-2008 season, which begins November 10. It can take several weeks for FeederWatch kits to arrive, so don't wait to sign up.
Over the next couple of weeks, mountain and outdoor adventure lovers are in for a treat on both sides of the Atlantic.
In Scotland, the Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival from 19 - 21 October, 2007, is an annual event, now in its fifth year, that uses films, lectures and exhibitions to inspire an enjoyment of the natural environment.
Then, in Canada, the annual Banff Mountain Festivals gets underway, from October 27 ? November 4, 2007. The Banff Mountain Festivals, which include the famous book and film festivals, are dedicated to promoting mountain culture and offer inspiring mountain stories, together with the exhilarating beauty of mountain landscapes.
Today we take a look at the charms of Nova Scotia, or more specifically Yarmouth, courtesy of the Yarmouth Marketing Group with a video created by Sue Hutchins of Chebogue Point Productions.
An area off southwest Nova Scotia, Canada, that teems with the endangered North Atlantic right whales, has been given special protections against container traffic. The area, Roseway Basin, about 80 kilometres off the coast is a key conservation ground for the North Atlantic right whale, attracting about 10 per cent of the population.
In recent years the population of right whales has plunged to about 350 worldwide. More.
Nova Scotia Department of Tourism, Culture, and Heritage is reminding vacationers of the beauty of Nova Scotia in the fall. From golfing in the fresh, clear air of the East Coast, to plenty of exciting Halloween activities and fairs for the whole family.
Nova Scotia boasts around four million hectares of woodland rich with maple, birch, oak and mountain ash and in the fall they burst into an explosion of brilliant colour, For leaf peepers the Department of Tourism's website provides a Leaf Watch service, operational between mid September and the end of October.
The Department of Tourism website includes leaf reports, to assist in planning fall foliage outings, and new web cams which provide a sneak peek of the scenery at a number of locations throughout the province. Visitor Information Centres also offer pocket-size Leaf Watch brochures which include maps for 85 locations around Nova Scotia where fall colours are displayed at their finest, as well as a quick reference of tree types and their leaves, helping leaf watchers identify the most vibrant trees.
Active outdoor enthusiasts, might enjoy a guided 'easy walking' tour of the Annapolis Valley and South Shore which covers not only forest trails and coastal hikes, but also includes a Nova Scotia wine tour, tasting and dinner at an award-winning valley vineyard; that's my kind of hike. A more strenuous adventure, that lends a whole new perspective to leaf watching, is a six-hour kayak tour along the coastline of Cape Chignecto in mid to late October. Alternatively, Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site, offers visitors great hiking, biking, canoeing and camping, while viewing fall foliage. A final recommendation for that outdoor autumn adventure, is the incomparable Cape Breton Island, it is said that the Nova Scotia Cabot Trail and Cape Breton Highland offer tourists some of the best leaf watching look-outs available.
Visitors seeking accommodation for an autumn getaway in Nova Scotia, will find a complete listing of inns, cottages, resorts, and bed and breakfasts at the Nova Scotia Department of Tourism website.
Canada's Québec City celebrates its 400th anniversary, January to October, 2008.
A colorful series of unique exhibitions, shows, and prestigious international gatherings are planned throughout the region. The anniversary date of the city's founding is July 3 and the beginning of July will see particularly spectacular celebrations.
This weekend, July 14-15, 2007, Sidney, that's British Columbia, Canada, not Sydney, Australia, will host the largest SCUBA show ever held in Western Canada. The Sidney Dive Expo is expected to attract visitors from all over Canada and the Pacific North Western USA.
More than 40 exhibitors including the biggest names in SCUBA will be displaying their wares and there will be numerous demonstrations, pool sessions and events. There will also be educational seminars and local dive charter operators are to provide special chartered dives.
Sidney is one of the most favoured dive sites on lower Vancouver Island and home to the famous artificial reefball project.
The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization is dedicated to resolving the mystery surrounding Bigfoot and produce conclusive evidence of the species' existence. To this end, they organize expeditions to areas where there have been Bigfoot sightings, or reports of activity, and invite interested members of the public to join them.
Details of this years expeditions, including an expedition to Northern Ontario, Canada, can be found on their website.
If you are a Canadian or US citizen, and you and your partner typify an urban couple, you could be in with a chance to win a guided, Northern Ontario-style, five-day kayaking adventure, by entering the Most Urban Couple Challenge. The winners will be the participants who are deemed to be the 'most urban', so I guess that it is a necessity that the winning tour be guided! The competition is part of a new website and media campaign from Sault Ste. Marie tourism, aimed at promoting the heart of Canada's untouched wilderness; Northern Ontario.
Nationals from the 12 South American nations, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela, will soon will be able to travel throughout their region without needing visas.
This free-travel policy is in contrast to the policy direction of the U.S., where nationals are now to be required to have passports when crossing the U.S./Canadian border.
