The Five-Minute Guide to Canada
Posted on August 12, 2008
Filed Under Call us tourists |
Posted by Daria
Don’t have time to read much? Well, here’s a quick and easy guide to the Canadian provinces and territories, roughly in the order in which we visited them. As a special treat, it includes a sampling of the winners in the “Hieronymus/Labinsky Best of the First Leg of Our Trip” Poll.
British Columbia. Big and tall. Trees, mountains. Whistler ski resort full of rich people and hipsters.
Major city: Vancouver, one of the best Canadian cities. Took a minuscule ferry to Granville Island Market, drank beer, bought chocolate, ate pierogies. Rained. Public transit deal: Ride for free with a passholder on Sundays.
Yukon. Nice, but … See What Vast Is and Ice Age, Explained. Crappy roads with many frostheaves. Coffee generally bad. Expensive gas. Major city: Whitehorse, the Paris of the Canadian Northwest.
Northwest Territories. Are you kidding? Do you know how much gas is? Greatest license plates ever (bear-shaped).
Nunavut. We were having none of it (see Northwest Territories for reason). Have yet to see a Nunavut license plate.
Alberta. Best parts: Mountains, dinosaurs (See Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Beasts). Also: plains, badlands. Winner! Best town: Jasper.
Major city number 1: Edmonton. Awesome mall (see Not Your Average Mall), Old Strathcona neighborhood. Winner! Most decadent dessert: Malteaser at Death by Chocolate.
Major city number 2: Calgary. Oil and cowboys. Best food: Poutine and burgers at Rocky’s Burger Bus.
Saskatchewan. Flat, farms. Winner! Best T-shirt: “Saskatchewan: Hard to Spell.”
Major city: Regina. Not very big, brewpubs not kid-friendly. Great little campground right outside town.
Manitoba. Almost as flat, farms. Major city: Winnipeg. The Forks for a nice market with several pierogi options. Alicia’s, a Ukrainian restaurant that looks like someone’s grandmother’s house. Overrated: Bridge Drive-Inn, an ice cream stand (If the wait is longer than 15 minutes, move on.).
Ontario. Hilly, farms. Beautiful driving along Lake Ontario. Major city: Toronto. Winner! Best meal of trip: beerbistro. Bustling Harbourfront, authentic Kensington Market, $4 Chinatown haircut for Stan. Winner! Best Public Transit Deal: Family passes $9 a day on weekends, take you anywhere you’d want to go. Minor city: Niagara Falls, somewhat tacky but the awesomeness of the falls is unsurpassed.
Quebec. Hilly, farms. All the signs really are in French!
Major city number 1: Montreal. Big. Fast drivers. Great food: Smoked meat at Schwartz’s (Winner! Best Single Dish Not at Beerbistro), Fairmount Bagels. Favorite area: Neighborhood east of Park Mont Royal. Public transit deal: None that worked for us; paid $32 for the three of us each day. Lovely brewpub: Dieu de Ciel. Overrated: Underground city.
Major city number 2: Quebec. Winner! Best City in Canada. Great walking, great neighborhoods, lots of cool old buildings, battlefields. Favorite neighborhood: St-Jean, especially the chocolate museum and North America’s oldest grocery store. Public transit deal: Free shuttle from campground or pay shuttle ($5 roundtrip for all three of us) from aquarium.
New Brunswick: Hilly, trees, farms, coastal towns, covered bridges. Bay of Fundy—amazing tides, mud. Officially bilingual. Major city: Saint John, always spelled out, didn’t stop but it looked nice from the toll bridge.
Nova Scotia: Winner! Best Province. Hilly, oceanside cliffs, adorable coastal towns, numerous meandering scenic drives, lighthouses by the dozen. Cape Breton Island—beautiful scenery, great music, Acadians. Out-Maines Maine. Major city: Halifax, nice walkable downtown, plethora of panhandlers, sidewalks at cafes built out for pedestrians. Winner! Prettiest Town: Peggys Cove (see They’re Watching You).
Newfoundland and Labrador: Didn’t make it, see Wish We Hadn’t Missed Number 2, below.
Prince Edward Island: Didn’t go there; Sierra’s not interested in Anne of Green Gables.
Recurring themes: Bad roads, pierogies, Tim Hortons, rain (more a theme of the entire trip).
Wish we hadn’t missed, number 1: Victoria, BC; world’s largest pierogi and kielbasa, AB. We needed to be in Banff in time for the big Rain Festival, er, Canada Day.
Wish we hadn’t missed, number 2: L’Anse aux Meadows, NL, where the Vikings landed, and Gros Morne, NL, where the Earth’s mantle is visible. But you have to drive way into Quebec and/or take a ferry to get to Newfoundland. Maybe next year …
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4 Responses to “The Five-Minute Guide to Canada”
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Yes, Canada is big, French, and has fast drivers. I’m glad we agree on that much.
Maybe next year . . .
Don’t we have Yellowstone, the Everglades and Texas barbecue to experience (and eat) first?
Really too bad you missed Newfoundland and Labrador.
Quebec City IS the best city in Canada — and one of the best cities anywhere.