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The prairies of Saskatchewan and Manitoba
Custer. Later the town of Moose Jaw grew rich
smuggling alcohol into Prohibition America, and
the Royal Canadian Mounties were established to
calm a lawless region: their training centre is at
Regina. Across the border in Manitoba, the
provincial capital is Winnipeg, a friendly and
approachable city that takes great pride in its
independent refinement, while to the north the
province reaches up to the great Canadian Shield,
ice-scraped rock that leads onto the Hudson Bay
where beluga whales frolic in the chilly waters and
polar bears pace the shore.
Ontario
Niagara Falls are unquestionably Ontario’s bestknown
attraction, a post-card perfect image of
Canada to send back home, but this is just a
foretaste of the province’s many attractions.
Ontario is home to Canada’s capital city, Ottawa,
and its largest metropolis, Toronto - a cultural
melting pot alive with the dynamism of this young
nation. One sixth of the province is covered with
water and the Great Lakes dominate the
southern lowlands, including the largest freshwater
surface area in the world, Lake Superior. This is a
beautiful region for exploring by car, from the
pretty town of Goderich on the shores of Lake
Huron to Algonquin Provincial Park with its
canoeing, hiking and wolves. In this province the
First Nations culture lives on: on Manitoulin Island
the local tribes hold pow-wows every summer
and in the northern regions visitors can explore
with Cree guides. Although part of Canada’s most
populous province, the shores of Hudson Bay can
even now, rarely be reached by road; sea and air
are still your only travel options, enabling you to
discover a whole new world.
Niagara Falls, Ontario
Québec
The province of Québec is proudly Francophone,
with very Gallic traditions of fine restaurants and
pavement cafés. This is strongest in the southern
cities, the arty and refined Montréal and the
atmospherically walled city of Québec. Head out
from the urban centres and the province changes
in character. To the west, vast unvisited tracts of
tundra reach out to the distant shores of Hudson
Bay. The St Lawrence River was the original
lifeline that allowed travel into the Québec
hinterland and this mighty river is home to
migrating whales during the summer, including
the world’s largest, the blue whale. On the south
bank of the river exquisite forests drop down to
the water’s edge on the Gaspésie Peninsula, while
the north shore is home to the thriving arts of
the Charlevoix region, and the beautiful natural
landscapes of the Saguenay Fjord.
Yukon delphiniums in bloom
The Maritime Provinces
The seaboard provinces of Nova Scotia, Prince
Edward Island, New Brunswick, Newfoundland
and Labrador make up Canada’s eastern
seaboard. Mighty cliffs descend from the Torngat
Mountains in Labrador and the precipitous fjords
of Newfoundland’s Gros Morne National Park
while, in iceberg season, huge white leviathans
drift slowly along the shoreline in the direction
of warmer waters. The Bay of Fundy experiences
the world’s highest tidal range, creating raging
torrents and tidal bores. The salmon-rich rivers
of New Brunswick lie alongside the pastoral
idyll of historic Acadia while the strong Celtic
heritage of Nova Scotia is home to ceilidhs,
sea-shanties, quaint fishing villages and a rich
maritime culture. Beautiful scenery combined
with abundant marine and terrestrial wildlife
makes the Maritime Provinces an excellent region
for exploring by road.
Yukon
Rich with the romance of the Klondike gold rush,
the Yukon presents the classic face of Canada:
a wilderness region where narrow ribbons of
civilisation have been laid down by pioneers but
much of the country still awaits exploration. Many
of the gold rush towns are still largely unchanged:
step into Dawson for streets lined with wooden
clapperboard houses evoking the ghosts of a bygone
age. Most of the land is made up of forested
mountains riven by rivers and scattered with lakes.
Bears, wolves and moose vastly outnumber the
population, with trappers’ log cabins forming
toehold settlements in a truly wild environment.
This is a great place to encounter First Nations
cultures and this is where you'll find Canada’s only
road that crosses the Arctic Circle, the unsealed
Dempster Highway.
Iceberg Alley, Newfoundland
Nunavut
Nunavut is an immense territory of tundra,
plateaux and mountains that includes the Arctic
archipelago: a hidden world until the age of air
travel. This beautiful land is Canada’s newest
territory, splitting from the Northwest Territories
in 1999 to provide self-rule for the Inuit. Nunavut
covers about one fifth of Canada’s land mass and
stretches from Hudson Bay in the south to the
Arctic islands in the north. The famed Northwest
Passage wends its way through the northern
islands making it the theatre for many historic
arctic voyages. Nunavut, meaning ‘our land’ in
the Inuktitut language, is home to 28 Inuit
communities, the largest of which is Iqaluit with
a population of 6,500. Accessible only by air and
sea, this region is a cradle of Inuit cultures, the
flowers of the Arctic tundra and the dancing
celestial phenomenon of the Aurora Borealis.
A plethora of wildlife inhabits these desolate
lands, with polar bears, arctic foxes, whales,
narwhals, walrus, musk oxen and herds of caribou
often seen. To visit in the summer is to discover
a unique mix of culture, wilderness and wildlife..
Alaska
Crossing over the border from British Colombia
or the Yukon, Alaska is a vast outpost of the USA
in the Arctic world, an astounding region of
untouched natural beauty and hidden mineral
wealth. Along the coast some of North America’s
highest mountains feed more than half the world’s
glaciers, an epic sight as they calve icebergs into
chill waters. Expedition cruises operate in these
waters using zodiacs to discover breathtaking
coastlines and the plethora of wildlife. The interior
is just as beautiful, ideal for discovering by car or
train, with good road and rail systems linking
Canada’s Yukon to make circular, round-trip
routes possible and rewarding.
Introduction
Telephone: 01993 838 700
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