I was in Vancouver for a couple of days and got a behind-the-scenes tour of the brand new beautiful Vancouver Convention Centre.
It’s gonna be media ground zero for the 2010 Olympics, coming up fast. Not only is the new Convention Centre spectacular inside and out, it’s one of the greenest convention centres in the world.
Wherever I go in the world, I like to check out the local market. It’s at the markets where you find the heart of the people, the land and the food.
While island hopping on Canada’s west coast, I lucked into the famous funky Saturday market on Salt Spring Island. If you ever get a chance to visit this little gem of a place, don’t pass it up. It’s a totally groovy hippie traveler kinda place where sheep roam free, celebrities hide away in their yachts and the locals take you in like a long lost friend.
One guy I met came for lunch 18 years ago and never went home. He says it happens quite often… Check the vid below to see why… (more…)
Yes, it’s happened to me as it’s happened to many who’ve dared stray from their urban comforts to venture this far north. I’ve been struck by the Spell of the Yukon. It doesn’t hurt, but it does nag at you once you’re back in the car-honking, people-elbowing, lung-congesting city. And each year, when the days grow long and I think of the midnight sun, low on the endless Yukon horizon, casting purple-hued shadows across the silent land…well, I get itchy feet. You know the feeling.
Three seasons in a row, I’ve ridden solo up the Alaska Highway on my trusty Buell, (more…)
You can’t get much further off the grid than the Dawson City River Hostel.
Dieter Reinmuth, an avid outdoorsman, photographer, guide book author and world traveller who settled in the Yukon 20 years ago to make his living panning for gold, built this funky off-the-grid retreat as an ode to fellow explorers who arrive from all over the globe seeking adventure and a genuine Klondike experience.
This place of rustic luxury is one of my favourite secret getaways in the far north. The bath house, pictured above, is a not-to-be-missed ritual. I make a point of (more…)
My dear friends Nicola and Andy built their dream home off the grid near Rice Lake about 2 hours out of Toronto. They now hold meditation workshops and teach people how to walk lightly on the planet. Their body work studio has floor-to-ceiling windows so while you practise your qigong, you can see the passing deer and occasional wolves playing in the rolling hills.
The cuisine is out of this world, and you can even spend a weekend learning how to create fabulous organic foods. Both Nicola and Andy are authors – all their books are (more…)
Some places are blissfully far enough away to keep the masses away, although from May to September hundreds of people per day pass through Liard Hotsprings, 495 miles up the Alaska Highway.
For some, this is a stopover, a resting spot en route to Alaska or the Yukon from southern BC and elsewhere. For me, it’s a destination unto itself worthy of a road trip from L.A. or Toronto. I could (and have) soaked for days in the 45-degree mineral waters of Alpha pool getting warm to the bone after a long cold ride up the remote Alaska Highway. (more…)
Easy to forget you’re soaking in history while soaking up the Rocky Mountain views and the curative mineral waters of the Banff Hotsprings. Canada’s native people first discovered the natural hot springs at Banff and considered them to be sacred waters – a place to cure illness and enhance health. Abundant in sulphur, the waters are said to help heal dermatological problems such as psoriasis, as well as aid in the treatment of rheumatism, arthritis and other diseases.
The healing effects were not lost on me while I lived in Banff over ten years. At the (more…)
You have to travel a long steep gravel logging road to get to these hotsprings, but it’s worth the detour off BC 93 near Canal Flats. The Lussier Hot Springs are undeveloped wilderness springs along the rushing and freezing Lussier River, known far and wide, especially by the Germans, who flock here in the summer. It’s a fabulous thing soaking in the hottest upper pool – only room for 6 or 8 – as long as you can handle it, then diving into the freezing cold, mountain spring-fed river for an invigorating hot and cold body blast. (more…)
Just going to their website is sometimes enough of a retreat for me. It takes me right back to Tofino, the earth’s edge, where eagles soar and whales play, where rain forest meets ocean, where sand, salt, spray and spruces dance as one. The Wickaninnish is one of the most spectacular small hotels on the planet and I always want to go there. Every January when my birthday approaches I want to go for storm watching, every July when the sun warms Vancouver Island and the roads are dry and motorbike-ready I want to go for solitude. (more…)
