Canadian Itineraries to Try This Summer or Fall: Vancouver, Whistler, Victoria, and Onward

Butchart Gardens One of the favorite trips we ever did as a family was to fly to Vancouver, take the train to Whistler, float plane from Whistler to Victoria, and ferry onward to Salt Spring Island and later Seattle. Wow, what a trip, especially since I didn’t need to drive once! Even on Salt Spring Island, I preferred biking to driving. Vancouver is blessed with fantastic Asian restaurants, seafood, and a bounty of fresh fruit that you can find at the Granville Island market. Whistler is just as magical in summer as winter, hiking above the treetops or paddling down lonely rivers, only to watch the bears amble down the road at twilight. Victoria is a charming seaside town on the southern tip of Vancouver Island that offers a variety of ways to see the neighboring pods of orcas and to visit the glorious Butchart Gardens. While Salt Spring Island is a soothing remote outpost for biking and sea kayaking, an ideal spot to unwind after a far too long pandemic.

Get out and enjoy the glorious wilderness found in Canada. ActiveTravels is here to help design an itinerary.

Canadian Itineraries to Try This Summer or Fall: Canadian Rockies

Canadian RockiesThe typical Canadian Rockies itinerary starts in Calgary, especially if you’re heading to town during the citywide party known as the Stampede, which starts tomorrow! Then it’s a 2-hour drive to Banff and the first of many hikes in the high alpine forest. Moraine Lake and Lake Louise are mandatory stops, before driving the spectacular Icefields Parkway north to Jasper. This region of Canada is home to classic resorts like the former Canadian Pacific Railway retreats Fairmont Chateaux Lake Louise and Fairmont Banff Springs. Or the Relais and Chateau property, Post Hotel, often rated one of the best in Canada, especially for its stellar view. From Jasper, you can drive 4 hours to Edmonton and fly home or continue exploring Canada on the train to Vancouver, where your travels continue as I’ll describe tomorrow.

Please let ActiveTravels know if you need a detailed itinerary to the Canadian Rockies, including all our favorite lodging, driving routes, hikes, guides, and restaurants

Canadian Itineraries to Try This Summer or Fall: The Atlantic Maritimes

Hiking in NewfoundlandI’ve stayed weeks in each of the four Atlantic Maritime provinces—New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia—and it’s honestly hard for me to distill this exquisite coastal landscape down to its highlights. Because there’s so much more! Like biking to small fishing villages on PEI’s Confederation Trail, backpacking Gros Morne National Park high above the fjords of Newfoundland, hiking the Skyline Trail where I always spot moose in Cape Breton, and going on a puffin cruise out of New Brunswick to the nesting grounds of Machias Seal Island. There’s no place I’d rather sea kayak more than along the shoreline of the Atlantic Maritimes, where I’ve spotted so much wildlife from whales to porpoises to seals to bald eagles and puffins flying overhead. And don’t forget the culture. There’s nothing like a live Celtic concert in Cape Breton in the summer or a Fisherman’s Wharf all-you-can-eat lobster supper in PEI. With the high-speed CAT now running from Bar Harbor, Maine to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia (3 ½-hour cruise), we can connect the dots for you quickly. Please let ActiveTravels know your dates and budget and we’ll design a memorable trip!

Canadian Itineraries to Try This Summer or Fall: First Stop, Quebec

Saint-Benoit-du-Lac AbbeyWith new nonstop service from Boston to Calgary and Vancouver, it’s a great time to explore the Canadian Rockies and British Columbia. Closer to home, you can drive from Boston to St. Andrews, New Brunswick or Montreal in less than 6 hours and not have to be tested for COVID coming back into America. We’ve been fortunate to design over 100 Dream Day Itineraries to Canada this past decade and we have many more on the books this summer. It helps that I wrote more travel stories about Canada than any other country outside of America and continue to add to the collection, like this article on the expansion of the Fundy Trail Parkway last September. These are the Canadian destinations ActiveTravels members have loved the most:

Quebec
Cross over the border from Vermont and the first stop is on the shores of 28-mile-long Lake Memphremagog in Quebec’s Eastern Townships, where an impressive monastery sits high atop the waters. At Saint-Benoit-du-Lac Abbey, some 50 Benedictine monks create homemade cheeses and cider. Head to the store to sample the crumbly blue cheese known as L’Ermite, among Quebec’s most popular. Then it’s on to Montreal, the city of summer festivals, including comedy, jazz, and electronica. Montreal is home to one of the finest botanical gardens in the country and the fascinating Insectarium, which just reopened after a 2-year closure. Walk the cobblestone streets of the Old Quarter to snack on crepes at the outdoor courtyard of Le Jardin Nelson and buy French wares straight out of Paris. Quebec City is a 3-hour drive to the northeast, where you hopefully booked a room at the classic Le Chateau Frontenac, perched high on the hillside above the St. Lawrence Seaway. Walk the narrow streets to sample the patisserie at Paillard and visit the always intriguing Musee de la Civilisation before heading just outside the city to hike or zipline at Montmorency Falls. Most people stop their trip in Quebec City, but you should continue north to stop in the charming town of Baie-Saint-Paul and sea kayak with beluga whales in the Saguenay Fjord.

Sea Kayak with Beluga Whales in Saugenay

Most Memorable Trips We’ve Designed This Past Decade: Sunshine and Ian, South America

Sunshine and Ian in South AmericaMay 2022 marks the 10th anniversary of ActiveTravels. Over the past decade, I’d estimate we’ve designed close to 2,000 trips. Some of those itineraries followed the fall foliage route in New England, others followed the orangutans of Sumatra or the gemstones of Estonia. We’ve designed itineraries to 116 countries and probably all the American states and Canadian provinces. Of those many trips we’ve had the privilege to work on, there were ones that were quite a challenge and incredibly rewarding to design.

When someone calls asking you to plan the first 4 months of their yearlong travel-around-the-world sabbatical, you immediately feel like that kid at the country store with brown paper bag in hand ready to grab as many Red Hots and candy necklaces as possible. Sunshine and Ian would eventually head to Hawaii, Australia, and SE Asia, but my job was simply to focus on the first third of the year in South America, September through December 2018. Peru was by far the most complex nut to crack, with its vast size and diverse terrain. But we managed to get them across the country—Lima, Cuzco, Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, Lake Titikaka, Arequipa/Colca Canyon, Nazca, Trujillo, a yoga retreat in the rainforest outside Tarapoto, and a Treehouse Lodge overlooking the Amazon.

Sunshine and Ian in South AmericaThen it was on to Bolivia to visit La Paz, the drive down the world’s most dangerous road, Yungas Road (40 miles, 11,800-foot descent), the charming college town of Sucre, and the Uyuni Salt Flats. Next up was Ecuador with stays in Quito, Cotopaxi, Otavalo, a weeklong cruise in the Galapagos Islands, and a final stop in Cuenca. Last destination was Colombia to see Bogota, the street art of Medellin, the coffee country of Armenia, a yoga retreat in Santa Marta, and finally resting on the beach of Cartagena. At times, they followed in my footsteps, using the exceptional guide I hired to see the city of Medellin. Other times, I followed in their footsteps, taking the same Abercrombie & Kent trip to Machu Picchu they did a year later. The best trips inspire me and few trips excited me more than this one!

Top Travel Days of 2021, Exploring New Brunswick’s Fundy Trail Parkway

Long Bach, Fundy Trail Parkway In September, I had the good fortune to return to New Brunswick, Canada, once the border finally reopened to Americans. 23 years after the Fundy Trail Parkway debuted in 1998, the extension of the 30-kilomter drive to nearby Fundy National Park was finally finished. My friend, Jeff, and I drove some 90 minutes from Saint John to reach the East Gate of the Fundy Trail Parkway. Within five minutes, we were at our first stop, Walton Glen Gorge, where the granite spans some 900 meters wide. We walked the short kilometer walk to the observation tower and soon were staring in awe at Little Salmon River as it surges through the Eye of the Needle.

The waters of the Bay of Fundy were by our side the rest of the day. A series of lookouts soon followed on the left as we peered down at the verdant slopes sliding into the sea, not unlike the Cabot Trail on Cape Breton. It only gets better from here. Long Beach is a marvel to behold, stretching about a third of a mile out to sea at low tide. We walked some 2 kilometers on a loop and it was honestly hard to tear me away from this spot. We found colorful green, gray, and granite pebbles, fantastic rock formations, and ripples of sand on the ocean floor that would be awash in water in a matter of hours. Edward Weston would have a field day here and so would any other photographer.

For lunch, we headed to the Cookhouse for a fantastic turkey sandwich, where the meat is processed by Chef Tracy’s turkey farmer neighbor on bread that was baked that morning. Afterwards, we opted for the insanely good molasses cake and walked around the room peering at the century-old photographs of loggers cutting down the cherished white pine to build tall masts at the shipping port of Saint John. To work off lunch, we strolled across the suspension bridge at Salmon River, where the waters were once teeming with so much salmon you could practically walk across the river. After one last requisite stop at Fuller Falls to see the water cascading down the slick rock into the Bay of Fundy, we arrived at the West Gate and the seaside town of St. Martins, the end of a magical coastal drive.

New Brunswick Week: Fundy Trail Parkway Extends to Fundy National Park

Fundy Trail ParkwayIf you have the good fortune to meet Beverley Franklin at the Long Beach Visitors Center on the Fundy Trail Parkway, as we did this past Sunday, by all means stop and say hello. After all, it was her father, Mitchell Franklin, a hotel and movie theater developer, who had the passion to create a coastal drive that started near his farm in St. Martins and finished at Fundy National Park. 23 years after the Fundy Trail Parkway debuted in 1998 and some 53 years after Beverley Franklin first drew a map of what she thought the 30-kilometer trail could look like, the extension to Fundy National Park will finally have a soft opening in the next two weeks.

We drove some 90 minutes from Saint John, 13 kilometers past Adair’s Wilderness Lodge (which I suggest you type into your GPS) to reach the East Gate of the Fundy Trail Parkway. Within 5 minutes, we were at our first stop, Walton Glen Gorge, where the granite stretches 200 meters high and the gorge spans some 900 meters. Walk the short kilometer walk to the observation tower and you’ll soon be staring in awe at the Little Salmon River as it surges through the Eye of the Needle. Across from you are sheer rock cliffs and to your right the green mountains slope to the Bay of Fundy in the distance.

The waters of the Bay of Fundy will be by your side the rest of the day. Try to arrive at the gate when it opens at 9 am because you’ll need a full day to see all the mesmerizing sights before the trail closes at 5 pm. A series of lookouts soon follow on the left as you peer down at the verdant slopes sliding into sea, not unlike the Cabot Trail on Cape Breton. It only gets better from here. Long Beach is a marvel to behold, stretching about a third of a mile out to sea at low tide, when you can walk some 2 kilometers on a loop. It was honestly hard to tear me away from this spot, as we found colorful green, gray, and granite pebbles, fantastic rock formations, and ripples of sand on the ocean floor that would be awash in water in a matter of hours. Edward Weston would have a field day here and so would any other photographer.

Fundy Trail ParkwayFor lunch, head to the Cookhouse for a fantastic turkey sandwich, where the meat is processed by chef Tracy’s turkey farmer neighbor on bread that was baked that morning. Afterwards, opt for the insanely good molasses cake or a slice of bumbleberry pie as you walk around peering at the century-old photographs of loggers cutting down the cherished white pine to build tall masts at the shipping port of Saint John. Then work off lunch by climbing across the suspension bridge at Salmon River, where one old-timer told me the waters were once teeming with so much salmon you could practically walk across the river. There’s one last requisite stop at Fuller Falls to see the water cascading down the slick rock into the Bay of Fundy before arriving at the West Gate and the seaside town of St. Martins.

Mitchell Franklin had to face much adversity to make his dream a reality, but he’ll be happy to know that it’s finally come to fruition. I can’t wait to return to bike the parkway and then go sea kayaking at Fundy National Park.

Off-The-Beaten-Track Greece is Open for Travel

Visit FolegandrosGreece has a nostalgic appeal for Lisa and me since we went there on our honeymoon a lifetime ago. We had no reservations and took ferries from island to island, quickly learning that there were many gems in the Mediterranean that no one except wise Scandinavians knew about. We purchased a book called “Undiscovered Islands of the Mediterranean” and off we went. Our first stop, Folegandros, was arguably our favorite island on the entire trip. With a handful of travelers, we scrambled into a mini-bus and were dropped off at an incredibly authentic main square, where people dined on wooden tables under a string of electric light bulbs. Men with mustaches out of an 1880s barbershop photo grilled souvlaki on an open grill. Olden men drank coffee at a small café. All was framed by whitewashed buildings and churches. You knew instantly that this was no Disneyesque version of a Greek Isle overrun with drunken American and European backpackers, but the real thing. We would take long walks on paths through olive groves and hire fishermen to drop us off and pick us up at deserted beaches. Tilos is another island where the locals, still unaccustomed to tourists, greet you as if you lived there your whole life. A place where one picks fresh figs off the tree and finds deserted medieval castles that request no admission fee. If you want to find an authentic Greek isle away from the masses, ActiveTravels will point you in the right direction!

Driving Norway

Driving NorwayWho wouldn’t want to be whisked away to this stunning land of fjords, colorful and charming UNESCO World Heritage cities like Bergen, and a history that dates back to the time of Vikings? And you don’t have to opt for a cruise to visit Norway if you don’t want to. With an office based in Lillehammer, the tour operator 50 Degrees North is our go-to choice for creating custom-design self-guided driving routes for ActiveTravels members who want to travel independently around the country. On their 6-day route, you start in Oslo, traveling to the charming town of Lillehammer, the glaciers and fjords of Lusterfjord, ending in Bergen. For those who want to leave the driving to someone else, the company offers an 8-day Beautiful Norway itinerary. A group of 10-12 people will travel by minibus from Oslo to Lillehammer to the heart of the Norwegian fjords on this weekly trip throughout the summer (leaves every Saturday through mid-September). You’ll be staying at distinctive boutique hotels, with the cost starting at $2270 US per person. That includes 7 nights lodging, 7 breakfasts and 2 dinners, all transport, fjord cruise, and Flan railroad. Find 5 couples and we can book your own private minibus trip!

World’s Most Picturesque Routes According to Instagram Data

Chapmans Peak Drive, South AfricaJudging from the amount of driving routes ActiveTravels is designing right now for clients headed across America, this summer proves to be the year of the road trip. The UK’s Pentagon Motor Group analyzed over 7 million Instagram hashtags to find the most scenic road trips around the world, calculating the number of photos posted on Instagram of each road per mile. Australia’s Great Ocean Road came in first with 8418 pictures per mile. The rest of the top five are California’s Big Sur, Jebel Hafeet in the United Arab Emirates, Hai Van Pass in Vietnam, and Chapman’s Peak Drive in South Africa, which I can personally attest to stopping every 5 minutes to take another photograph of stunning jagged mountain peaks and ocean. Check out the list of the Top 20 Drives and make sure all are on your wish list!