Canadian Vacations: Unique spots for your travel bucket list

Many of us are wanting to mark Canada’s 150^th by taking a Canadian vacation. Great in theory, but Canada is nearly 10 million square kilometres big, so how do you narrow down your options? We’ve come up with one unique spot per province and territory that are real contenders for vacation destinations.

 

Whitehorse, Yukon

In 1947, Martin Berrigan created a great example of Canadian urban apartments: log skyscrapers. They were built to help accommodate military personnel and construction workers who were in Whitehorse to build a highway, airports and a pipeline. In 2000, they became a Municipal Historic Site.

register.yukonhistoricplaces.ca/Place/3239

 

Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories

People say “hello” to spring with the Long John Jamboree. Vehicles park on the frozen lake to enjoy events such as the ugly truck and dog contest, snow volleyball tournament and igloo building competition.

longjohnjamboree.ca

 

Auyuittuq National Park, Nunavut

This park is home to the world’s most vertical drop. Mount Thor has a drop of 4,101 feet and an angle at approximately 105 degrees. The mount itself towers at 5,495 feet and is very popular with climbers.

nunavuttourism.com/things-to-see-do/camping-hiking

 

Qualicum Beach, British Columbia

Tom Chudleigh designed three spherical, self-contained rooms suspended from trees. The large windows allow people to watch nature all around them and fall asleep looking at the stars. Book early, or just take a tour.

freespiritspheres.com

 

Medicine Lake, Alberta

This lake feeds the nearby Maligne Canyon through one of the world’s most extensive, natural underground water systems. Meltwater collects in the Maligne Valley and refills the lake. By autumn, it pretty much disappears. It has great fishing and is a prime location to see all sorts of large wildlife.

www.travelalberta.com/ca/listings/medicine-lake-2004/

 

Cypress Hills Inter-Provincial Park, Saskatchewan

The park is great for the equestrian. Cypress Hills Riding Academy offers guided horseback tours over backcountry trails. The area also caters to campers who want to bring their own horses.

cypresshills.com

 

Winnipeg, Manitoba

The Canadian Museum of Human Rights is the first of its kind in Canada. Its goal is to show the transition of human rights in Canada and the world. This is enhanced with the entrance being at ground level where it’s dark; as you ascend, each level becomes brighter.

humanrights.ca

 

Pelham, Ontario

One of Canada’s symbols is about 540 years old. The Comfort Sugar Maple is 80 feet tall and has a 20 foot trunk circumference, making it Canada’s largest sugar maple. It’s been struck by lightning at least once and is currently affected by rot, so don’t wait too long to see this remarkable tree.

npca.ca/conservation-areas/comfort-maple

 

Sainte-Flavie, Québec

Canadian artist Marcel Gagnon has carved over 100 man-sized wooden and stone figures and has placed them at varying depths along the St. Lawrence River’s shoreline. His art project is called Le Grand Rassemblement. The figures are revealed and immersed at every tide.

www.centredart.net/le-grand-rassemblement

 

Bell Island, Newfoundland & Labrador

This was one of the rare places in North America that was directly attacked during WWII. German U-Boats sunk four iron ore ships in 1942. For divers, this area of Conception Bay offers great diving among the intact ships (apart from the torpedo holes), as well as seeing a variety of marine life.

www.oceanquestadventures.com

 

Hartland, New Brunswick

People don’t need Madison County to get their fill of covered bridges. They’ll find not only a covered bridge but also the world’s longest covered bridge in Hartland. It spans 1,282 feet across the St. John River, and was built in 1901. The cover, however, wasn’t added until 1922.

www.town.hartland.nb.ca/html/bridge.html

 

Halifax, Nova Scotia

What’s now the Five Fisherman’s Restaurant used to be a mortuary until 1973. The Snow & Company Undertakers took in bodies from two well-knows disasters: R.M.S. Titanic and the Halifax explosion. Today, Five Fisherman’s reportedly serves some of the best food in the city.

www.fivefishermen.com

 

Abrams Village, Prince Edward Island

The L’Exposition agricole et le Festival acadien has been an annual event for 114 years. It was started by the Urbainville Village Farmers’ Club in 1903. The festival celebrates everything Acadian along with a rubber boot throwing championship, lobster suppers and a strong-women competition.

www.expositionfestival.com/en