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Reviews of Canada
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The best people to ask about a country you want to visit are people who have actually been there. The reviews below on various parts of Canada reflect the views of such people and as such should be very helpful.
A very, very nice Country
Simply Awesome!
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A very, very nice Country
"For some reason a lot of people that I know have chosen Canada as their destination for their holiday this year. For this I can't blame them, Canada is such a nice place for many reasons, which I will go over later. I will be giving you an overview of the holiday that I had the places that I went, how we got there and why we chose Canada for a Holiday.
** Why Canada **
The main reason why we chose to go to Canada was mainly down to my Dad, he had recently retired from Teaching on medical grounds (he had to have quite a major operation, thankfully he is okay now) and he had a bit of money to spend. While waiting for this operation he started to plan out what he wanted to do with this money. He and my Mum decided that they wanted to go on a Holiday and their first thoughts were South America and the Andes. After a lot of thought and research they decided on Canada, by this time they thought it would be nice if the family went so they asked me, my brother and sister if we wanted to go. How could I refuse, I have always wanted to go to Canada, and now want to go back.
** Booking **
The research that my Dad had done, which mainly involved the Internet, was very good. In fact he managed to book and organise the whole thing over the Internet. We booked our plane tickets, RV hire and booked the hotel we stayed in (on the first night) all over the Internet. This was all very good and very easily done.
** Flying **
This was to be my first time flying, so I was very excited. I couldn't wait; we had booked our seats in advance, so I knew I would be getting a window seat, yeah! The Airline that we were to fly with was Canada 3000, this is quite a new Airline formed by the merger of other Canadian Airlines. They had a very young fleet of planes, averaging out at just 5 years each.
When we went to book in at Gatwick we didn?t have a queue, in fact there was no one in the line at all, apart form us (while all around chaos reigned at the package holiday booking counters!). So top marks there for Canada 3000, once booked in we made our way to the plane, getting very excited by now (not quite sure what to expect!). Once on the plane, that was it, we just had to take off now. Then we were off, wow! I was flying; it seemed a bit surreal as if I wasn?t there, wow!
The service of the staff on board was very, very good. They came around often with drinks and the food, although pre-packed (as all airline food is) wasn't too bad considering. The films they played were not the best, but they made the time go a bit quicker as I couldn't sleep (can't quite work out how anyone can sleep like on a plane?).
The holiday was off to a good start, yay!
** Accommodation/Travel **
Our holiday was to be conducted in a RV (Recreational Vehicle, Camper Van to you and me!). We went to pick up our Camper, from Canadream, and to our surprise an English lady, who had lived there for a year, served us. Anyway this was all booked up over the Internet and all we had to do was to sort out the drivers etc, how easy!
We got a tour of the Camper, got told how to use all the features such as cooker, toilet etc and then got some time to get used to driving. Before we left we got directions to the nearest Supermarket and petrol station. The service that we got was all very good and everyone made you feel welcome.
The Van did have quite a lot of space; in fact it could fit six people (apparently, although five was a squeeze!). Sleeping arrangements were very civilized as was the cooker and fridge/freezer! The van even had an air conditioning unit (priceless in the heat) and a furnace for when things got a bit chilly. All round this was a very good way to stay when in Canada. Then only thing was that you had to plan your stops at the campsites well and even leave quite early as a lot of them you couldn't book at. Each of these sites always had somewhere to dump your rubbish as dirty water etc... The majority had electrical hook-up, sewage and water hook-up and when there was none you had a point on the campsite to get access to the service you wanted.
The van although quite large (not the largest by a long way, in fact some American Tourists had whole coaches to two people!) was very easy to drive, you didn't have to do much being automatic and having cruise control, very nice. The fuel consumption wasn?t too bad considering the weight that it had to drive about, although this didn't matter too much as petrol was very cheap!
** Places to Go **
Calgary - was our first stop, flying into the airport you could see the layout of the city, it looked just like a Sim City! There was so much that you could do in Calgary, in the end we went and looked around the downtown area (basically the city centre). This was all very nice and the thing that we all noticed was how clean the place was and how easy the people drove, no one seemed to be in a rush! We went to the Calgary Tower, much like the CN Tower in Toronto but not as tall. This provided a very good view of the city and it just showed you how big the city was, Calgary was meant to have the same population as Southampton, but spread over a much, much larger area! Right next to the tower was the Glenbow Museum. This museum is basically dedicated to the native peoples of Canada and the settlers that moved there. They had some very interesting exhibits although one section was closed while a new exhibition was being constructed.
Vancouver - is a lot bigger than Calgary with infinitely more things to do, we only had a few days here so we couldn't do everything that Calgary offered. The things that we chose to do we are pleased we did. The highlight I of this was a seaplane ride from the downtown area of the city. This took off in the harbour and gave us a flight over the mountains to the north of the city. Half way through this we landed in a remote lake up in the mountains, this was well worth doing as you got a very, very good view of the city, which you couldn't get any other way. The next thing that you have to do is go Whale Watching, this we didn't do from Vancouver (although you can). We hired a car and drove to the ferry to Vancouver Island (which is actually a very big Island, which you could spend weeks exploring). We went to Victoria (yes named after our former Queen!); this was a very beautiful town. The Whale Watching was very good; we went out on a very powerful boat (which was a very good ride as it went fast!). The guide was very knowledgeable and managed to get us up very close to whales, who had been hiding all day. We managed to see killer Whales; in fact these swam right underneath us, a very rewarding experience.
Canadian Rockies - can't be missed if you go to Canada, especially if you go to the western side. Most of these are National Parks, so there are a lot of laws protecting the animals and countryside. To stop in the parks you have to purchase a pass, which was $70. Although this seemed a lot, we though it was very good value for money and would provide the parks with the money need to run them and keep them as nice as they were. Places that you must go if you go to this area are the towns of Banff and Jasper. These are both very beautiful, although Banff is very touristy; it is still a very nice place to visit. The scenery in this part of the world is breathtaking and constantly amazes, something different around each corner. While in the Rockies we kept seeing these adverts for white water rafting and after some careful thought we decided that we couldn't miss the opportunity. We organised a trip on the Kicking Horse River, with a company that had only been set up a couple of years ago. This made no difference, as the people running it were very good and the guides were excellent. The White Water Rafting was also very good and a lot of fun and everyone wanted to have another go! Camping was also provided here, which was very good, along with this was a wood-burning sauna, very nice, and when you wanted to cool down you had a dip in the river (which after the sauna was very, very fresh!). The Rockies were also alive with wildlife and not just your normal wildlife while there we managed to see Beavers, Coyotes, Elks, Bald Eagles and lots of ground squirrels but alas we didn't get to see a bear.
** My Thoughts **
Canada was a very nice country to visit, which we did for three weeks and we felt this wasn't enough. I would really like to go back and spend some more time in the places we went to explore them more as there was so much we missed due to a lack of time. The one thing I would say is that when buying anything you have to take into account GST (a tax and some other taxes) as the prices of goods do not have these add to them in the shops they are added when you pay. Overall the prices of good in Canada were a bit cheaper than here, CDs were about half the price, petrol (we all know the answer to that!), food and drink was about the same (but you can't find squash or proper bread or the most essential comodity.... Martmite! Damnit!). If you get a chance to go to Canada it is well worth going, don't pass the opportunity to go!
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