DESTINATIONS WINTER CANADA


while heading out on two-hour excursions centred on the lights. Or try: Neighbouring province the Yukon makes an excellent alternative. Kuoni offers a four-night Northern Lights of the Yukon trip from August to April, taking guests on small-group visits to prime viewing areas.


SAMPLE PRODUCT


First Class Holidays’


Rockies Winter Experience includes six nights’ accommodation, a horse-drawn sleigh ride,


Johnston Canyon


Icewalk Tour, visit to Lake Louise, dog-sledding,


Marble Canyon Snowshoe Tour and return


express coach transfers from Calgary. Prices start at £604 per person, excluding flights.


fcholidays.com


Travel 2 offers two nights in a standard room


at the three-star Hotel de Glace and three nights at the four-star Hotel Chateau Laurier in Quebec (both room-only)


from £1,329 per person, including return coach


transfers and Air Canada flights


from Heathrow. The price is for travel between


February 20 and March 12, 2018. travel2.com


66 travelweekly.co.uk 26 October 2017


LEFT: Skating on the Rideau Canal


ABOVE: Ice canoeing on the St Lawrence River


w THE WILDLIFE EXPERIENCE Canada is hardly short of hotspots for wildlife lovers, but for something different, suggest the Cariboo Mountains in British Columbia. Timber wolves, cougars, lynx, otters, wolverines and moose rub shoulders with the iconic caribou, and come winter, visitors can explore its silent forests, lakes and alpine valleys on snowshoes. Or try: Between late February and March, about 250,000 harp seals migrate from Greenland to the Gulf of St Lawrence in Quebec, giving birth to baby seals on ice floes around the Îles de la Madeleine. Seal-watching excursions take visitors from Quebec City to the Magdalen Islands via helicopter, giving visitors the chance to glimpse these tiny, silky-smooth creatures up close.


w THE SCENIC JOURNEY Rocky Mountaineer might be reserved for spring and summer, but you needn’t rule out a trip on tracks here altogether. Via Rail’s Canadian Snow Train


meanders through Canada’s mountain- drenched landscapes all through the colder months, taking passengers from Toronto through Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia via forests, lakes and the Rockies, before winding up in chilled out Vancouver. If clients fancy giving it a go for just one night, suggest First Class Holidays’ Snow Train to the Rockies, which combines a trip on the train with visits to Jasper, Banff and Lake Louise, throwing in various adventures along the way. Or try: Clients who’d rather take to the wheel themselves are in luck. Canada welcomes scenic drives year-round,


from the glacier-gifted Icefields Parkway, linking Jasper and Banff, to the Sea-to-Sky Highway, which starts in Vancouver and ends in rural British Columbia, with pleasingly mild temperatures, even in midwinter.


w THE CITY TRIP Quebec City gets lively in the winter months – especially when the Winter Carnival descends, bringing more than 200 activities to its quaint, cobbled streets and making it the biggest of its kind on the planet. Night parades with vibrant floats, marching bands, dance troupes, dogsledding and more are all on the agenda, but it’s the ice canoeing that stands out. Unique to Quebec, crews of five row their canoes along the ice-covered St Lawrence River, getting out to push them across the frozen parts. Operators offer trips for anyone wanting to try it themselves, but for those content with watching, a host of races take place as part of the festival. Adding to the ice magic, Travel 2


recommends the Hotel De Glace – Quebec’s answer to Sweden’s Icehotel – which is open between January and March and located 10 minutes outside the city. Or try: Ottawa has its own answer to Carnival in the form of Winterlude, featuring snow and ice sculpture competitions, snow playgrounds and sports events for two weeks in February. Don’t miss skating on the frozen Rideau Canal, which stretches almost five miles – making it the biggest natural ice rink in the world – and welcomes more than 19,000 visitors a day in winter.


PICTURE: OTTAWA TOURISM


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