1,000 Places to See Before You Die

by Patricia Schultz

  Fjords, Beaches, Mountains, Bogs, and Meadows

  GROS MORNE NATIONAL PARK

  Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

  Gros Morne National Park is sometimes called the “Galápagos of Geology” because its rocks provide fascinating evidence for plate tectonics—a theory that is to geology what evolution is to biology. A place of immense splendor and forlorn beauty, it is eastern Canada’s most renowned hiking and adventure destination. Roughly translated as “big lone hill,” the term “Gros Morne” refers to the park’s highest point: a barren, mist-draped mountain that can inspire a mild case of melancholy even on a sunny day.

  Start your exploration at the Discovery Centre with exhibits on the geology, plant and animal life, and diverse history of the Northern Peninsula. Then move on to the Bonne Bay region of the park, where kayaks and tour boats ply the double-armed fjord, a 15-mile-long inlet in a steep, cliff-lined glaciated valley. One of the park’s indisputable highlights is the rugged massif called the Tablelands, where hiking trails meander over rocks jutting up from the ancient mantle in the earth’s interior. The boulders have such an unusual chemistry that many plants cannot easily grow in their orange-brown terrain.

  To the north, coastal lowlands bordering the Gulf of St. Lawrence are covered with expanses of boreal forest and bog; inland is the wilderness plateau of the Long Range Mountains—part of a severed mountain range whose other half is across the Atlantic in Scotland. Western Brook Pond is among the park’s most popular stops, a landlocked fjord that offers travelers a combination of hiking trails and boat trips into the heart of the billion-year-old mountains.

  Steep rock walls enclose Western Brook Pond.

  WHERE: Park entrance at Wiltondale is 186 miles/300 km from Port aux Basques. Tel 709-458-2417; www.pc.gc.ca. WHEN: Most park facilities and services are available late May–mid-Oct. WHERE TO STAY: Neddies Harbour Inn offers Scandinavian-style charm and a good restaurant. Tel 877-458-2929 or 709-458-3089; www.theinn.ca. Cost: from $160. When: closed Dec–mid-May. BEST TIMES: late May–early Oct for hiking and wildlife and Trails, Tales and Tunes festival, the Gros Morne Theatre Festival, and Writers at Woody Point; Sep–early Oct for foliage.

  Beautiful Drives and Auld Culture in New Scotland

  CAPE BRETON ISLAND

  Nova Scotia, Canada

  “I have traveled the globe. I have seen the Canadian and American Rockies, the Andes and the Alps and the Highlands of Scotland: But for simple beauty, Cape Breton outrivals them all.” So wrote Alexander Graham Bell, who summered and worked here for 35 years.

  As it juts northward between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Island becomes increasingly mountainous and barren. Cape Breton Highlands National Park protects much of the island’s northern tip, a region so remote it wasn’t even accessible by automobile until the 1930s. Today, you can take one of the world’s great drives here: the 184-mile-long Cabot Trail. Follow the picturesque, craggy coastline around the 365-square-mile national park, passing centuries-old French Acadian and Scottish fishing villages before pushing up and over the island’s central plateau, between Pleasant Bay and Cape North—a striking moorland with stunted old-growth hardwood forests and tundralike meadows.

  Cape Breton must have looked just like home to the Scottish immigrants who streamed into Nova Scotia (Latin for “New Scotland”) between 1770 and 1850. The island is home to the only native Gaelic-speaking population outside the British Isles, along with a thriving Celtic music and art scene. Overlooking St. Ann’s Bay, the Gaelic College of Celtic Arts and Crafts hosts summer ceilidhs (pronounced KAY-lees), or musical gatherings, with fiddling and traditional dancing, and its Great Hall of Clans museum depicts the exodus of the Scottish people to the New World. The annual Gaelic Mod, a day of Gaelic language, song, and workshops held every August, ends with a traditional codfish supper.

  The island-wide 9-day Celtic Colours festival in October is the largest celebration of all things Gaelic in North America with over 300 artists from around the Celtic world. In the village of Ingonish Beach, the British influence holds strong at the Keltic Lodge, a Tudor-style resort with a historic patina and knockout ocean views. You’ll find unusually good dining and proximity to the nearby Highlands Links, considered one of Canada’s must-play golf courses.

  WHERE: 175 miles/282 km northeast of Halifax. CAPE BRETON HIGHLANDS NATIONAL PARK: Tel 902-224-2306; www.pc.gc.ca. GAELIC COLLEGE: Tel 902-295-3411; www.gaeliccollege.edu. When: open Jun–Sep. KELTIC LODGE: Tel 800-565-0444 or 902-285-2880; www.kelticlodge.ca. Cost: from $148 (off-peak), from $265 (peak), inclusive. When: mid-May–Oct. HIGHLANDS LINKS GOLF COURSE: Tel 800-441-1118 or 902-285-2600; www.highlandslinksgolf.com. Cost: greens fees from $75. When: Jun–Oct. BEST TIMES: mid-Aug for Gaelic Mod; Sep for fall foliage and nice weather, with fewer crowds; Oct for the Celtic Colours International Festival.

  A Colonial Town Perfectly Preserved

  OLD TOWN LUNENBURG

  Nova Scotia, Canada

  In the 1750s, lured by the prospect of free land, nearly 1,500 Protestant pioneers from Germany, Switzerland, and France set sail under protection of the British Crown to establish a colony on the coast of Nova Scotia. With them was a set of town plans drawn up by the London-based Board of Trade and Plantations. As part of the agreement with their British sponsors, the colonists would use these plans to build a predesigned “model town” in the Canadian wilderness.

  The Lunenburg colony survived and prospered as a well-known shipbuilding and fishing center. Little change has come to its Old Town and waterfront since the 1700s, and two and a half centuries after its establishment, the tiny coastal hamlet is still in near-pristine condition. Dignified homes and buildings have been beautifully maintained—70 percent of the structures date to the 18th and 19th centuries—and the streets of the Old Town still follow the original plan, though accommodations were made for the unexpectedly steep hills the settlers found upon arrival.

  While it’s fascinating to wander the picturesque streets with colorful Victorian and Georgian houses marching up the hillside from the bay, the heart of the village remains its waterfront. The sprawling Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic combines an aquarium of local sea life with exhibits on Lunenburg’s seafaring past. Moored off the museum wharf (and part of its operation) are a number of historic ships to visit. They were built right here in Lunenburg, among them a replica of the legendary 1921 racing schooner Bluenose, which you might recognize from the back of the Canadian dime.

  The bustling harbor is filled with fishing boats (scallop fishing is still an important industry) and a number of both new and old wooden tall ships, which call here for repair, fitting, or provisions. Catch the spirit of Lunenburg’s wooden boat heritage aboard the Eastern Star, a 48-foot wooden ketch that offers tours of Lunenburg harbor. Setting out with the sails snapped taut and the hull cleaving the water, you’ll relive the days when sailing ships ruled the seas and Lunenburg was one of colonial North America’s most important ports of call.

  Once a shipbuilding hub, Lunenburg is quiet today.

  WHERE: 62 miles/100 km southwest of Halifax. VISITOR INFO: www.explorelunenburg.ca. FISHERIES MUSEUM: Tel 866-579-4909 or 902-634-4794; www.museum.gov.ns.ca/fma. EASTERN STAR: Tel 877-247-7075 or 902-634-3535; www.novascotiasailing.com. When: Jun– Oct. WHERE TO STAY: The charming Lunenburg Arms has harbor views and a good restaurant. Tel 800-679-4950 or 902-640-4040; www.eden.travel/lunenburg. Cost: from $130. BEST TIME: early Aug for Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival.

  Rugged Beauty at the Top of the World

  NUNAVUT

  Canada

  The North is like no other place. Far from a frigid wasteland, the Arctic is a land of profound though alien beauty. It is homeland to the Inuit; habitat for wildlife such as wolves, musk oxen, wolverines, and caribou; and temporary home to millions of migratory birds. Nunavut is Canada’s eastern Arctic and its newest and largest territory—approximately the size of Western Europe. Created in 1999
as a territory for the Inuit people, it has a human population of 30,000, which is outnumbered 30 to 1 by caribou.

  Few visitors travel to the Arctic, but those who do experience the subtle yet powerful splendor of the landscape and, during the Arctic summer, witness the explosion of life that occurs when 24-hour daylight ignites a kaleidoscope of wildflowers.

  Given the precipitous seasonal changes, lack of roads, and minimal infrastructure for tourism, visiting the Arctic isn’t always easy, but a handful of backcountry lodges offer comfortable accommodations and guided adventures.

  For millennia, the area around Bathurst Inlet has been home to the Kingaunmiut people, Inuits who live off the bounty of this harsh but beautiful land. As a young Royal Canadian Mounted Police staff sergeant, Glenn Warner patrolled the area in the 1960s, often by dogsled. When the community’s Hudson’s Bay Company trading-post buildings and the Catholic mission church were offered for sale, Warner and his wife, Trish—smitten by the area’s pristine natural beauty—bought the motley collection of structures. They transformed them into the Bathurst Inlet Lodge, which has become one of the Arctic’s foremost destinations for lodging, outfitting, and naturalist programs, offering a level of personal comfort rarely found in such remote and rugged territory. The lodge opened in 1969, and in 1984, the local Inuit residents of Bathurst Inlet joined the Warners as full partners in the operation, one of the first such joint ventures in the North. Glenn’s son Boyd now manages the property.

  Bathurst Inlet Lodge is dedicated to the natural history of the north and is noted worldwide for the excellence of its weeklong programs, offered in July, the best time for birding and setting eyes on an abundance of arctic wildflowers. Naturalists and local Inuit guides lead guests on day trips to visit rocky islands where musk oxen graze and barren-ground caribou gather. Guests might watch as grizzly bears, Arctic wolves, and foxes seek their prey or a peregrine falcon brings food to a mate.

  During the brief Arctic summer, yellow-billed and red-throated loons, Lapland longspurs, golden eagles, and numerous other birds migrate here, luring bird-watchers from all over. The lodge also offers day trips to 1,000-year-old stone camps built by the Thule people, ancestors of the Inuit, and provides a window on the proud and vibrant culture of the local Inuit.

  VISITOR INFO: www.nunavuttourism.com. BATHURST INLET LODGE: 30 miles/48 km north of the Arctic Circle, and 360 air miles/580 km northeast of Yellowknife. Tel 867-873-2595; www.bathurstarctic.com. COST: $5,850 per person per week all-inclusive with air charter from/to Yellowknife. WHEN: Jul.

  Thunderous Grandeur and Sophisticated Vintages

  NIAGARA FALLS AND NIAGARA WINE COUNTRY

  Ontario, Canada, and New York State, U.S.A.

  The Niagara River draws water from four of the five Great Lakes and flings it down 20 stories at the rate of 42 million gallons a minute, creating waterfalls that are by volume the largest and most powerful in North America. Almost a mile wide in total, the falls straddle the U.S.-Canada border and are divided by islands into three sections: the 1,060-foot American Falls, which includes a smaller section called Bridal Veil Falls, and the 2,600-foot Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side.

  To get up close to this incredible force of nature, start your visit in New York’s Three Sisters Islands, where visitors can stand within a few feet of the brink of the falls, or at the Cave of the Winds tour. Here a series of decks and stairs leads to the Hurricane Deck, just 20 feet from the pounding waters at the base of Bridal Veil Falls. Take a trip on the Maid of the Mist, a sturdy 600-passenger boat that’s accessible from both sides. Don a plastic poncho and sail right into the maelstrom at the base of Horseshoe Falls.

  The Canadian side offers the best views, including nighttime illumination shows. At Journey Behind the Falls, descend via elevator through 150 feet of rock for views from behind the cascading water of Horseshoe Falls.

  For creature comforts, the Canadian side also wins out—it has better facilities—nightclubs, restaurants, upscale hotels, and the Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort, which offers spacious rooms with incredible views.

  After taking in the falls, leave the honeymooning crowds behind and travel north to the lovely little 19th-century town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, full of elegant historic homes, Victorian storefronts, wine shops, beautiful parks and gardens, B&Bs, and the Prince of Wales Hotel and Spa. Presiding over the center of town, this beautifully restored Victorian hotel is especially popular during the town’s acclaimed Shaw Festival, dedicated to presenting plays by or about George Bernard Shaw and his contemporaries.

  Niagara-on-the-Lake is also, along with the neighboring communities of St. Catharines, Jordan, and Vineland, at the heart of the Niagara wine region. The Niagara Peninsula, a neck of land that separates Lake Erie from Lake Ontario and shares Tuscany’s latitude, is the largest viticultural area in Canada, with some 60 wineries that account for 80 percent of Canada’s grape-growing volume. Favorite stops include Peller Estates, Château des Charmes, Vineland Estates Winery, and Inniskillin Winery, a leading producer of ice-wine, the honeylike dessert wine made from grapes left to freeze on the vine.

  One of Ontario’s top country hotels, the Inn on the Twenty, is a welcoming and convenient base in Jordan for touring the wine country. Foodies gather at this renovated sugar warehouse for the innovative cuisine and fine wines of the well-known dining room.

  The Maid of the Mist took its maiden voyage in 1846.

  WHERE: 82 miles/132 km southeast of Toronto. Ontario visitor info: www.niagarafallstourism.com. New York visitor info: www.niagara-usa.com. CAVE OF THE WINDS: Tel 716-278-1730; www.niagarafallsstatepark.com. When: May–Oct. MAID OF THE MIST: Tel 905-358-5781 (Ontario), 716-284-8897 (New York); www.maidofthemist.com. When: Apr–Oct. JOURNEY BEHIND THE FALLS: Tel 905-354-1551; www.niagaraparks.com. When: May–Oct. NIAGARA FALLSVIEW CASINO RESORT: Tel 888-325-5788 or 905-374-6928; www.fallviewcasinoresort.com. Cost: from $210. PRINCE OF WALES: Tel 888-669-5566 or 905-468-3246; www.vintageinns.com. Cost: from $180 (off-peak), from $300 (peak). GEORGE BERNARD SHAW FESTIVAL: Tel 800-511-7429 or 905-468-2172; www.shawfest.com. When: Apr–Nov. INN ON THE TWENTY: Tel 800-701-8074 or 905-562-5336; www.innonthetwenty.com. Cost: from $150 (off-peak), from $260 (peak); dinner $55. BEST TIMES: weekends in mid-May–Aug for fireworks at the falls; Sep for Niagara Wine Festival.

  Celebrating the Canadian Winter

  WINTERLUDE AND THE RIDEAU CANAL

  Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

  If nature gives you snow and ice, celebrate the joys of winter. That’s exactly what Canada’s capital city has done every February since 1979, during Winterlude, Ottawa’s paean to skating, family activities, and fun in the snow.

  More than 650,000 visitors show up every year for the celebration, which includes a whole host of events: a winter triathlon (skiing, skating, and running), a hot stew cook-off, figure-skating performances, and outdoor concerts. Across the Ottawa River, in Quebec, Gatineau’s Jacques-Cartier Park hosts the world’s largest snow playground—complete with a snow maze and dozens of snow slides. This is Snowflake Kingdom, the site of the National Snow Sculpture Competition, a crowd favorite that displays giant works prepared by professional snow sculptors from each province and territory. Gatineau feels like a winter wonderland for those exploring its 124 miles of groomed cross-country ski trails through hardwood forests. Meanwhile, back at Ottawa’s Confederation Park, the Crystal Garden International Ice-Carving Competition is peopled by imposing ice statues that take on an eerie luminescence when lit at night.

  The Rideau Canal is the centerpiece of Winterlude. Built in the 1830s as a 126-mile military route linking the Ottawa River and Lake Ontario, North America’s oldest continuously operated canal becomes Winterlude’s main drag when 5 miles of its length, in the heart of Ottawa, are groomed for skating. During the rest of winter, the canal doubles as an ice thoroughfare—and the world’s largest naturally frozen ice rink. It fills with businesspeople commuting by skate between home and office; schoolchildren zipping along, car
rying lunch boxes; and skaters and sledders who stop at food concessions along the way for hot chocolate, beavertails (wedges of deep-fried dough covered with cinnamon sugar), and maple syrup on shaved ice.

  The imposing Fairmont Château Laurier, on the spot where the Rideau Canal meets the Ottawa River, is the best place to hang your skates. At the least, come for a cup of tea, served with Nova Scotia salmon and fresh-baked scones. Built in 1912, the Laurier offers a historic castlelike setting, handsome furnishings, and one of the most European hotel experiences this side of the Atlantic.

  Snow and ice sculptures enthrall visiting families.

  WINTERLUDE: Tel 800-465-1867 or 613-239-5000; www.winterlude.ca. When: 1st 3 weekends in Feb. FAIRMONT CHTEAU LAURIER: Tel 613-241-1414; www.fairmont.com/laurier. Cost: from $205 (off-peak), from $305 (peak); high tea $35.

  The Bard—and More—on Canada’s Avon River

  THE STRATFORD FESTIVAL

  Stratford, Ontario, Canada

  “The play’s the thing,” according to Shakespeare—a philosophy that has guided the highly acclaimed Stratford Festival of Canada since the early 1950s, when Stratford-born journalist Tom Patterson established a summer theater festival in this scenic and appropriately named city. Now the largest classical repertory theater in North America, the venue offers over a dozen productions yearly, from mid-April through early November. In addition to world-class productions of Shakespeare, it mounts a broad range of classic plays, musicals, and cutting-edge dramas on its four stages. Visitors can also attend a full program of fringe events, including concerts, discussions, and readings.

  Apart from its dynamic thespian activity, Stratford is a charming and romantic place to visit any time of year. The downtown core is a well-preserved bastion of ivy-covered Victorian storefronts centered on a market square, with excellent antiques stores, bookshops, art galleries, and restaurants. Call ahead for reservations at the Church Restaurant, a (now deconsecrated) house of worship built in 1873, where excellent modern French cuisine matches the unique setting, or take the stairs to its Belfry bar, a popular place for light meals and pre- and post-theater drinks.