Canada – The ‘to-do’ list

Canada is big! As the second-largest country in the world, spanning six time zones and stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific to the Arctic oceans, it covers almost 10 million square kilometers (9, 984,670 to be exact). If you’re planning a visit to this magnificent country, check out this essential “to-do” list before heading off.

British Columbia
Sleep with the fish. When Vancouver Aquarium closes up for the day, overnight guests can bed down in an underwater marine gallery. Wake up to the sight of cruising sharks, beluga whales or sleek-sided dolphins. Also includes an evening snack, Stanley Park nature walk and Continental breakfast. Time: 7 pm to 9 am. Cost: $120. Vanaqua.org/visit_us/sleepovers.html

Embark on a posh nosh. Can’t handle 40-plus people piled onto a bus for a culinary tour? Vancouver-based Chef and Chauffeur whisks guests away by luxury SUV. The destination: the Fraser Valley, where you can indulge your palette in artisan jams, award-winning chocolates, organic hazelnuts and local wines. Chefandchauffeur.com

Zip it. Whistle over rushing creeks and old-growth forest on a series of ziplines, some as long as 670 m (2,200 ft), in the alpine ski/snowboard village of Whistler. Perfect for adrenalin junkies. Adults $79 to $119. Whistler.com/zipline, Hellobc.com

Alberta
Peer at the petroglyphs (ancient rock carvings) and pictographs (ancient rock paintings) at Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park in Southern Alberta, which vividly depict hunting, spiritual vision quests and battle scenes. This is the largest concentration of rock art on the North American Plains—some as much as 6,000 years old. Gateway.cd.gov.ab.ca/siteinformation.aspx?id=177

Take a Z-Trip. Try the latest thrill sport: at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, you can flip and flop down the hill in what is essentially a giant hamster ball. $30 per person. June 2 to September 28. Canadaolympicpark.ca, Travelalberta.com

Saskatchewan
Take a Mountie crash course. The new RCMP Heritage Centre in Regina celebrates all things Mountie. Budding CSIers: check out the interactive forensics display. Have your pic snapped in the famous red serge uniform and learn about life on the frontier, when the RCMP befriended Sitting Bull, tamed Klondike gold diggers and organized manhunts. Adults $12. Rcmpheritagecentre.com

Learn to mush. Build your dogsledding skills in Saskatchewan’s boreal forest. The six-day package includes accommodation in a wilderness chalet, hearty homemade meals and a chance to learn about local wildlife. At night, witness the Northern Lights’ spine-tingling display and listen to the timber wolf serenade. Cost: $1,149 per person. Mid-November to mid-March. Greatexcursions.travel, Sasktourism.com

Manitoba
Bust out a W-town session. Our skater lingo may be a little sketchy, but the skateboard park at The Plaza in Winnipeg’s vibrant Forks National Historic Site is distinctly, well, gnarly. The Plaza covers 4,090 sq m (44,000 sq ft); it boasts a 2,800-sq-m (30,000-sq-ft) Central Plaza and an 800-sq-m (8,500-sq-ft) Bowl Complex with a five-m (17-ft) cradle. Free. Theforks.com

Grin and bear it. In late fall, polar bears gather at water’s edge in Churchill waiting for the ice to form. Get up close and personal from behind the windows of a specially built Tundra Buggy. Greatcanadiantravel.com/churchill_polarbear_tours.htm, Travelmanitoba.com

Ontario
Sip a cocktail with the lights of Toronto strung out before you. Good bets include The Panorama (on the 51st floor of the Manulife Centre (eatertainment.com), Canoe (atop the TD Bank Tower oliverbonacini.com), and The Roof Lounge on the 18th floor of the Park Hyatt Toronto (parktoronto.hyatt.com).

Bond with the Bard. Get your fix of tragedy and romance at Stratford’s world-renowned Shakespearean festival. Christopher Plummer, Brian Dennehy and Martha Henry are among the actors that have graced its stages. Round out the trip with a behind-scenes tour of the Festival Theatre, costume warehouse and Festival gardens. Stratfordfestival.ca

Go spa-ah-ahing. Ste. Anne’s Spa, a haven for the harried in Grafton, ON, was recently ranked one of the 100 best spas in the world. Suspend yourself in a warm, thick bath of ancient mud ($90); opt for a eucalyptus wrap ($90); meditate at the Fitness Pavillion. Overnight packages start at $375 per person. Steannes.com, Ontariotravel.net

Quebec
Eat and drink à la Mordecai: Walk in the footsteps of one of Canada’s literary lions—Mordecai Richler—who immortalized the streets of Montréal. Down a medium-fat, smoked meat sandwich at Schwartz’s, Schwartzsdeli.com, a chewy-sweet sesame bagel at St. Viateur’s (stviateurbagel.com), calves’ liver hors d’ouevres at French bistro L’Express or rib steak at Moishes (moishes.ca). Chase with a nice single malt.

Do it Inuit style (sleep, that is). Fashioned from 15,000 tons of snow and 500 tons of ice, North America’s only ice hotel (Hôtel de Glace) is, well, way cool. Chill with a cocktail served in an ice glass in the ice bar, get hitched in the ice chapel or cozy up in one of the 36 rooms (perhaps after a quick dip in the outdoor hot tub). Open Jan. 4 to March 29, 2009. $15 for tour; overnight packages (including cocktail and hot tub) start at $219 per person for double occupancy. Hoteldeglace-canada.com

Watch summer go out in a blaze of glory. Think gooey artisanal cheeses, zesty cider, dainty pastries, pretty villages and quaint auberges (small inns). Now you’ve got a sense of what makes Quebec’s Eastern Townships the perfect place for a meandering road trip. Rolling farmlands, shadowed by mountains and magnificent stands of maples make fall viewing a bonus. Quebecweb.com/tourisme/estrie/introang.htm, Bonjourquebec.com

New Brunswick
Paddle the tides. The awe-inspiring tides at Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park rise as high as a four-storey building. What better way to explore the park’s giant flowerpot rock formations and hidden sea caves than by bobbing along in a sea kayak? Follow up with a walk along the ocean floor to discover the complex web of life nurtured by the tidal flats. Two-hour kayaking tour, $55 per adult. Baymountadventures.com

Uncover the covered bridges. New Brunswick boasts 64 of these rural icons—the longest in Hartland, extending 391 m (1,282 ft). Gnb.ca/0113/coveredbridges/coveredbridges-e.asp, Tourismnewbrunswick.ca

Nova Scotia
Park your caboose at Tatamagouche. Bunk down for the night in an old train station, or in one of seven deluxe cabooses and two railway cars dating from 1905 to 1978 at the oh-so-quaint Train Station Inn. Spend the days beachcombing or seal-watching and return to feast on fresh lobster and steak, as well the open-faced raspberry pie that one customer “drove 200 miles for.” It’s served up in the dining car—where else? Prices range from $100 to $170 per room or train car. Open April to November. Trainstation.ca

Lounge in a deckchair… on the Titanic. Okay, okay, the deckchair you sit in at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic is a replica, and the deck is an oversized photograph. But the “Titanic: The Unsinkable Ship and Halifax” exhibit includes the wireless operator’s log of the doomed ship’s distress calls, one of the only intact deck chairs in the world and part of the grand staircase. Adults $8.50 in summer. Museum.gov.ns.ca/mma/index.html, Novascotia.com

Prince Edward Island
Walk the line. When the PEI Railway stopped service in 1989, the pretty-as-a-picture island converted its rails to a trail. Bike or hike the Confederation Trail from one end of the island to the other, past red-sand beaches and exuberantly coloured wildflowers. Free. Islandtrails.ca

Exercise your pipes. The College of Piping and Celtic Performing Arts of Canada offers tours and performances all summer long. Watch pipers (bagpipe players), drummers and dancers in their “Highland Storm” performances Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights, or mini-concerts during your tour Monday through Friday. Collegeofpiping.com, Gentleisland.com

Newfoundland and Labrador
Ogle an iceberg. Massive flotillas of glacial ice begin lumbering down “iceberg alley” from Greenland in spring and early summer. Use Icebergfinder.com to pick a promising clifftop and watch the show go by.

Go Norse, young man. Visit the ancient (11th-century) Viking community at L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site with its unique sod-covered buildings, then head to nearby Norstead. A Viking Port of Trade brings the Norsemen’s world alive. Latter-day Vikings will show you around the full-sized Viking ship Snorri, a replica of the Viking ship knarr, and teach you to navigate using a simple, notched stick or to spin fleece into yarn. Adults: $8. Norstead.com, Newfoundlandlabrador.com

Yukon Territory
Party like a 49er. Miners struck gold in the Yukon in August 1896, and the celebrations have been goin' on ever since. Discovery Days is a week-long event each August in Dawson City: Diamond Tooth Gertie’s Can Can dancers, walking tours, writing competitions, arts festival, golf tourney and a motherload of family fun.

Drive the Dempster. Open-road adventure? You've hit the motherload. The epic Dempster Highway is a 736-km (457-mi), unpaved, two-lane road that stretches from just east of Dawson City, YT to Inuvik, NWT. You’ll cross the Arctic Circle and traverse the Continental Divide three times en route. A haunting landscape of jagged peaks, colour-stained mountains, vast quantities of wildlife… it's all here. Don’t forget spare tires. Yukoninfo.com/dempster, Travelyukon.com

Northwest Territories
Be an Inuit band groupie. At The Great Northern Arts Festival in July, some 120 Aboriginal and Inuit artists and performers (and others) from across the North meet up to jam in Inuvik, NWT. Plus, workshops, art exhibits, onsite demos, kids’ fun and evening performances of song, dance and storytelling. Gnaf.org

Golf under the midnight sun. Tee off at midnight during Yellowknife Golf Club’s Canadian North Midnight Classic—as golfers have done for more than 60 years. The record for the most holes played: in 1970, a local golfed 171 holes in a 33.5-hour marathon. June. Non-members $125. Yellowknifegolf.com, Explorenwt.com

Nunavut Territory
Time to Toonik. Iqaluit celebrates the return of spring—in July—at the delightfully authentic and local Toonik Tyme. If you didn’t know much about the Canadian Arctic’s unique culture, here’s your opp. The week of dawn to after-dark hoopla includes traditional Inuit igloo building, dog-team races, Inuit games, seal-skinning contests, dogsledding, Inuit band jam sessions, concerts, church feasts and bannock-making competitions. Tooniktyme.com

Chill with the weavers. At Uqqurmiut Centre for Arts & Crafts, pretty much at the top of the world. To reach Pangnirtung on southern Baffin Island, you must go north—way north—to the edge of a fjord surrounded by sheer cliffs. The hamlet is home to internationally recognized Inuit carvers, graphic artists, printmakers and especially tapestry weavers, whose spectacular work hangs at the Uqqurmiut (oo-koo-me-oot) Centre. Uqqurmiut.com, Nunavuttourism.com