British Columbia is head-to-toe gorgeous, with 26,000 km of coastline and terrain ranging from old-growth rainforest to glaciers, mountains, waterfalls, forests, and brilliantly blue lakes. So mild is southern BC’s climate that vineyards produce arguably Canada’s best wines, in the Okanagan Valley. But seek snow and ye shall find: skiing and snowboarding are top attractions, at resorts like Whistler and in the Rockies and other eastern ranges.
BC’s largest city, Vancouver is wedged between mountains and the sea, melding trendy nightlife, a 405-acre urban forest (Stanley Park), and a relaxed west-coast temperament that keeps the yoga studios and indie coffee shops afloat. Just across the strait, Vancouver Island has fantastic whale watching at the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve.
As you travel north, distances between destinations widen and roads drop off the map. In the Cariboo region you can trod the old Gold Rush trail and saddle up on working-ranch resorts. Dawson Creek, near the northern Alberta border, is the starting point for the Alaska Highway, a paved route through mountainous wilderness to the Yukon and Alaska. Along BC’s northern coast, ferries ply the lower Inside Passage in summer, and provide transport to the Haida Gwaii, an archipelago of 200 islands known as Canada’s Galápagos for their diverse and endemic species.
Stay, Dine, DoFind a hotel, restaurant or attraction.
Do you have great photos from your travels in Canada that you'd like to share with us? Submit them to the Where Canada Flickr pool and they'll show up here.
The Guide
