Honeymoon

In May and June 2005, we spent three wonderful weeks travelling across Canada. You are most welcome to read the story, and have a look at the photos.

Toronto

We started off by flying from Glasgow to Toronto with Zoom. We paid extra for Premium Class, which got us priority checkin and boarding, nice big comfy seats (preassigned when we booked), loads of free booze during the flight, and an extra 10kg of baggage allowance. Well worth the extra money. On arrival in Toronto we got a bus into the city centre which dropped us off a block away from our hotel, the Marriott Downtown Eaton Centre.

On arrival at the hotel, we were pleasantly surprised to find we'd been upgraded to a suite and given access to the Concierge Lounge; free breakfast in the mornings and snacks throughout the day. Lovely. On our second evening in the hotel we ate in the Steakhouse in the hotel, and both Susan and I were of opinion that the steaks were the best we'd ever had. Along with a lovely bottle of Wolf Blass Yellow Label, and some great service, this was a particularly memorable meal.

Our sightseeing in Toronto was mostly done by foot. We spent some time just wandering around, visiting pubs and restaurants that took our fancy. One morning we took the ferry over to one of the islands in the bay and had a nice leisurely walk around, followed by a trip up the CN Tower in the afternoon. The glass floor in the tower has to be stood on to be believed. Terrifying!

The following day was a day-trip to Niagara falls. As suggested by other Fools, we found that the normal scheduled bus service to Niagara was a lot cheaper than the organized trips. The bus stop in Niagara is a pleasant 25-minute stroll along the riverside from the falls. The falls themselves are spectacular... a trip on the Maid Of The Mist is great fun and is the best way to see the falls. The town is rather tacky and commercialized - think Mini Disneyworld - but we were delighted to find a Rainforest Cafe, as we'd had a fantastic meal in the Orlando branch a couple of years back.

We left Toronto the next morning for our flight to Calgary with Westjet. The Westjet flight was extremely pleasant, and cost peanuts. Our hire car was ready for us in Calgary Airport, and we tentatively set off on the drive West towards Banff.

The Rockies

The car was a Chevrolet Impala. This is a huge beast of a car with the turning circle and responsiveness of an ocean liner. The annoying lag between me pressing the accelerator and the car responding was an immense source of frustration. I have driven automatics before and don't remember them being this sluggish. Oh well.

Calgary itself sits on a plain, but as soon as you hit the highway you are presented with a beautiful view of the mountains in the distance. They sneak up on you surprisingly quickly. A couple of hours after leaving Calgary we arrived at our next hotel: the legendary Banff Springs.

This hotel is stunning. It costs a bomb, but it's worth it. Again on arrival we were upgraded to a suite, and given a complimentary bottle of champagne. (Subtly letting people know it's your honeymoon has a wonderful effect!) We spent a very relaxing couple of days pottering around the town of Banff and the hotel, and treated ourselves to lovely meals and spa sessions, etc. Our first night in the hotel we ate in the Bow Valley Grill and had some fantastic food with a rather expensive bottle of wine (I forget which).

Our journey continued. Through Lake Louise, we turned west towards Golden. The drive to Golden was particularly lovely - in the distance we spotted a family of black bears wandering along the railway line. Several vehicles had stopped to photograph the bears, but the police were not best pleased and actually had one guy in handcuffs as we drove past. Golden itself is an ugly railway town, so we stopped briefly for lunch before heading south to our next destination: the Timber Inn, in Parson.

This place had been recommended to us by a couple of sources, not least this very discussion board, and it sounded like exactly what we were looking for. A nice log cabin with a beautiful view, a wood-burning fireplace, a jacuzzi, and the most amazing home-cooked food courtesy of the owners, Marianne and Rainer. Marianne does all the cooking herself and I must say that eating fresh food was a wonderful change from all the processed prepackaged junk that is so common in North America. Rainer runs the bar, and he certainly knows his beer. During our three-night stay at the Timber Inn, we voyaged south towards Radium, dipped into the Kootenay National Park, went walking in the hills to some beautiful waterfalls, had lunch looking out towards Lake Windermere, and other nice things. On the day of our departure we bade a sad farewell to Marianne and Rainer - they couldn't have been more kind or hospitable to us. Next time we're in Canada we will go there again.

Passing back through Golden, we stopped off for something I'd been longing to do: our scenic flight over the Rockies, courtesy of our friendly pilot Steve . This was amazing. We were in the air for over two hours, and flew over the most spectacular scenery. Truly breathtaking. We went one step further than that, though: the conditions were good enough for us to land on a glacier at 10,000ft and have a ten minute wander in the pristine snow.

So, back to Lake Louise where we stayed at the Lake Louise Inn for one night. The hotel was fine; the village was tiny. The best things to do in Lake Louise are to drive up to the lake itself for some nice photos, and then go up the cablecar for some fantastic views of the lake and the surrounding mountains.

The next day we set off north up the Icefields Parkway. This is a beautiful drive. As Susan commented, "I don't think I've ever said 'Wow' so many times in one day before!" Every turn in the road presents you with a vista more spectacular than the last. This drive is heavenly.

We arrived in Jasper, and were booked in to the Astoria Hotel. This was a disappointment. We had booked a double room (obviously; we were on honeymoon!) but they'd given us a twin. The staff couldn't have cared less, and brushed off our complaints. I cannot recommend this hotel. You can read my rant on TripAdvisor.

The town of Jasper was lovely, though. We arrived in scorching sunshine and spent a pleasant couple of days enjoying the beer and food and scenery. Whilst in Jasper we drove up to Lake Maligne, which was stunning. The boat trip was very worthwhile - great photo opportunities. On the drive back to Jasper after our day at the lake, we were lucky enough to come across a beautiful black bear nibbling the shrubs at the side of the road. This was an awe-inspiring experience. The bear was only in sight for a matter of seconds before he ambled away into the woods, but those few seconds were very special indeed.

We left Jasper and turned west once again, to Clearwater. This was an overnight stop rather than a destination. We found a very cheap room for the night at the Clearwater Valley Resort, which was pleasant and comfortable. There was one embarrassing incident where the staff gave us the wrong cabin key, and we walked in on an old man emerging from the shower. Oops! Never mind, that was quickly rectified. The staff recommended a nearby restaurant where we had some nice steaks and a mountainous lemon meringue pie. Lovely.

The next morning we set off for our next destination: Whistler. Now, this was a journey and a half. Susan, the navigator, found us a "shortcut". It was indeed a shortcut on the map - we cut 40km off our trip. Unfortunately our map was not three-dimensional, so the fact that our shortcut was a near-vertical dirt track over the top of a mountain didn't register until it was too late. Six and a half hours later we emerged onto a main road, and stopped in Lillooet for petrol and to let the brakes cool down.

On to Whistler. The road from Lillooet to Whistler, whilst being a main road and much more pleasant than the dirt track, is extremely steep and hard on the brakes. I had to stop a couple of times because the burning smell coming from the brakes was quite worrying. After a further gentle drive we arrived, somewhat stressed, at the beautiful Sundial Boutique Hotel.

The service we received at the Sundial was supreme. Again we were upgraded, and again we were given complimentary champagne. In fact our favourite front-desk girl was so good to us that we took her out for some drinks on our last night in Whistler. The time in Whistler was spend resting and pottering around, trying out all the bars and restaurants. We were lucky to get gorgeous weather while we were there, and were able to wear shorts and sandals for the first time.

Vancouver & Vancouver Island

So, we left Whistler, and continued west to the Pacific coast, where we caught the ferry over to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. A short drive later we arrived at Abigail's Hotel in Victoria. This is a delightful little place. The hotel breakfasts were quite special. Victoria itself is a lovely town built around the harbour, and the Royal BC Museum was a great way to spend an afternoon. We went to the highly-regarded Don Mee restaurant in Chinatown, and were most disappointed with the food. Our local takeaway back home in Glasgow makes better food! Never mind... the following night we ate in the lovely Tapa Bar which was excellent. We would love to go back and spend more time on Vancouver Island - two night in Victoria really wasn't enough.

Leaving Victoria, we drove up to Swartz Bay for the ferry back to the mainland, and to our final destination, Vancouver. We stayed at the Wedgewood Hotel. It's in a great central location and once again we were delighted to be upgraded to a suite. By this stage Susan and I were becoming quite accustomed to all this extravagance and luxury, so anything less than a suite just wouldn't have cut the mustard.

In Vancouver we took the horse-and-carriage tour round Stanley Park, watched the Beluga Whales in the aquarium, wandered around Gastown, and generally had a nice time. The Storyeum exhibition is a fascinating live music/theatre show which runs every 30 minutes or so during the day, and everyone should try it.

We had some superb sushi in Vancouver, but on the final night of our honeymoon we had a gorgeous meal in an Italian restaurant in Gastown called Al Porto, where we treated ourselves to a lovely bottle of Bollo Amarone. Superb. The service was impeccable too.

And then the trip home. Once again we flew with Zoom, from Vancouver straight back to Glasgow. On this occasion we were very glad of the extra 10kg baggage allowance we each had, as we'd had to buy another suitcase to hold all the stuff we'd bought.

The honeymoon couldn't have been better. Our strategy had been to book some accomodation in advance at strategic points, and then just book the rest a day or two in advance whenever we were able to get online. This worked extremely well, as May/June was not yet peak tourist season so we had no real problem finding nice places at short notice.

We will go back one day.