The Great Canadian Tourism Thread!

[Stryker]

Originally Posted by jeremy_haak

The Dorset people predate Norse settlement, but they were displaced by the present Greenlandic people sometime after the Norse settlements were abandoned and disappear from the archaeological record entirely.

By how much? My understanding is that it's less than a 100 year difference.

[eemy]

By how much do the Dorset people predate Norse settlement? I'm not sure exactly how much, but my understanding is that human settlement on Greenland long predates the Norse.

I'm just going on what I faintly recall from visiting the museum in Nuuk. What I do know is that the present indigenous Greenlandic people descend from Inuit who settled Greenland only after the Norse abandoned their settlements on the island, displacing the original indigenous population. Europeans only returned in the (I believe) 18th century at the urging of a Danish priest, Hans Egede, who went on to establish a settlement at Godthab (Nuuk).

[craneSpotter]

Nice write up in Vogue about Victoria

Why Victoria, British Columbia, Should Be Your Next Weekend Getaway

APRIL 7, 2016 3:03 PM
by ALYSSA SCHWARTZ

http://www.vogue.com/13423997/victor...-travel-guide/

From Seattle’s ’90s grunge scene to the coffeehouses and food trucks that made Portland one of the most influential food cities in the country, the Pacific Northwest has for decades been America’s capital region of cool. Just north of the border, Vancouver, with its drizzly weather and craft breweries, is a Canadian cousin to those hipster havens. But Victoria, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, has traditionally been left out of all that cool talk.

Maybe it’s that the mountains and water that lie between Victoria and the mainland push all the clouds and rain and existential moodiness back toward the east (with an average of 2,183 hours of sunshine a year, Victoria is one of Canada’s sunniest cities); until recently, Victoria seemed more like the kind of place you’d visit with your granny than hit up for a girls’ weekend.

While Victoria’s long-held nickname refers to a place suited to the “nearly dead and newly wed,” those demographics are being overshadowed by an influx of creative, entrepreneurial types, largely driven across the Strait of Georgia by Vancouver’s skyrocketing real estate prices. Vancouver’s loss is Victoria’s gain: Today the city has about 900 tech companies and counting—it’s becoming known as Tectoria—and lots of gorgeous old brick warehouses, which now house stylish indie boutiques stocked full of local designs along with great bars, bakeries, and restaurants.

[SignalHillHiker]

Excellent news for SPM.



I'll miss the Cabestan.

[Acajack]

Out of curiosity, how much of "thing" is it to go to SPM for Newfoundlanders?

Is it something everyone or most everyone has done?

Comparatively speaking, in a place like Ottawa, almost everyone has been to Syracuse NY at least once.

In Montreal, basically everyone has been to Plattsburgh NY at least once in their lives.

[SignalHillHiker]

I'm not sure. It's a common class trip for students in junior/senior high, but probably only on the eastern half of the island. I imagine on the west coast they just go to the mainland, and on the Great Northern Peninsula and in Labrador they probably don't go anywhere.

Almost everyone I know has been there.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

I'm not sure. It's a common class trip for students in junior/senior high, but probably only on the eastern half of the island. I imagine on the west coast they just go to the mainland, and on the Great Northern Peninsula and in Labrador they probably don't go anywhere.

Almost everyone I know has been there.

Yeah, that's why we have to be careful about selection bias.

Everyone I hang out with here has been to NYC for example. And a huge majority of them (90%?) have been to Europe.

But a surprising number of people in Ottawa-Gatineau have never been to NYC. Let alone Europe.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Yeah, that's why we have to be careful about selection bias.

Everyone I hang out with here has been to NYC for example. And a huge majority of them (90%?) have been to Europe.

But a surprising number of people in Ottawa-Gatineau have never been to NYC. Let alone Europe.

It's interesting how that herd thinking shapes peoples' travel patterns. For example, it feels like just about everyone in Winnipeg has been to Las Vegas. Yet comparatively few (at least among the people I know, who tend to be reasonably well-travelled) have been to Chicago, which is a spectacular city and is within a short flight or a day's drive of here.

[drew]

Originally Posted by esquire

It's interesting how that herd thinking shapes peoples' travel patterns. For example, it feels like just about everyone in Winnipeg has been to Las Vegas. Yet comparatively few (at least among the people I know, who tend to be reasonably well-travelled) have been to Chicago, which is a spectacular city and is within a short flight or a day's drive of here.

All comes down to price and effort. Pound for pound, a weekend in Chicago would likely be more expensive and take more "effort" in terms of planning versus Vegas, which is essentially effortless - you don't need to plan anything. Just show up, get your hotel room, grab a drink and hit the strip.

But really Vegas is more of an amusement park for adults. It's not really comparable to anywhere else.

Coincidentally, I am going to Vegas at the end of the month...

I have been to Chicago though.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by esquire

It's interesting how that herd thinking shapes peoples' travel patterns. For example, it feels like just about everyone in Winnipeg has been to Las Vegas. Yet comparatively few (at least among the people I know, who tend to be reasonably well-travelled) have been to Chicago, which is a spectacular city and is within a short flight or a day's drive of here.

I am pretty sure that if you tallied up the % all people that have been to faraway sun destinations Cuba + Dominican Reapublic in this area, that the % of all people who've been there may actually be higher than the % of people who've been to NYC (which you can reach on a tank and a half of gas).

Herd mentality. As you say.

[drew]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I am pretty sure that if you tallied up the % all people that have been to faraway sun destinations Cuba + Dominican Reapublic in this area, that the % of all people who've been there may actually be higher than the % of people who've been to NYC (which you can reach on a tank and a half of gas).

Herd mentality. As you say.

Totally different vacation though. You can't compare a week long trip to sit on a beach at an all inclusive resort - versus a trip to NYC.

Again price and effort. Some people like to plan and research - some people just want to go and do nothing.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Yeah, that's why we have to be careful about selection bias.

Everyone I hang out with here has been to NYC for example. And a huge majority of them (90%?) have been to Europe.

But a surprising number of people in Ottawa-Gatineau have never been to NYC. Let alone Europe.

That's nothing. Since I returned to K-W, I've met people (born and raised here) who haven't been Downtown in over thirty years!

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

That's nothing. Since I returned to K-W, I've met people (born and raised here) who haven't been Downtown in over thirty years!

We have those people here too as you well know: people in Ottawa who never go to Gatineau and people in Gatineau who never go to Ottawa.

[esquire]

^ Doing a bit more of an apples to apples comparison, I'm pretty sure more people I know have gone to NYC than to Chicago. Granted NYC is a tier-one world city that even Chicago can't match, but still... it's just surprising at how some places are super common destinations while other not-that-distant desirable locales are seldom visited.

In my crowd these are the places that people have been to most of:
-London - sort of the common denominator European destination
-Paris - ditto
-NYC
-Cuba - typically resorts with the standard day trip to Havana, although some do the whole trip in Havana
-Dominican Republic - always at resorts, don't know a single person who has self-travelled there
-Florida
-Las Vegas
-Phoenix
-Vancouver
-Toronto

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Acajack

We have those people here too as you well know: people in Ottawa who never go to Gatineau and people in Gatineau who never go to Ottawa.

Not to mention "my people", who live in central Ottawa and, not only never go to Gatineau, but go to the Market once a year (at most) to pick up Christmas wreaths!

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Not to mention "my people", who live in central Ottawa and, not only never go to Gatineau, but go to the Market once a year (at most) to pick up Christmas wreaths!

"Your people"?

[kwoldtimer]

Surely you know me well enough by now, Acajack......

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Surely you know me well enough by now, Acajack......

I suspect you are a person with multiple "peoples" which you consider your own...

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I suspect you are a person with multiple "peoples" which you consider your own...

Just call me Sybil.

[Trevor3]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Out of curiosity, how much of "thing" is it to go to SPM for Newfoundlanders?

Is it something everyone or most everyone has done?

Comparatively speaking, in a place like Ottawa, almost everyone has been to Syracuse NY at least once.

In Montreal, basically everyone has been to Plattsburgh NY at least once in their lives.

Growing up on the west coast of NL, pretty much everyone goes to Halifax one way or another. SPM is a thing that happens but traditionally not a lot, usually the french immersion classes will take a trip down in middle school and another in high school. There's a yearly Halifax trip in high school for the Atlantic Band Festival that we went to every year, and occasionally to New York for the same reason.

We also had a couple hockey trips to SPM back in middle school. A team would fly up here to play our bantams and we would send a team down to play their peewee team, or something like that. Always the best when your team would get picked for that trip.

We do have summer flights between Stephenville and Saint-Pierre now, so I'm seeing more and more people do vacations down there in July and August, and more people from SPM coming here and touring the west coast, and everyone who goes raves about it when they come back. But it is kind of a newer thing, lots of people have never been and are only now crossing it off their list while everyone has been to Halifax or Toronto at some point.