The Great Canadian Tourism Thread! - Page 25

MonctonRad · #**481** Posted **Jul 15, 2020, 12:10 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by lio45

Amusingly, the opposite happened to me as a kid when I started traveling. ("That's the Rhine?!?")

https://www.google.ca/maps/@48.57331...7i16384!8i8192

I would guess that's not uncommon either...

The first time I saw the Rhine, the first thing I thought was "Geez, the Saint John River is wider than this"............

Of course, the Rhine has no parallel in North America WRT it's river traffic, and it's use as a transportation corridor. I'll always remember the parallel train tracks on both river banks, with trains passing by every 5-10 minutes. And, of course, the Rhine Gorge is truly spectacular.

someone123 · #**482** Posted **Jul 15, 2020, 6:07 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

The first time I saw the Rhine, the first thing I thought was "Geez, the Saint John River is wider than this"............

Of course, the Rhine has no parallel in North America WRT it's river traffic, and it's use as a transportation corridor. I'll always remember the parallel train tracks on both river banks, with trains passing by every 5-10 minutes. And, of course, the Rhine Gorge is truly spectacular.

Yes although that's a few hours away from Alpine scenery. There's lots of impressive scenery around the British Isles too. It's really just the coastal plain parts of Western Europe that have comparatively boring scenery. There are similar parts of North America.

I think some of this phenomenon of comparatively small European geographical features having a lot of notoriety stems from the greater amount of history there, and the fact that a lot of history survives from a period when people didn't travel much. For centuries of recorded European history most people lived only in their little village or, occasionally, took small boat rides along these rivers.

Denscity · #**483** Posted **Aug 2, 2020, 7:55 PM**

Saw my first Quebec license plate here In Castlegar today. I've done that drive its loong.
Lots of Vancouver cars along with Alberta and Kelowna as well.

VANRIDERFAN · #**484** Posted **Aug 3, 2020, 11:12 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by craneSpotter

New federal whale watching regulations came into effect Jun1, 2019. https://www.timescolonist.com/busine...ons-1.23855586

Victoria whale watching company launches newest vessel

https://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/v...ssel-1.4443320

Utter and complete bullshit. Those fucktards should be shot out of the water.

Airboy · #**485** Posted **Aug 3, 2020, 3:12 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Denscity

Saw my first Quebec license plate here In Castlegar today. I've done that drive its loong.
Lots of Vancouver cars along with Alberta and Kelowna as well.

Been seen lots of out of province plate the last few weeks. quite a few Manitoba and Sask plates on motor homes. and lots of BC plates in Jasper and Banff.

Loco101 · #**486** Posted **Aug 4, 2020, 8:32 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hawrylyshyn

Hey guys, I'm looking to do a weekend trip within Ontario. I just wanted to confirm that hotels are open right??

Yes. Every chain hotel is open. There may be some smaller independent ones that are closed. What part of Ontario are you planning to visit? Some regions have very high demand right now but some not as much as usual.

giallo · #**487** Posted **Aug 4, 2020, 12:10 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by VANRIDERFAN

Utter and complete bullshit. Those fucktards should be shot out of the water.

What's the issue with these vessels?

VANRIDERFAN · #**488** Posted **Aug 4, 2020, 12:26 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by giallo

What's the issue with these vessels?

The whole whale watching industry is an abomination. Groups of vessels harassing marine life and causing undue stress to the animals. Then the company owners crow about how bloody environmentally aware they are.

Airboy · #**489** Posted **Aug 4, 2020, 5:08 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by VANRIDERFAN

The whole whale watching industry is an abomination. Groups of vessels harassing marine life and causing undue stress to the animals. Then the company owners crow about how bloody environmentally aware they are.

Best whale watching I found was sitting on a beach on Van Island or one of the smaller ones. Always see a whale.

Denscity · #**490** Posted **Aug 5, 2020, 8:21 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Airboy

Been seen lots of out of province plate the last few weeks. quite a few Manitoba and Sask plates on motor homes. and lots of BC plates in Jasper and Banff.

Tell those BC kids to get out of there and head to Mt. Robson or something. There's no resort area but at least the mountain is taller lol.
Or head to Fernie.

Saw the second Ontario plate today. A car from Mississauga Nissan at the Kinnaird Bluffs rock climbing area.
And our first Saskatchewan plate at Millenium park.

Denscity · #**491** Posted **Aug 9, 2020, 4:33 PM**

Another Ontario plate in Castlegar this time from Otto's car dealership in Ottawa.

swimmer_spe · #**492** Posted **Aug 11, 2020, 7:21 AM**

I am on my honeymoon. I am from Ontario and we did a road trip to Victoria/Vancouver. It really is shocking to see the light traffic everywhere. From the National parks, the highways, the ferries, and hotels, they all seem, empty.

Walking through the National Parks, it is nice not having lots of foreign tourists plugging them up.

I know tourist operators are hurting, but I wonder if there is a way to balance tourism and serenity of the parks and other attractions.

I haven't been to any amusement parks in at least a decade, but even then, a wait of an hour was normal.

Maybe those that still exist in the future will find away to make a living, and keep the good that smaller crowds bring.

esquire · #**493** Posted **Aug 11, 2020, 2:40 PM**

I originally booked a trip to Calgary/Banff to replace my cancelled trip to the Maritimes, but with the spiking covid counts in AB we decided to stay in Manitoba and go to Riding Mountain National Park. It would be nice to visit the mountains when they aren't quite so busy but we decided it just wasn't worth the risk...

swimmer_spe · #**494** Posted **Aug 12, 2020, 7:52 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire

I originally booked a trip to Calgary/Banff to replace my cancelled trip to the Maritimes, but with the spiking covid counts in AB we decided to stay in Manitoba and go to Riding Mountain National Park. It would be nice to visit the mountains when they aren't quite so busy but we decided it just wasn't worth the risk...

I am finding there is minimal risk. In fact, some provinces are asking for contact tracing info at restaurants.

lubicon · #**495** Posted **Aug 12, 2020, 3:38 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire

I originally booked a trip to Calgary/Banff to replace my cancelled trip to the Maritimes, but with the spiking covid counts in AB we decided to stay in Manitoba and go to Riding Mountain National Park. It would be nice to visit the mountains when they aren't quite so busy but we decided it just wasn't worth the risk...

Nothing wrong with staying close to home this year, but to say numbers were spiking in Alberta is a bit of an overstatement IMHO. They rose (expected) but have since stabilized. That said, I'm not sure how would feel about taking an out of province trip that involved hotels and restaurants either.

esquire · #**496** Posted **Aug 12, 2020, 3:59 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by lubicon

Nothing wrong with staying close to home this year, but to say numbers were spiking in Alberta is a bit of an overstatement IMHO. They rose (expected) but have since stabilized. That said, I'm not sure how would feel about taking an out of province trip that involved hotels and restaurants either.

Yeah, it was sort of a combination of factors and not just covid count, although the recent increase in cases was the last straw. At that point we figured we'd just stay closer to home and hold off on Alberta for now.

Denscity · #**497** Posted **Aug 15, 2020, 2:34 AM**

Saw a Manitoba plate in town today for the first time this year.
That is now every province in the country outside of the east coast.

esquire · #**498** Posted **Aug 15, 2020, 3:40 PM**

Seen an absolute explosion in the number of Ontario plates around Winnipeg lately. Probably more than I can ever remember seeing. Vehicles from other provinces are basically within normal ranges for this time of year, mostly western provinces with the very odd one from Quebec or points east.

wave46 · #**499** Posted **Aug 15, 2020, 8:16 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

Maybe those that still exist in the future will find away to make a living, and keep the good that smaller crowds bring.

I think that's going to be a hard thing to accomplish in the modern era.

Partly, demographics are to blame. You've a bunch of older, wealthier Boomers who are hitting the travel portion of their lives and also a bunch of Millennials who are holding off having kids. Then you combine the fantastically huge increase in foreign tourism from China.

Then you combine everybody looking for the next 'hidden secret insider place' via Google, combined with the mass affordability of low-cost airline travel.

It's a recipe for mass crowds.

New Zealand imposes a tourist tax on everybody except Australians coming into the country when they issue a eVisa.

swimmer_spe · #**500** Posted **Aug 15, 2020, 11:39 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by wave46

I think that's going to be a hard thing to accomplish in the modern era.

Partly, demographics are to blame. You've a bunch of older, wealthier Boomers who are hitting the travel portion of their lives and also a bunch of Millennials who are holding off having kids. Then you combine the fantastically huge increase in foreign tourism from China.

Then you combine everybody looking for the next 'hidden secret insider place' via Google, combined with the mass affordability of low-cost airline travel.

It's a recipe for mass crowds.

New Zealand imposes a tourist tax on everybody except Australians coming into the country when they issue a eVisa.

We could do that ans simply tax those that are not from USA/Mexico or the Commonwealth. This would allow tourists to still come, but reduce the overall numbers into Canada. It also would add to the tax base without regular Canadians complaining that they are being taxed to death.