Our Vegan Travels

We made two major trips to Canada, visiting both the east coast and then the west coast. On both occasions we fell in love with the place and did not want to come home.

In the east, it's easy to link together Niagara Falls, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City. We went for the autumn colours; red, orange and gold. Driving north, very quickly you are in total wilderness. It's also well worth trekking out to the maritme provinces. We loved Gros Morne National Park, along with the cities of Halifax and St. Johns. The highlight was sailing out of Tadoussac for the Whale watching. We were in a large boat and could see smaller boats come so close to the blue whales, it looked as if they could almost touch them.

We had seen films like X-men and Twilight which were filmed in Canada and that's what drew us back. The Rocky Mountains have the most incredible turquoise lakes. We stayed mainly in the Banff national park. A trip to Calgary is well worth the detour, if only to spend a day at the Heritage Park, which is a living history museum where you can experience the life of the early settlers. Back in Vancouver there are no shortage of activities for the tourists. On the last day, we were back out looking for whales. This time we took a speedy zodiac but while the other boats were chasing after the whales, our skipper held back and after an hour we had to turn back having seen nothing. Then just as we were about to leave an orca jumped right out of the water just next to us. I am convinced that the orca did it on purpose to reward us for our patience while all the other boats had sped off in totally the wrong direction.

How vegan friendly is Canada?

You will have endless choices in all the major cities, however if you are planning on getting out to nature and the wilderness, best pack plenty of provisions and have access to a kitchen. With a population of around 38 million there are an estimated 2.3 million vegetarians and 850,000 vegans. The province with the highest number is British Columbia. However for shear numbers of restaurants and vegan businesses Toronto has to be the capital. On the east coast Montreal and Quebec are also vegan havens. However, when you head out to the coastal areas, it's a whole different story. On the west coast it's a similar. Vancouver has an amazing selection, yet once you head out to the national parks of Banff and Jasper in the Rockies there is a surprising lack of choice. Let's say, it's got to be a great business opportunity for some enterprising vegan chefs.