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CANADA
- INFORMATION, WEB SITES AND
MAPS |
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Few countries on earth can match
the sheer volume of tourist
information as that handed out by
the Canadians. The most useful
sources of information before you
go are the various provincial
tourist offices in Canada. If you
contact them well in advance of
your departure, and are as
specific as possible about your
intentions, they'll be able to
provide you with everything you
need to know.
Outside Canada, the
consulates, embassies and high
commissions
usually have tourist departments,
though these cannot match the
specific detailed advice dispensed
in Canada. One or two Canadian
provinces maintain offices or
brochure-line numbers in London
, though these serve mainly as
clearing houses for free publicity
material. Most of Canada's
provinces have at least one toll-free
visitor information number for
use within mainland North America.
The toll-free numbers are staffed
by tourist office employees
trained to answer all manner of
queries and to advise on room
reservations.
Local information
In Canada, there are often
seasonal provincial tourist
information centres along
the main highways, especially at
provincial boundaries and along
the US border. The usual opening
hours for the seasonal
centres are daily 9am-9pm in
July and August and weekdays
9am-5 or 6pm in May, June,
September and October. These
dispense all sorts of glossy
material and, most usefully,
have details of local provincial
and national parks. The parks
themselves
have offices that sell fishing
and backcountry permits and give
help on the specifics of hiking,
canoeing, wildlife watching and
so forth. At the country's airports
general information is harder to
come by, though there's usually
a city tourist desk or a free
phone which will help arrange
accommodation.
All of Canada's large cities
have their own tourist
bureaux , with the services
of the main branch complemented
by summertime booths, kiosks and
offices. Smaller towns nearly
always have a seasonal tourist
office, infocentre or visitors'
centre , frequently operated
by the municipal chamber of
commerce, holding local maps and
information. The usual opening
hours in summer are daily
9am-6pm; in winter, tourist
information is often dispensed
from the city hall or chamber of
commerce (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm). Many
larger towns have a free
newspaper or broadsheet,
carrying local reviews and
entertainment listings.
Web sites
Another excellent source for
every conceivable manner of
information is, of course, the
Web ; outside of checking
Rough Guides own site ( www.roughguides.com
) for our Canada coverage and
any other travel needs, we've
listed a few of the most useful
or just fun sites from which to
get ready for your trip
. Plenty of other Web sites are
listed for businesses, hotels
and sights throughout this
Basics section and the rest of
the Guide.
Maps
The free maps issued by
each province, and available at
all the tourist offices, are
excellent for general driving
and route planning, especially
as they provide the broad
details of ferry connections.
The best of the commercially
produced maps are those
published by Rand McNally, also
available bound together in
their Rand McNally Road Atlas
of North America.
In the case of hiking
and canoe routes, all the
national and most of the
provincial parks have visitors'
centres, which provide free
parkland maps indicating hiking
and canoe trails. Many of them
also sell proper local survey
maps, as do lots of outfitters
and some of the provincial
parks' departments, whose
details are given in the Guide
or can be obtained through the
toll-free numbers.
If you want to be absolutely
sure of getting the maps you
need for independent wilderness
travel, contact the Canada
Map Office , 130 Bentley
Ave, Nepean, Ontario K1A 0E9 (tel
613/952-7000 or 1-800/465-6277).
It supplies map indexes, which
will identify the map you need;
it also produces a useful
brochure entitled Topographic
Basics and publishes two
main series of maps, 1:250 000
and 1:50 000.
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