Category Archives: Canada

2016, Alberta, Canada, North America

Giveaway! Experience the Rocky Mountains with the Epic Summer Pass! CLOSED

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glacier-skywalk-jasper

By Karlie Marrazzo

It’s giveaway time! You all know how much I adore my home province of Alberta, the land of soaring mountain peaks, golden prairies and wide open skies, so I’ve teamed up with the lovely folks at Brewster Travel Canada to give away a FAMILY PACK of their brand-new Epic Summer Pass! What is an Epic Summer Pass, you ask?

The pass gives unlimited access to five of the most spectacular attractions in the world-renowned Rocky Mountains: the Banff Gondola, Banff Lake Cruise, Columbia Icefield Glacier Adventure, Glacier Skywalk and Maligne Lake Cruise. This limited edition pass, on sale until May 31, is $130 per adult and $70 per child, pays for itself after just three visits to any of the attractions. I’m giving away a family pack (two adults and two children) to one of my lucky readers! Continue reading Giveaway! Experience the Rocky Mountains with the Epic Summer Pass! CLOSED →

2016, Alberta, Canada, North America, Road trips

Beyond the bunny hill: Getting outdoorsy in Banff

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johnston-canyon-hike

By Karlie Marrazzo

Full of spectacular and abundant natural beauty, Banff is Canada’s outdoor playground, nestled in the Rocky Mountains and busy with visitors from around the globe all year round. In the winter, the town is full of people who love to hit the slopes at one of the three world-class hills in the area. Since I am not even close to proficient in skiing or snowboarding, I tend to save my trips for the summer, when the days are warm and the sun doesn’t go down until late at night. Expedia.ca encouraged me to see what I was missing, so I made the four-hour drive south at the beginning of March to experience what the area has to offer in the chillier months.
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2016, Alberta, Canada, North America

Jasper in January: Learning to love winter

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jasper-in-january

By Karlie Marrazzo

Growing up and living in Canada for my whole life has produced in me an automatic desire to hibernate in the winter, a hard shell that protects me against the cold and snow and keeps me going until summer finally comes around again. This desire is, however, slightly outweighed by the desire to do, to be, to see and experience new things. Jasper in January, held in 2016 for the 27th time, was the perfect opportunity for me to push my own boundaries and experience the glory of the Canadian winter.

Held over three consecutive weekends in January, the festival celebrates all things frosty and is split into three different themes – Adventure, Appetites and Arts. I dove right in to the winter adventure experiences with Winterstruck, an outdoor celebration of all things winter, set on the frozen surface of Pyramid Lake, a five-minute shuttle ride from the Jasper townsite.

Continue reading Jasper in January: Learning to love winter →

2015, Alberta, Canada, North America, Road trips

Exploring Jasper: Icefields Parkway and Rocky Mountain helicopter ride

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jasper-helicopter-tours

By Karlie Marrazzo

This is the third post in a series on Edmonton and Jasper. Click here to read parts one and two.

The Icefields Parkway, which connects Jasper and Banff National Parks in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, is arguably one of the most gorgeous drives in the world. Two hundred and thirty kilometres of smooth asphalt pass by the feet of towering mountains, ancient glaciers, and crystal clear streams and, lined with wildlife, it makes every list of ‘Best Drives in the World.’ It was on this road that our rag tag group of writers and bloggers traveled on the last day of our Rocky Mountain exploration.

Continue reading Exploring Jasper: Icefields Parkway and Rocky Mountain helicopter ride →

2015, Alberta, Canada, North America, Road trips

Exploring Jasper: Mountain heights and hot springs

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jasper-day-hike

By Karlie Marrazzo

This is the second post in a series on Edmonton and Jasper. Click here to read part one.

As a chronic wanderluster who lives in a city that is so isolated that it takes at least two or three flights to get anywhere exotic, I am constantly thinking of ways to maximize long weekends and make the most of my more immediate surroundings. Fortunately my hometown of Edmonton is only a few hours’ drive from the glorious Canadian Rocky Mountains, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the cozy mountain town of Jasper, Alberta.

Continue reading Exploring Jasper: Mountain heights and hot springs →

2015, Alberta, Canada, North America

Edmonton: Viewing my hometown through a new lens

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elk-island-park

By Karlie Marrazzo

Edmonton,  Alberta is known for its shopping mall, its hockey team, and its extreme low temperatures. It is the city that raised me, the most northerly city in North America with more than one million residents, and it’s a place I often leave to explore other corners of the globe. Often, when I tell people where I’m from, they ask if it’s near Toronto or Montreal (it’s not). As travelers, we often overlook our hometowns in favour of the more exotic, the warmer, the more far-flung, the better. When I was invited to be a guest of Edmonton Tourism and Tourism Jasper to explore my own backyard this fall, I jumped at the chance to see my city, as well as Jasper National Park, from a fresh perspective – that of a tourist.

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2015, Alberta, Canada, North America, Saskatchewan

Retracing the 1965 Shell 4000: Regina to Edmonton

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regina-legislature-saskatchewan

By Karlie Marrazzo

Only a crazy person would drive the length of Canada from Vancouver to Halifax in a 48-year-old Volvo Amazon, purposely avoiding the main highways the whole way, right? Well, that’s exactly what my husband and his friend did earlier this summer, covering 9000km in 11 days, retracing routes from the Shell 4000 rallies that ran in the 1960s, raising money for Alzheimer’s along the way. It was called the Canada 5000, and mere weeks after their return, my Dave decided he hadn’t had enough. He wanted to give the 1965 Regina to Edmonton leg a shot, with me as his passenger/navigator. Most people, including my husband, didn’t think I would want to sit in a car for at least 21 hours, drive to Saskatchewan and immediately turn back around, but I signed up for the challenge without hesitating. Traveling is my passion, and any trip great or small is an opportunity for me to experience something new and see places I haven’t seen before.

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2015, Alberta, Canada, North America, Road trips

Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park: Ancient art in the Badlands

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alberta-badlands

By Karlie Marrazzo

Southern Alberta has become one of my favourite destinations in the past couple of years, one that I am fortunate to be able to reach with an easy half-day road trip. I love the larger-than-life Alberta skies and the vast, flat, golden prairies. I love how the landscape can change so quickly and how the Earth opens up in front of me to reveal something completely different.

For this year’s Alberta exploration, I started with two nights in Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park before moving on for two more at Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park/Áísínai’pi National Historic Site.

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2015, Alberta, Canada, North America, Road trips

Cypress Hills: An oasis in the Canadian Prairies

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Cypress-Hills-Elkwater

By Karlie Marrazzo

My thirst for exploration and discovery is unquenchable, no matter my age or how many countries I have visited. Curiosity runs through my veins and every chance I get to leave my hometown gets my blood pumping, whether I’m flying halfway across the world or driving to a town an hour away. Long-term or long-distance travel isn’t always a reality for me, so over the past couple of years I have been making efforts to explore my own backyard and take advantage of long weekends to get out of town. My husband and I love to take road trips together and have made our own tradition of taking one each year for our wedding anniversary. This year, we were drawn to Southern Alberta again. Our first destination: Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, spread over southwestern Alberta and southeastern Saskatchewan, the only interprovincial park in the country, an oasis of forest, lakes and hills rising up 600m from the surrounding prairies.

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2015, Alberta, Canada, North America, Road trips

A weekend in Banff National Park

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alberta-unesco

By Karlie Marrazzo

Earlier this summer one of my longest running wishes came true; I won a trip at a Travel Alberta media event in my hometown of Edmonton. It was a small, intimate event with travel professionals and bloggers from around the province and the first event of its kind that I had ever attended. Great conversation and delicious snacks and drinks were plentiful. As the night wound down, business cards were drawn for several door prizes, each a trip to a different destinations in our spectacular, diverse province. When it came time to draw the prize of a trip to Banff for Performance in the Park, courtesy of Banff Lake Louise Tourism, my husband Dave’s card was drawn. Fortunately for me (or unfortunately for him, depending on how you want to look at it), he was to be away that weekend on his coast-to-coast Canada 5000 Rally. This left me with a free trip to one of the most beautiful places on the planet and my pick of who to have join me.

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