James Shearer

It seems strange being in Canada but not seeing much of the snow. Vancouver’s mild, Pacific coast climate keeps the city warm even during the winter months. From time to time snow does hit the streets and chaos is unleashed.

At the moment, Vancouver is enjoying spring weather with bears coming out of hibernation and spring flowers appearing. The sun shines all day high in the blue sky but across the country in Toronto, Montreal and Halifax, other Canadians are experiencing a big freeze, feet deep in snow.

Here are some photos of Vancouver in the snow taken during January 2005.

Vancouver in the snow photos

Enjoy the weather, whatever it is, where ever you are!

Issue 2 of the Trail Canada newsletter was sent out today. Those of you who don’t have a free subscription, don’t worry. You can pick it up online at:
http://www.trailcanada.com/newsletter/

In the latest issue there is a section about vacations in Canada. Where to go and what kind of holiday ideas are given on Trail Canada.

Also featured is the new part of the website about “Things to do in Canada” and the ability for you to provide Trail Canada with some of your photos.

Subscribe to the newsletter today! It’s free…

I’ve created and published a new photogallery on Trail Canada.

The photos of English Bay and English Bay Beach are taken from around the area i live. Many are taken from my apartment and balcony.

Click here for photos of English Bay, Vancouver

These photos were taken from my apartment:
Looking over the Boathouse Restaurant, over English Bay Beach towards Stanley Park
Moon light over English Bay
Sunset over English Bay
Ships in English Bay and snow-capped mountains

This is where I live, Imperial Tower:
Imperial Tower and the Inukshuk
Imperial Tower, towering over the beach (the tallest building)

A great place to live! No wonder Vancouver is the most desirable place to live in the world. I second that.

Vanessa, Mark and I just spent the best part of last night at the new casino in Yaletown, downtown Vancouver.

The Edgewater Casino has everything you expect from a casino but this one is different. Its location is spectacular. Located in the Plaza of Nations the casino is enclosed in a giant glass and metal structure overlooking False Creek.

The $5 minimum bet on the outside of roulette and $1 on the inside prooved to be a big attraction for the 3 of us.

Living in Vancouver definately has its benefits. Vanessa and I are able to visit many of the visitor attractions featured on Trail Canada ourselves.

The visitor attractions guide for Vancouver on Trail Canada is new and growing fairly rapidly.

Visit: Trail Canada guide to Vancouver’s visitor attractions

When you’re in town, hopefully this will help you have a great visit to this wonderful city.

Just over 3 years ago I arrived in Canada to start on what would become an epic journey across the 2nd largest nation on the planet. The diary I wrote whilst on the road which sparked the development of Trail Canada is available to read online.

My travel diary across Canada

Trail Canada is offering complete holiday packages in Canada which you can build and customise online.
You can choose your destination, where you stay, the kind of room in the hotel, what airline and airports to fly to and from, if you want a car to rent and when you book it all together online the savings are huge!
Trail Canada vacation in Canada package builder

So with Trail Canada expanding to a size which can be somewhat impossible to notice all the new and cool features, here are my top 10 favourite pages:

Hotels in Canada
The Trail Canada hotel guide has thousands of hotels across Canada. I think this is a great part of the website because the hotels are available at great rates, really really great rates and there is a huge selection.

Photos of Vancouver
I live in Vancouver now and these are all my own photographs (as are 99% of the Trail Canada images) but these are the most recent and some of my favourites.

Car rental in Canada
There are so many websites offering car rental in Canada. This area of the website offers loads of information on how to rent a car. Instead of having ca rental shoved in your face, you can find out about the dos and don’ts of renting a car in Canada.

Maps of Canada
A really great resource for Canada maps. There are maps of Canada, maps of provinces, city maps and also maps of the territories. Really useful to get an idea of how big Canada really is!

Photos of Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador is one of the most unique places I have ever visited anywhere in the world. Anyone traveling to Canada should not miss the chance to visit this remarkable province on Canada’s Atlantic coast. These are my photos of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Canada travel guide
One of the few online guides to Canada. This constantly expanding section of the website is one of the features which makes Trail Canada different. A complete and detailed guide to travel to Canada and what to do when you get there, how to get around and how to make it the best trip ever.

Destination guides and city guides
New to Trail Canada is the guides to each major Canadian city and popular destination. The number of featured destinations is growing and so is the information on each city.
Detailed city guides currently exist for:
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Toronto, Ontario
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Calgary, Alberta
Vancouver, British Columbia

Free e-cards of Canada (greeting cards)
Another great little feature of Trail Canada is the ability to send an e-card - an electronic greeting card. Each e-card can be customised with your own personal message and will be sent with an accompanying photograph of your choice. This service, like the rest of Trail Canada, is free to use!

If you have any thoughts on Trail Canada, what your favourite areas of the website are or any comments or suggestions, please click here to contact.

I’ve just finished the photo gallery for Trail Canada of Vancouver’s Westend. This is in fact my neighbourhood.

I hope you enjoy my photographs:
Photos of Westend Vancouver

J.

Ok, so it has been ages since I put anything on here. I guess now is a good time since there have been a few developments.

Right now, I’m sitting in my apartment gazing out the floor to ceiling windows over looking a huge sandy beach and the Pacific Ocean. I have to say that of all the places I’ve lived, this is definately one with an amazing view and possibly an unbeatable lifestyle.

I moved here, to Vancouver, a few months ago and although winter is here and I am in Canada after all, there is no snow. Not a hint of it. Yesterday, the sun was shining, it was 12 degrees, beautiful blue skies yet 35 minutes from here I was able to trudge through metre deep snow on Grouse Mountain.

Trail Canada is going from strength to strength. In case you didn’t know, Trail Canada is my network of Canadian travel websites which are the most popular independent guides to Canada. The latest version of Trail Canada came out a few days ago and I will be adding to the Vancouver section very regularly.

So far, there are plenty of photos at http://www.trailcanada.com/photos/vancouver.asp but check back regularly for more.

If anyone else I know is in my neck of the woods (i’ve bumped into a few people I know so far) then give me a shout.

Take care and see you on the Trail,

James

Trail Canada
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Photos of Vancouver
Vancouver guide