The Traveller's Guide To: Canadian Adventures

THRILL ME

"Adventure" means different things to different people: happily, this huge country offers options to suit all definitions. Some may be more than thrilled to take the lifts up to the world's highest public observation deck, 447m above the city streets atop Toronto's CN Tower (00 1 416 868 6937; www.cntower.ca), while others' adrenalin may start to flow if they spot a grizzly bear when hiking in British Columbia (BC).

Travelling through Canada is often an adventure in itself. For example, you can rent a four-wheel drive in Whitehorse in the Yukon, drive up to the wonderful boardwalk town of Dawson City, the heart of the Klondike Gold Rush, pan for gold and then set off on the Dempster Highway across the Arctic Circle and in to the Northwest Territories. Or try to retrace Roald Amundsen's course along the Northwest Passage with Peregrine (01635 872 300; www.peregrineadventures.co.uk) starting off with a charter flight from Ottawa to Resolute, a small Inuit hamlet in Nunavut. Price for a Main Deck twin cabin, departing Ottawa on 23 August is £4,050. The company can help arrange international flights.

WHAT ABOUT WINTER SPORTS?

The country's top downhill skiing areas are Whistler (near Vancouver, BC), Lake Louise and Banff in the Rockies, and Mont Tremblant in Quebec. Other areas such as Fernie in BC, Jasper in Alberta and even Newfoundland are growing in popularity.

Snowmobiling was invented in Quebec, by one Joseph-Armand Bombardier, and the Francophone province is regarded as one of the world's best snowmobiling regions. Activities Abroad (01670 789 991; www.activitiesabroad.com) offers a seven-day snowmobiling trip to Quebec with departures until 11 March 2007: priced from £1,830, the holiday includes return flights between London and Montreal, transfers, six nights' accommodation, most meals and five days' snowmobiling. The company also offers winter multi-activity trips to both Quebec and the Yukon: each gives you the chance to snowmobile, snowshoe, go ice fishing, dog sledding and much more.

FOUR LEGS GOOD?

The recent hit Western Brokeback Mountain was filmed in Alberta, with the Canadian Rockies serving as the striking backdrop. Alberta has an abundance of accessible wilderness; apparently 90 per cent of the outdoor scenes in the film were shot within 21 metres of a road.

The Assassination of Jesse James, due out late in the year, was also shot in the province. Cowboys have long been associated with Alberta, and millions of visitors flock to the province for the annual Calgary Exhibition and Stampede (00 1 800 661 1260; www.calgarystampede.com); this year it takes place 6-15 July.

Alberta also offers plenty of opportunities for those who would rather do than watch: try an 11-day Rockies Wilderness Pack Ride in the 4,200sq km Kananaskis Country wilderness offered by Equine Adventures (0845 130 6981; www.equineadventures.co.uk), from £1,895 including return flights from London to Calgary, horse and tack, many meals, camping and B&B accommodation. Or stay on a working ranch, where you'll learn how to handle a horse, rope a steer, take part in a cattle drive, enjoy the mountain scenery and relax around the campfire. Ranch America (0870 499 0689; www.ranchamerica.co.uk) offers a week at the Homeplace Ranch from £1,599 including return flights from Heathrow to Calgary, full board, most riding activities and ranch transfers.

If that's not enough horsepower for you, in Montreal's Gilles Villeneuve circuit is the home of the Canadian Grand Prix (00 1 514 350 0000; www.grandprix.ca), to be held this year on Sunday 10 June, with practice sessions on the Friday and Saturday. A three-day "Ground Admission" ticket costs C$100 (£45).

CAN I GO UNDERGROUND?

Yes. There are caving opportunities in many of the provinces. In July and August, tour New Brunswick's White Caves (near Hillsborough) with Baymount Outdoor Adventures (00 1 506 734 2660; www.baymountadventures.com). Three-hour tours of these gypsum caves - and beautiful surrounding woodland - cost C$62 (£28).

Near Canmore, Alberta, you can rappel 18m down, then climb, crawl and squeeze through Rat's Nest Cave. This is wild and undeveloped with no artificial lights, boardwalks or handrails: contact Wild Cave Tours (001 403 678 8819; www.canadianrockies.net/wildcavetours). The six-hour tour costs C$145 (£64). To cram loads of different thrills into just three hours, head for Collingwood, Ontario. Scenic Caves' (00 1 705 446 0256; www.sceniccaves.com) Eco Adventure Tour includes an exploration of fern-filled Fat Man's Misery Cave, crossing a 130m suspension bridge, a 600m treetop walk, and a zoom down a zipline. The cost comes in at around C$112 (£50).

...AND UNDERWATER?

Celebrated for whale-watching and iceberg-spotting, Newfoundland's coastal waters are also dotted with shipwrecks. See these from underwater with Dive Worldwide (0845 130 6980; www.diveworldwide.com): go ice-diving in February and March, iceberg-diving in May and June, dive with whales in July and August, and explore the Bell Island shipwrecks year-round. Prices from £1,295 including return flights from London to St John's, transfers and accommodation.

CAN I MAKE A SPLASH?

Yes, even in Montreal: head to the old port and go jetboating (00 1 514 284 9607; www.jetboatingmontreal.com) on the Lachine rapids: high-powered jet boats take you on a thrilling ride through the "Lachine Washing Machine", as the only rapids on the St Lawrence River are known.

In New Brunswick, you can splash over the Reversing Falls, a bizarre natural phenomenon caused by the incoming Bay of Fundy tides. Choose between a jet boat, or bounce along inside an eight-metre "bubble" (00 1 506 634 8987; www.jetboatrides.com). You'll find great sea kayaking in all the coastal provinces such as New Brunswick, Nova Scotia (see page IV) and British Columbia. The Yukon and the interior of BC offer "get away from it all" river kayaking: just getting to the remote rivers is an adventure in itself. Ontario is dotted with lakes and waterways, and canoe or kayaking day trips are eminently possible. Grand Experiences (00 1 519 442 3654; www.grand-experiences.com) is based just an hour west of Toronto and offers a range of guided day - and multi-day - canoe or kayak trips.

I WANT TO PEDAL, NOT PADDLE

Try a three-hour mountain bike ride, speeding down from the top of Whiteman's Pass in Alberta and descending along the Goat Creek Trail. Or combine a hike through the beautiful Alpine meadows of the Great Divide at Sunshine Village followed by a descent and cross-country ride by bike. Both trips start and end in Banff and start at around C$100 (£44) through The Ski Stop (00 1 403 760 1650; www.theskistop.com).

AERIAL ADVENTURES?

Take a helicopter flight over Niagara Falls with Niagara Helicopters (00 1 905 357 5672; www.niagarahelicopters.com), costing C$110 (£49). Elsewhere in Ontario, take to the skies over scenic St Jacob's Country in a hot-air balloon (00 1 519 664 3715; www.windrider.ca): one-hour flights cost C$240 (£107) including champagne.

Three guesses for what you can learn - and where you can learn it - with Hang Glide Vancouver Island (00 1 250 246 9305; www.hangglidevancouverisland.com). First-time tandem flights cost C$160 (£71), subsequent flights C$100 (£44).

I WANT TO GO WILD

Great places to whale-watch include Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, British Columbia, and Newfoundland and Labrador.

Wildland Tours (00 1 709 722 3123, www.wildlands.com) runs an eight-day Newfoundland Adventure (focusing on the huge island's wildlife) with departures between early June and mid August - prime whale-watching season. In addition to humpbacks, you are likely to see caribou, moose and all manner of birdlife. Early-season departures give you the best chance of spotting an iceberg.

In Quebec's Zoo Sauvage de Saint-Félicien (00 1 418 679 0543; www.borealie.org) the animals run free across the 500 hectares while human visitors are caged. You can stay overnight in a prospector's tent and then spend the morning tracking caribou and moose. This is followed by a canoe excursion where you will paddle along a river in the heart of bear and moose country.

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