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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