Despite a recent resurgence that saw the value of the U.S. dollar drop from an average of C$1.57 during 2002 to an average of C$1.40 during 2003, the strength of the U.S. dollar against the Canadian version continues to make Canada a bargain for U.S. travelers. The following offers a few hints about what awaits them when they head north to Canada.
Nova Scotia
Prince of Fundy's Scotia Prince cruise line (tel. 800/845-4073; www.scotiaprince.com) -- the cruise ship connecting Portland, Maine, with Yarmouth, Nova Scotia -- has unveiled a series of upgrades. Among the improvements: an open-air tiki bar and hot tub on the deck; a revamped slot machine system; and some major improvements in the dining room fare.
In the historic waterside town of Lunenburg, work continues to rebuild St. John's Anglican Church, which burned to the ground in late 2001. One wingis slowly being rebuilt by craftsmen, as a dome protects the work from the elements; a new makeshift interpretive center beside the church site explains the history and the restoration process.
New Brunshwick
There's a new way to get to New Brunswick by air: Delta Airlines' subsidiary Delta Connection (tel. 800/221-1212; www.delta.com) began offering a new short-hop service from Boston to Fredericton in 2003. The flights take place twice daily.
Montréal
One big change for residents was the creation of a new megacity, effective January 2002. The 28 towns and cities that occupy the Island of Montréal were merged into a metropolis of 1.8 million inhabitants, making it the second largest city in Canada after Toronto. Almost inevitably, a movement is afoot to reverse the action.
After 9 years of governance by the separatist Parti Québécois, which expended much of its energy attempting to persuade Québecers to split off from the rest of Canada, the federalist Liberal party took over the provincial government. The cultural gap between the Francophone majority and Anglophone minority hasn't melted away, but it has mellowed.
Note that the name of the Métro stop formerly known as Ile Ste-Hélène is now Parc Jean-Drapeau.
An unprecedented taste for boutique hotels got underway in 2001 with the stylish, 48-room Hôtel Place d'Armes, 701 Côte de la Place d'Armes (tel. 888/450-1887 or 514/842-1887). Coming on board in 2002 were the Hôtel St-Paul, 355 rue McGill (tel. 866/380-2202 or 514/380-2222; www.hotelstpaul.com); the Hôtel Le Saint-Sulpice, 414 rue St-Sulpice (tel. 877/785-7423 or 514/288-1000); the Hôtel Gault, 449 rue Ste-Hélène (tel. 866/904-1616 or 514/904-1616; www.hotelgault.com); the Hôtel Nelligan, 106 rue St-Paul ouest [tel. 877/788-2040 or 514/788-2040; www.hotelnelligan.com); and the supremely luxurious Hôtel Le St-James, 355 rue St-Jacques ouest (tel. 866/841-3111 or 514/841-3111; www.hotellestjames.com). The largest has 120 rooms, the smallest 30. All are housed in rehabilitated structures dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries.
A clutch of admirable newcomers has arrived on Montréal's dining scene. At the top of that list is Savannah, 4448 blvd. St-Laurent (tel. 514/904-0277). "Southern Fusion" is what the owner calls his divinely tasty food, inspired by the specialties of the Carolina Low Country. Very different is Au Pied de Cochon, 536 rue Duluth est (tel. 514/281-1114). It looks like just another storefront eatery, but what they do with such damn-the-cholesterol fare as foie gras and immense slabs of pork, lamb, and venison keep it packed to the walls. Feeding an explosion of interest in sushi is the four-outlet Québec chain, Soto. Its Old Montréal location is at 500 rue McGill (tel. 514/864-5115), where Japanese chefs deliver on the promise of their practiced moves at the bar. Not one to sit around counting his profits, chef-entrepreneur David Macmillan has extended the formula of his hit restaurants such as Buona Notte and Globe to Rosalie, 1232 rue de la Montagne (tel. 514/392-1970). What appears on the plate is always good, but that doesn't explain how his enterprises continue to attract legions of powerbrokers and hunky and pretty locals by the limo-load. Join them.
Québec City
Culinary changes are less frequent in smaller Québec City, but one of its most romantic eateries, Le Saint-Amour, 48 rue Ste-Ursule (tel. 418/694-0667), has regained its footing after a couple of years of decline that saw changes in ownership and the kitchen. The main room has been expensively redecorated and the waitstaff trained to a finer edge. Make time for the Voodoo Grill, 575 Grand Allée est (tel. 418/647-2000). Geopolitical references are a little confused, with a decor of African masks and food from around the Pacific Rim, but the eats are surprisingly good, and assuming you don't require quietude with your dinner, you'll enjoy the energy of the good-looking young clientele. For this year's hot-hot-hottest resto, get out of the tourist district and find your way downtown to Yuzu, 438 rue de L'Eglise (tel. 418/521-7253). This knockout uses the traditions of sushi as a launching plan to rocket off in directions rarely experienced in North America. Don't miss it.
New regulations now require nonsmoking sections in restaurants throughout the province -- no small thing in heavy-puffing Québec.
Ottawa & Eastern Ontario
A clear trend in the nation's capital is the proliferation of all-suite hotels. Used by lobbyists and businesspeople who have long-term business with the government, tourist families also find them an excellent way to save money on beds and meals. The latest to join this trend is the Aristocrat Suite Hotel, 141 Cooper St. (tel. 800/563-5634 or 613/236-7500), on a street with three similar competitors. Most have full-size kitchens. Boutique hotels are also starting to show up. Arc, 140 Slater St. (tel. 800/699-2516 or 613/238-2888; www.arcthehotel.com) is a converted apartment building, showered with cunning touches small and large. Champagne is poured at check-in.
In Kingston, the Frontenac Club Inn, 225 King St. (tel. 613/547-6167; www.frontenacclub.com) was erected as a bank in 1845 and is now an exemplary bed-and-breakfast. Alexander Graham Bell and Carl Sandburg were guests when it was a private club.
A few steps up from the minimalist lobby is Arc, one of Ottawa's best new restaurants, bearing the same name and number as the hotel (see above). The kitchen isn't intent on wowing the customer; rather, it impresses with the care of preparation and ingredients. As new, but much splashier, E18teen, 18 York St. (tel. 613/244-1188) -- that's the way the management chooses to spell the name -- is conspicuously designed. Mirrored surfaces, much chrome, and vases of lilies stand beneath Italianate track lighting. Visual affectations aside, there's a lot of interesting food to sample here. Kinki, 41 York St. (tel. 613/789-7559) has tables outside and inside, sushi and cocktail bars in back, and all of them are full most of the time. Just when the sushi phenomenon was starting to look a little tired, along come innovators like this to punch it up. Wildly popular almost as soon as it opened, Social, 537 Sussex Dr. (tel. 613/789-7355) enjoyed a lot of buzz. A DJ spins subdued house and hip-hop at the black marble bar, but a more-than-decent meal can be had, too, as long as fabulous isn't expected.
In Kingston, Chien Noir, 69 Brock St. (tel. 613/549-5635) is challengingtop-dog Chez Piggy on the local popularity scale. The owners of Wooden Heads, 192 Ontario St. (tel. 613/549-1812), aren't engaging in hyperbole when they dub their product "gourmet pizza."
Toronto
Renovations are underway in the Toronto museum sector. During 2004, display space at the Royal Ontario Museum(tel. 416/586-5549; www.rom.on.ca) will be limited due to Renaissance ROM, a C$200-million renovations that will add six new galleries overlooking Bloor Street West. And the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art will be shut down completely during 2004 and part of 2005 for a C$15-million overhaul.
But (temporarily) close two doors and another opens up: 2003 witnessed the opening of the Distillery Historic District, (tel. 416/364-1177; www.thedistillerydistrict.com) once the home of the Gooderham & Worts Distillery, Canada's largest distilling company in the 19th century, and now a complex of buildings that houses three performing arts venues and hosts a number of artists studios and galleries.
Two excellent boutique hotels opened in 2003 in Toronto's Entertainment District. Hotel le Germain, 30 Mercer St. (tel. 866/345-9501 or 416/345-9500) boasts public spaces that are magnificent: The vast lobby manages the amazing trick of being at once intimate and grand. But sure to be the favorite feature of many guests is the glass wall in every bathroom, which allows light in from the main room and makes everything feel more spacious (there are blinds for those who want their privacy though). The SoHo Metropolitan, 318 Wellington St. W. (tel. 416/599-8800;www.metropolitan.com/soho), is the grown-up sister of Toronto's Metropolitan Hotel, another favorite. Guestrooms are beautiful-- a serene palette of neutral tones and blond wood -- and make the best use of technology of any Toronto hotel.
Great restaurants continue to appear -- and re-appear -- on Toronto's dining scene. Senses, 318 Wellington St. W. (tel. 416/961-0055), returns after a brief hiatus -- not to its former home on Bloor Street, but to the new SoHo Metropolitan boutique hotel in the Entertainment District. The new location also includes a bakery and a gourmet food emporium. The best of the new dining hot spots is Brassaii, 461 King St. W. (tel. 416/598-4730), a bistro that stands out by offering both excellent cooking and brilliant service-and doing so for prices that are lower than most of its competition in the area.
Stratford
In 2002, the Stratford Festival (www.stratford-festival.on.ca) completed an extensive renovation of its Avon Theatre. And 2003 witnessed the opening of a fourth theater for the festival, the Studio Theatre, an intimate 278-seat space for experimental works.
Winnipeg
Eaton's Centre, (tel. 204/987-7825; www.truenorthproject.mb.ca) for almost a century a landmark department store on Portage Avenue, has been razed to build a $125-million, 15,000-seat sports arena and entertainment complex in the center of Winnipeg. The complex, which will be home to the Winnipeg's professional American Hockey League team, will also feature cinemas, retail outlets, and restaurants. The decision to tear down the historic Eaton's Centre building was very controversial. Advocates of the arena successfully argued that the sports and entertainment complex would bring vitality back to downtown Winnipeg. The arena, to be known as the MTS Centre, is slated for completion in winter 2004.
Vancouver
The biggest new thing in Vancouver is a very big thing indeed -- the Olympic Games. In the summer of 2003, Vancouver was awarded hosting rights to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Still 6 years away to be sure, preparations are already visible, and the excitement in the city is palpable.
The Gallery Floor at the Listel Vancouver, 1300 Robson St. (tel. 800/663-5491 or 604/684-8461; www.listel-vancouver.com), has proved such a hit with guests, a museum was the next logical step. For the past several years, guests in the penultimate floor have enjoyed original works of art from Vancouver's Buschlen Mowatt Gallery (tel. 604/682-1234 or 800/663-8071; www.buschlenmowatt.com) -- displayed temporarily in the Listel's ever-so-tasteful rooms. Guests on the top floor now have the same artistic privilege, but the objets d'art come from the vast collection of the UBC Museum of Anthropology (tel. 604/822-5087; www.moa.ubc.ca). As with the Gallery rooms, Museum rooms contain detailed information on the artist whose works are on display.
The Camelot Inn, 2212 Larch St. (tel. 604/739-6941; www.camelotinnvancouver.com), features rooms lovingly restored to their early 1900s condition, improved with the addition of huge Jacuzzi tubs, the prefect prelude to the softest of sleigh beds.
Vancouver's dining scene continues to churn. Much of the agitation is in Yaletown, where two of the newcomers are bringing in foodies by the bushel basket. The first is Elixir, 350 Davie St. (tel. 604/642-0577), a traditional French brasserie that serves traditional, even simple brasserie food, prepared with excellent local Vancouver ingredients. Enjoying an appetizer at Elixir's long round brass bar has become the way to begin an evening downtown.
Just a cobblestone or two up the street lies Glowbal Grill and Satay Bar, 1079 Mainland St. (tel. 604/602-0835). It's a beautiful room with beautiful people, and the cuisine unashamedly cruises the world for tastes and flavors that get fused together into small-plate meals.
Over on Robson Street, the latest thing in Japanese food is Hapa Izakaya, 1479 Robson St. (tel. 604/689-4272). The cuisine features inventive non-traditional dishes such as bacon-wrapped asparagus or negitori, fresh tuna belly chopped with spring onions served with munch-sized bits of garlic bread. It's more bar-and-grill than fussy sushi palace, and the atmosphere is high-decibel quasi-chaos wonderful.
Victoria & British Columbia
The summer of 2003's wildfire season in British Columbia witnessed the fiery destruction of trestles and rail lines on the historic Kettle Valley Railroad (www.kvrbiketrailpassport.com) in the Okanagan Valley. This turn-of-the-20th-century, 108-mile rail line was constructed to link mining operations in the remote and rugged canyons above Lake Okanagan. In the 1990s, the deserted line underwent a rails-to-trails conversion and became popular as a biking and hiking destination. However, many of the line's historic trestles and bridges burned, forcing the closure of the trail. Local officials and business leaders are seeking funds to rebuild the rail line.
With the news that Vancouver had been selected as the site of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, construction cranes again began to rise above Whistler. The ski resorts on Whistler and Blackcomb peaks will play host to the Olympic alpine events; in preparation for a surge of visitors, new hotels and tourist facilities are shooting up in and around Whistler Village, the dining and lodging center of the ski area. New highways are also under consideration to link Whistler to Vancouver, replacing winding and overcrowded Highway 99, also known as the Sea-to-Sky Highway.
The Cariboo Prospector, a passenger rail service that linked North Vancouver to Prince George for nearly a century, is no longer running. The line, which passed through Whistler and the historic gold-rush Cariboo district of central B.C., was closed in 2002 by BC Rail. The rail company claimed it could no longer afford to run the passenger service at a loss. The absence of rail service has greatly impacted tourism and business in central and northern B.C. Business leaders and regional governmental officials are seeking ways to restart the rail service.
The owner of Spinnakers Pub has gone into the B&B business, opening Spinnakers Guest House 308 Catherine St. (tel. 877/838-2739 or 250/384-2739; spinnakers@spinnakers.com), in a heritage house just up the street from his long-running brewpub. Rooms feature queen beds, lovely furnishings, in-room Jacuzzis, fireplaces, high ceilings, and lots of natural light.
The other big news is the ongoing upgrades going on at the Dashwood Manor, 1 Cook St. (tel. 800/667-5517 or 250/385-5517; www.dashwoodmanor.com). Once more than a little past its prime, this lovely old mock-Tudor manor now features new mattresses on the beds and new tile in place of the old linoleum in the kitchenettes. Stodgy old British bathrooms have been updated with new tile and fixtures, including deep jetted tubs. Several of the rooms now have large luxurious Jacuzzis.
The latest Whistler hotel offers not quantity but quality. Open under a year, the Alpine Chalet Whistler, 3012 Alpine Crescent (tel. 800/736-9967 or 604/935-3003; www.alpinechaletwhistler.com) was built to the exacting specifications of a Czech couple who have taken up a second career as innkeepers. The common room is a dream, with comfy chairs and a big fireplace. The adjoining dining area is flooded with natural light from the overhead skylights. Breakfasts are a top-quality feast.
Out on the Pacific Coast, The Wickaninnish Inn, Osprey Lane at Chesterman Beach (tel. 800/333-4604 or 250/725-3100; www.wickinn.com) has had such success with its combination of summer beach walks and winter storm watching that it's virtually doubling in size. Careful attention is being paid, however, to ensure the new complex blends in as seemlessly with the wild west coast as the old.
The best new Victoria dining option is Brasserie L'Ecole, 944 Fort St. (tel. 250/383-0009), the brain-child of long-time Victoria chef Sean Brenner. Top-end French in the middle of Chinatown may seem a bit of a stretch, but it all seems to make sense when you step inside this small and pleasantly French room and realize what's on offer is not high-end Parisian but simple country French cooking.