Travel Tips for Improving Your Canadian Holiday...

• Photography
• Shopping

-by Dale Shekooley

This article may be reproduced in its entirety with byline and links intact. For PDF version, click here.

Many travelers and hobbyist photographers take pictures in the same way regardless of where they are. This approach is like using a toothbrush to wash everything from your teeth to your car. Even family snapshots will look better and be less expensive to develop with a little attention to the following details.

Light

The Canadian spring and summer seasons, particularly in Northern Alberta, are blessed with extended hours of daylight. You may be able to take pictures well into the evening with no flash required. It is still advisable to use your flash for shots of people with their backs to a setting sun, or to reposition the subject of your shot so that it is properly illuminated.

Check settings on your camera. An automatic flash setting may be best late at night even if the sky appears quite light. Cloud cover and humidity rising up from grass as the sun goes down can create a grainy, foggy effect. Beautiful sunset shots are easy to get — catch them when they are at their brightest, usually six to eight p.m.

Framing and Distance

Many travelers to Canada are so impressed by the Rocky Mountains
that they stop on the side of the highway to take pictures before ever
getting near the mountains. You do not want to use up a roll of film
and have nothing left when the mountains are even closer. Try to
limit your shots from the road — moving vehicles can ruin your shot and
you will be better off buying postcards of the far-off panoramic views.

If you are visiting national parks like those at Banff or Jasper, wait
until you are well inside the park gates and there will be brown signs
of a person with binoculars to point you to accessible viewpoints, many
of which are right along the road for you to pull into and park at.

Choose parts of the mountains that look particularly interesting — don’t
try to fit everything in or you will end up with a lot of pictures which
look the same. Vary your distances — try to zoom in to a craggy outline
with a single tree growing on an outcrop, or capture a face or shape in
a cliff side. And don’t forget to put some people in your shots to
personalise them!

Wildlife

It is important to remember that approaching wildlife is not recommended, regardless of the size of the animal. Park authorities warn visitors to keep a safe distance. Remember these are wild animals. Do not use food to attract or entice them. Use your zoom lens and you'll still get some great shots.

Why not feed the animals? Animals accustomed to being fed by bystanders have developed a taste for human food and wander into towns searching for garbage to scavenge, endangering themselves and humans in the process.

Please carry your litter with you and dispose of it properly in receptacles designated for that purpose. In the mountain parks these receptacles are often painted dark brown or green and appear as slanted mailboxes with heavy hinged lids — these keep animals, particularly bears, from getting into the garbage. Bears that become dependent on garbage for food are often tranquilised or shot and relocation is not always successful.

Staying well away from wildlife, controlled fire burns, avalanches or other natural disasters and taking pictures from inside a vehicle or at a safe distance (the length of three coaches) is advised.

Photofinishing

Photofinishing is very inexpensive in Canada and is worth doing before you leave for home. Many places even in the smallest towns have one-hour or same-day photofinishing service. Look for photofinishing services at drugstores, camera stores or big-box department stores. It is usually cheaper to get double prints of an entire roll of film than to select a few reprints of single shots from that roll.

Canada offers many excellent and awe-inspiring photo opportunities. These tips will help you create memories that will last a lifetime.

Dale Shekooley is a freelance writer and Administration Manager for Canadian Rockies Tours, Inc. She has traveled extensively through Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and continental Europe. Additional resources for planning your Canadian holiday can be found at http://www.canadian-rockies-tours.com.

Shopping Tips

- by Dale Shekooley

This article may be reproduced in its entirety with byline and links intact. For PDF version, click here.

High Street shopping is a pleasant highlight of many holidays. The excitement of finding a unique souvenir or a steal of a deal on clothing in a foreign land can be exhilarating and provide many tales to tell your friends upon your return. Many people think that shopping in Canada is not as challenging as bargaining for handicrafts in less developed countries, and for the most part this is true. However, following a few guidelines and being prepared with a rudimentary understanding of taxes and conventions will help prevent your Canadian shopping experience from being aggravating and expensive.

Taxes

The first thing to understand is that in Canada there are two types of taxes that may be added on to your bill. The first is a federal tax, the Goods and Services Tax or GST. The second is the Harmonized Sales Tax, or HST. The HST combines the federal GST with an additional provincial tax in some provinces.

Alberta does not have an HST. Therefore, only the GST will appear on your receipts. Additional taxes on goods like liquor, tobacco and gasoline are already included in the price quoted before the GST is applied. Both the GST and HST you pay on goods and services may be refunded to you by the Canadian government and it is worth applying for a refund before you leave Canada. Free forms are available at Canadian airports. The process is similar to that of a VAT refund for visitors to the United Kingdom.

To apply for a GST and/or HST refund, you must have receipts for goods and services totaling $200 CAD before GST or HST is applied. More information on applying for the GST refund, as well as instructions and application forms, are available at
http://www.ccra-adrc.gc.ca/tax/nonresidents/visitors/tax-e.html

Locations

Many Canadian cities and towns do not have High Streets where shopping is centrally-located. Most new shopping developments are collections of shops in indoor “malls” or “shopping centres,” or in large “big-box stores” (built-in, stand-alone buildings in outlying areas, similar to the American "outlet stores"). The “big-box” developments are often only accessible by car, whereas shopping centres are often located in more densely-populated areas and are accessible by public transport.

Public transport usually consists of buses and more rarely consists of trams or light-rail trains, as many Canadian cities and towns are relatively young and spread outwards at a rapid pace. Taking a taxi to a set of big-box stores located in close proximity to each other may still involve a good deal of walking across large parking lots. If you would like to buy from smaller, independent or specialised shops, it is more likely that you will find them clustered on the older High Streets in the centre of town. It often pays to consult a directory and mapping out a route before setting out, as getting a taxi or the correct bus is often not easy to do in a spontaneous fashion.

It is also worth knowing that many big-box stores do not have toilet facilities available, whereas department stores and shopping centres always have these facilities. This has been changing in the more family-oriented stores for greater shopping convenience.

Customer Service

Many visitors to Canada are pleasantly surprised by the high level of
customer service in retail shops and restaurants. This friendly demeanour is often exhibited by staff who will target customers and get involved in helping them directly, and also by special “greeters” who are often positioned at the doorways of shops to greet customers and make them feel at home. This intense, American-style approach is too intimate for some people, but most sales clerks will happily leave you to your own devices if you say, “Just looking,” or “All right, thanks.”

Language

Canada has two official languages across the country — English and
French. English is spoken most everywhere, although there are French
communities across the country. Service in French is available at
federal government agencies and often at banks and other institutions,
as is service in other languages. All packaging and labels bear both
official languages.

Currency

Canadian paper money is famous for its colours — each bill can be differentiated by color just by glancing at it. One Canadian dollar equals one hundred cents. The most commonly-used Canadian currency is as follows:

• 1-cent coin (penny)
• 5-cent coin (nickel)
• 10-cent coin (dime)
• 25-cent coin (quarter)
• 50-cent coin (half-dollar, not commonly circulated)
• 1-dollar coin (commonly referred to as a “loonie” for the loon depicted on it)
• 2-dollar coin (commonly referred to as a “toonie”)
  
  
• 5-dollar bill (blue)
• 10-dollar bill (violet)
• 20-dollar bill (green)
• 50-dollar bill (red)
• 100-dollar bill (brown)

Confusing Terms

Clothing terms:

• trousers are commonly referred to as “pants”
• underpants are referred to as “panties” for women and “shorts” for
  men (Note: short pants for men and women are also referred to as “shorts”).

Transaction terms:

• bank ABMs vs. private ABMs: the automated banking machines (ABMs, also called ATMs) at most banks will charge a fee on top of the transaction fee charged by your home bank when you withdraw cash in Canada. Small, private ABMs are becoming increasingly popular and are often installed inside shops, pubs or restaurants which are not nearby an existing bank ABM. These are convenient but also charge much higher additional fees, and the transactions may take slightly longer to complete as the machine communicates with your bank’s network.
  
  
• “debit” or “Interac” refer to Switch-card style systems which debit money directly from your bank account. These systems only work with certain networks and are unlikely to work with your Switch
  cards. The best method of payment is to use cash (easily available
  through ABMs or banks) or a credit card. You may be asked to produce picture identification to prove that the card is your own, as most credit cards here do not have data chips embedded in them or photographs on them.

With a little advance planning, your Canadian holiday can be remembered for service and selection unparalleled in many countries, as well as some fantastic deals.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Dale Shekooley is a freelance writer and Administration Manager for Canadian Rockies Tours, Inc. She has traveled extensively through Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and continental Europe. Additional resources for planning your Canadian holiday can be found at http://www.canadian-rockies-tours.com.