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Maligne Canyon Tour

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Attraction | "Maligne Canyon"

Maligne Canyon Tour Photo - Maligne Canyon Tour, Jasper National Park, Alberta

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The ninth day of our trip we spent in Canada, Jasper National Park to see, to walk and enjoy nature. We also made a trip to Maligne Canyon.At Maligne Canyon is a limestone gorge with walls up to 50 feet deep fall. The gorge is one of the most spectacular in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. The Maligne River plunges down deep into the canyon here and you hear the roar of the water and feel depending on the spray of water even in the face. Several hiking trails lead through the Canyon of varying length and difficulty. Since none of the paths is fixed and is with steps, tree roots and all stairways and paths, its not for disabled people. Along the way, or the trails as they are called here, can...Read More

The ninth day of our trip we spent in Canada, Jasper National Park to see, to walk and enjoy nature. We also made a trip to Maligne Canyon.

At Maligne Canyon is a limestone gorge with walls up to 50 feet deep fall. The gorge is one of the most spectacular in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. The Maligne River plunges down deep into the canyon here and you hear the roar of the water and feel depending on the spray of water even in the face. Several hiking trails lead through the Canyon of varying length and difficulty. Since none of the paths is fixed and is with steps, tree roots and all stairways and paths, its not for disabled people. Along the way, or the trails as they are called here, can be found anywhere information boards in English and in French, telling the visitors about the canyon and the flora and fauna. For the shortest way to do 20 minutes, the longest path in which one comes across all six bridges were built across the canyon takes about 2 hours already. Unlike many other attractions in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, you can visit the canyon in winter, but you should then go with a guide who leads one safely around. The half-frozen waterfalls look great. We were there this summer and even in summer, the canyon offers a spectacular sight.

We reached the Maligne Canyon already around 9:30 h, because we were woken up early and wanted to see a lot that day. When we reached the parking lot, it was still relatively empty. In addition to the car park there is a teahouse with a souvenir shop which is open from April to October for tourists. At the car park there are toilets to use before the hike. In the teahouse, there are also toilets.

After we parked our car, we went to the first information board to give us an overview of the trail system. We saw that there are three different ways, one blue, one brown and one red path. The red trail should take about 2 hours, the blue and the brown was the shortest path should be stressful, but not too long. We decided to go once just to go and then decide how far we would go. If you start at the teahouse the path, so it automatically only once on the blue path. At the beginning you see in the stone a few fossils we looked at but not for long because they were not so exciting and we would rather see the canyon. After a few minutes we reached the first bridge and had a great view of the moss-covered limestone walls. One bends a little over the railing you can look very pretty in depth. Also to the second bridge is not far away. We did some photo breaks and were therefore somewhat slower. Nevertheless, we reached the bridge in just 15 minutes. Because we wanted to see more, we decided here at the bridge on the way to switch to brown to even go to a larger round.

The road to this point was very well developed. On the brown path, we met but now more and more to roots that towered over the road, had to go down steps or handle small hills. I was not really strenuous and it is always nice on a natural soil than on a concrete floor to go. Nevertheless, this trail is of course prepared for tourists. How to find signs which tell about the birds that nest in the limestone walls and information panels to the Canyon itself a plaque explained very clearly how it comes to the trapped stones, stuck between two limestone walls and the one here now and see. On one of the photos I've uploaded, you can easily see how a larger stone is slipped into the ravine and is stuck between the walls.

Unfortunately, we had that day a little unsettled weather and when we reached the third bridge it began to rain. We had even considered before, also to hike the red road that branches off from here, but since we did not know how much would be the rain, we decided to go to the brown path to the end. While we were with sturdy shoes and rain jackets fitted well by itself, but you never know, and we did not know how long we would need yet. Of course it stopped raining just, when we had proceeded a few minutes. But now we returned to no more, but ended the brown path toward the parking lot. The road rises again at the end of neat and is a little tougher than before, but to cope quite well, if you're not constantly walking goes. During the last piece you walk through a forest and looks down into the canyon. That's not quite as impressive as directly from the bridge to look into the gorge, but also very nice and quiet, especially since most tourists already returning to the second bridge over the blue path.

For the combination of both methods we have used a three-quarter hour. Had it not rained, we would also like to have hiked more than the other three bridges offer safe and have a nice view.

Maligne Canyon is one of my opinion in Jasper National Park mandatory to the program, because it is well worth seeing. It's really impressive when the water rushes down into the deep gorge of the bridges and in particular has a great view. The trails lead through the canyon, very informative, because there are numerous information boards in English and French, so you can run virtually even through the canyon. For me there is nothing negative to report and therefore I forgive a full five stars and a recommendation for the Maligne Canyon. Read Less

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on September 23, 2011

Maligne Canyon Tour

Jasper National Park, Alberta

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Tonquin Inn

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Hotel

Tonquin Inn Photo - Tonquin Inn, Jasper National Park, Alberta

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The Tonquin Inn is not directly in the center. We had to drive through the town until we almost reached the hotel at the other end. You can go to just a mile from the city center on foot, but there are also plenty of free parking in the center, if you do not want to walk. The situation is not so bad. Although it is not something outside surrounded by nature, but surrounded by streets. These are but little traffic at night, so here it is left in peace. In the immediate vicinity of the hotel there are other hotels. Bars, restaurants and shops can be found here. The room looked appealing at first glance, but also very small. Fact that we had two beds of 1,35 m is to be really small space hard...Read More

The Tonquin Inn is not directly in the center. We had to drive through the town until we almost reached the hotel at the other end. You can go to just a mile from the city center on foot, but there are also plenty of free parking in the center, if you do not want to walk. The situation is not so bad. Although it is not something outside surrounded by nature, but surrounded by streets. These are but little traffic at night, so here it is left in peace. In the immediate vicinity of the hotel there are other hotels. Bars, restaurants and shops can be found here.

The room looked appealing at first glance, but also very small. Fact that we had two beds of 1,35 m is to be really small space hardly any room. The two of you can still sleep comfortably in a bed so we could use the other as a luggage rack. We were booking requests regarding any of the beds and make in Canada there are often two very narrow, rather surprisingly a wider bed, so we were.

As you see from the photos I've uploaded, it can, the decor of the room is modern and tasteful. the beige carpet was still very new and clean. He fits in perfectly well with the walls, as are the curtains. The window is large enough and can be opened, but what one does on the ground floor, of course, only if one is there. There is no air conditioning it also, but we have not used since it was during our stay a little cooler than the previous days. The view out the window goes to a small street, where nothing is going on in the evening, so you can sleep in peace. However, we heard the loud cries of children from the next room, apparently because the walls are very thin, but luckily the kids had some time to bed and we have already slept quietly. Since there are few street lights, it is used in combination with the curtains in the room at night even quite dark. Apart from the two beds, there is a flat chest, also on the flat screen TV stands, desk, bedside table, two chairs, a refrigerator, the mandatory ironing board, a luggage rack and a wardrobe in the entrance area. If you want to stay a maximum of only a few nights, so this device is quite sufficient. But if one has a lot of luggage, it could be very close. Provide sufficient illumination for multiple lamps. A mirror and a modern paintings above the beds form the only decoration. But I like the rather simple, modern decor.

Overall I was disappointed by the room a little, but perhaps only because it was relatively expensive. The interior is absolutely fine and the room is small but really tasty. Except for the too little too soft mattress and the bathroom sink, including paged, there is nothing objectionable about the room. But the price is still just a bit high for what they offer.

The Tonquin Inn has no restaurant. But, as usual in Canada, there is a so-called On-site dining. That means a restaurant that is located in close proximity, usually even on the same property, offers hungry guests a chance to dine here. Often it is then almost exclusively to hotel guests, they come from, which is the Tonquin Inn for a steak restaurant, the Prime Rib Village is, probably come into the other guests. The prices on the menu were very high, so on the first evening we decided not to eat here, but instead to drive to Jasper to us purely in search of a nice restaurant, which we succeeded.

At the hotel lobby you can buy vouchers for breakfast in the Prime Rib Village. This we had to pay the same. In other hotels, we can always write everything in the room. Whether that is here I do not know because it did not offer us and we do not even inquired. The breakfast cost 10 dollars, or approximately 7.50 EUR per person. The price is really cheap and there should be a buffet, where you can use as many times as you want. That sounded good to us, but unfortunately we were disappointed.
We entered the restaurant after we had bought the vouchers and quickly got a seat assigned. If dinner guests appear here, not staying at the hotel, this morning is most definitely not the case. Many of the tables were already occupied and some guests were in jogging trousers - obviously so hotel guests. Our vouchers were clamped to the basket with the salt and pepper shakers, so the staff could see immediately that we had paid. For it was was gradually filled and you had the feeling that the staff a little overwhelmed to bring the drinks and the buffet nachzulegen. During our visit, everything was still in the frame, but I do not want to know what it's like when all tables are occupied.

Outside the hotel there are two hot tubs, where the evenings were always a lot of guests. We have not tried it because I do not like to sit with so many people in a pool. Outside, there is also an access to another sauna. Whether this is mixed, I can not say. She was in another building as part of our room, where we rarely came over.
Overall, the offer, especially the interior, described as very good, because even if there is no deep pools, you can at least take a couple of short tracks, and that in the early evening swim no one else wanted, I found it very pleasant. Whereby the time of day probably not change.

We were warmly welcomed and adopted, but the staff were all somewhat taciturn and so we had to ask who wanted to know what we are and what we had been told in other places most of its own, eg it looks like with your breakfast, and whether it would be wireless. In between we stopped coming into our room because the key card was deactivated. So we had to ask at the reception. They told us only that it would happen more often, which would halt so. Disadvantage, we also found that while there should be wireless, but this did not work. Apparently the server was offline. As I read afterwards in travel portals, had lots of other tourists who were from June to September this year there, the same problem, because one wonders whether there are even wireless. We did not constantly surfing the Internet now, but since we were here two nights, we would have liked to in between times E-mails checked. The room should be directed to the first night here, but we had hung out at this time a Do Not Disturb sign, because I was from breakfast still bad and my stomach rebelled. Well, I found that we were phoned to ask if we would like to have cleaned up our room and if so, when. We declined with thanks, however, because in one night really is not much dirty and we also had plenty of towels. Also, I did not know when it would get better, to leave the hotel and bed. In total, the service was okay, but not too outstanding.

The Tonquin Inn is a solid 3-star hotel, with beautifully appointed rooms, which vary depending on the category, however, very small. The cleanliness, there is absolutely nothing to complain about, nor to the tasteful and modern decor of the room. However, the bathroom is too small and the sink is swapped into the room, which I find very inconvenient. The mattress of the bed was too soft for my taste and also the breakfast you should take better elsewhere than in the adjacent restaurant. The service is average, the pool area is again very beautiful. Actually, I would award four out of five stars, because overall we were quite satisfied and would come back again. However, the high price is not justified at all, so this is not the price-performance ratio is right. At a cheaper price you get here, probably only in the off season or when booking a room early. So I forgive a good three stars and a recommendation for off-season or early bird to get a better price.
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Member Rating 3 out of 5 on September 21, 2011

Tonquin Inn
100 Juniper Street
Jasper T0E1E0
780-852-4987

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Clearwater Lodge

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Hotel | "A good hotel in Clearwater"

Clearwater Lodge Photo - Clearwater Lodge, Clearwater, British Columbia

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The Clearwater lodge is a 3-star hotel in Clearwater, British Columbia. The hotel advertises that it offers modern, spacious rooms and has good transport connections. Particularly its mostly self-catering accommodation, because many of the rooms are equipped with a kitchenette. The hotel front desk is staffed around the clock. As we drove into the parking lot of the hotel, which incidentally is very large and free, the hotel made a good impression immediately. The facade is painted a light apricot and looks very well maintained. The house sits on a large pitched roof, which is supported by columns, so there in front of the hotel is a very large covered area. The hotel has at this point, so...Read More

The Clearwater lodge is a 3-star hotel in Clearwater, British Columbia. The hotel advertises that it offers modern, spacious rooms and has good transport connections. Particularly its mostly self-catering accommodation, because many of the rooms are equipped with a kitchenette. The hotel front desk is staffed around the clock.

As we drove into the parking lot of the hotel, which incidentally is very large and free, the hotel made a good impression immediately. The facade is painted a light apricot and looks very well maintained. The house sits on a large pitched roof, which is supported by columns, so there in front of the hotel is a very large covered area. The hotel has at this point, so in the lobby, a very high ceiling and thereby acts generously. Except for the entrance of the building, it is otherwise fairly flat. The rooms are all on the ground floor and first floor.

So we entered the hotel and immediately noticed that everything here is very generous. Either via stairs or a ramp takes you half a floor up, where the reception is. The entire hotel is accessible and when I think of the really wide hallways, then I have no doubt that you get here easily by using a wheelchair. After we received our key card, we had only a few meters turn left to the passage of the front desk because our room was located on the first floor. Also on the way to the room was immediately obvious that this hotel corridor is at least twice as wide as in other hotels. This one comes here, all very large and spacious front.

Spacious was our room. Our room had two queen beds from just 1.50 meters width. As we slept in a bed, we could use the other as a wonderful storage space for luggage. However, in this room that would not have been necessary, since the room was very spacious - so as promised.

Entering the room, you stand right in the middle, because there is an entrance hall with cloakroom, it is not in that sense. However, located just beside the door, a large wardrobe closet, where you can put everything important. Relatively close to the door, there is also a large luggage rack. Additional storage space can be found in the dresser, the TV is also on. There is also a table with two chairs. Besides the closet is still a desk. Both here and on the bedside table between the two beds is a phone. All furniture is made of very light wood and not necessarily modern, but still seemed fairly new and showed no signs of wear.

The bed is very comfortable because the mattress has a nice thickness. Also, the cushions are in order. Unfortunately, it is in the blanket by two sheets with a blanket between them, which I find not so nice, but in North America is part of the standard. Hence, the usual.

The Clearwater lodge has a restaurant and a breakfast room. Breakfast is included. However, one must not expect too much of it. Breakfast is served in the ground floor and is a typical breakfast, as it is commonly found in North America. There are multi-grain toast, white toast, plus jams, peanut butter and honey. In addition, muffins and other sweet baked goods available. Who would rather eat cornflakes will also find it here. So that the hotel be allowed to call Continental Breakfast Hot Breakfast, there are also eggs and sausage. The former either boiled or scrambled-Patty to reheat in the microwave, the latter also pressed into a patty and also for heating. You may just get the Pattys simply out of the fridge and then heat it in the microwave itself. , there are also detailed instructions. I refrained because I had bad memories at the scrambled eggs in Jasper and Patty did not seem so delicious that I wanted to try it. Besides coffee and tea (from the bag, but of good quality), there are also fruits such as apples and bananas. Various yogurts round out the breakfast buffet. The disadvantage -- there are not washable dishes - as often in North America. Plates and cups are made of Styrofoam, the cutlery is plastic. In the end, everything is thrown away, which of course is not necessarily environmentally friendly. The breakfast was not outstanding, but we had not anticipated it would be. It was average and that it was free, it was fine.

The Clearwater lodge is a clean 3-star hotel, with lots of space. Everything is very generous and you can feel quite well here. The decor is old-fashioned for my tastes, even if the furniture is in itself very new. The service at the hotel restaurant is very slow, so I forgive a total of four out of five stars and a recommendation. Read Less

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on September 23, 2011

Clearwater Lodge
331 Eden Road
Clearwater, British Columbia
250-674-3080

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Morton's The Steakhouse at Park Hyatt Hotel

Restaurant | "Mortons Steak House"

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When holiday one needs to eat and we decided on our second day to go to the restaurant which was right near our hotel. It was a bit of a standard restaurant which you will many more with mainly meat dishes, a few fish and a few vegatarian dishes. At this restaurant they serve standard meals as hambugers and steak and sometimes it’s very pleasnt to just have something normal.It was our second night at the hotel and we had a full day of sightseeing and decided to pop into the hotel to relax a bit. It really makes you tired so we decided not to go far. This restaurant looked really inviting from the outside as well as the outside. Lots of warm colours were used on the outside and friendly sig...Read More

When holiday one needs to eat and we decided on our second day to go to the restaurant which was right near our hotel. It was a bit of a standard restaurant which you will many more with mainly meat dishes, a few fish and a few vegatarian dishes. At this restaurant they serve standard meals as hambugers and steak and sometimes it’s very pleasnt to just have something normal.

It was our second night at the hotel and we had a full day of sightseeing and decided to pop into the hotel to relax a bit. It really makes you tired so we decided not to go far. This restaurant looked really inviting from the outside as well as the outside. Lots of warm colours were used on the outside and friendly signs. What i liked was that the menu was hanging outside so you could see what can of dishes they had against which price.

When we went in it looked very busy for a Tuesday night and although it’s a good sign when a restaurant is busy we were a little bit worried that there wasn’t enough space for us. Luckily there was a table for us available next to the window so we had a beautiful view over the street. The restaurant was a bit loud but you could hear the soft music on the background. There were a few groups present who were mostly responsible for the noise.

The menu at this restaurant is quiet extensive with as said before a lot of meat dishes. I really fancied some steak with chips and as seen outside they had it available. I ordered a simple coke and that was simply my whole meal. They kindly asked how i would wanted my meat done. After around 30 minutes our order was ready and the portions looked really good! It was certainly a plate full. The food was also very delicious and they prepared the meat just as i wanted it to be. The portion of the chips was good too and came with some ketchup.

The facilities at the restaurant are pretty standard. I used the toilets and there was one for the women and one for the men. It looked clean and smelled actually fresh. The whole restaurant looked clean and well taken care off. The staff also looked very neat and wearing all the same.

A great restaurant for just a simple dinner. We didn’t spend too much money and after an hour we left the restaurant. Four stars for me.
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Member Rating 4 out of 5 on October 23, 2012

Morton's The Steakhouse at Park Hyatt Hotel
4 Avenue Road at Prince Arthur
Toronto, Ontario M5R 2E8
(416) 925-0648

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Vancouver Aquarium

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Attraction

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Vancouver is a large city but many great attractions and much to do for tourists. I was surprised the first time I visited the city I was amazed by the size of the city. There is truly a lot to do in this city and you can easily spend two weeks here. We only stayed here for one week but we took some time to visit the aquarium of Vancouver.Although you wouldn’t really expect it the aquarium is a very popular tourist attraction. It’s located in the beautiful Stanley Park and that’s how we came across it. Stanley park is a beautiful park, especially on a beautiful sunny day. We decided to go to the aquarium because it came highly regarded.There are several areas at the aquarium as...Read More

Vancouver is a large city but many great attractions and much to do for tourists. I was surprised the first time I visited the city I was amazed by the size of the city. There is truly a lot to do in this city and you can easily spend two weeks here. We only stayed here for one week but we took some time to visit the aquarium of Vancouver.

Although you wouldn’t really expect it the aquarium is a very popular tourist attraction. It’s located in the beautiful Stanley Park and that’s how we came across it. Stanley park is a beautiful park, especially on a beautiful sunny day. We decided to go to the aquarium because it came highly regarded.

There are several areas at the aquarium as you have an outside and inside area. There are animals from different kind of regions as the Arctic Canada, Wild Coast, BC Coast but also the Amazon Rainforest. There are simply too many animals to mention them all but a few examples are starfish, dolphins and octopus.

The aquarium is considered the best in North America and when wondering around we noticed there are a lot of options for children to learn more about the animals in a very entertaining ways like little games that they can play. For the more adults there is information all throughout the aquarium. You can read all about all the animals and their habitat.

I think for everyone the highlights of the aquarium will differ but for me it was one of the shows and my favorite was the dolphin show. The entire show took half an hour but was full of action and great entertainment. Also for me it was very important to see that the animals were cared with love.

The aquarium is very large and I think you can easily spend a good few hours here with all the different kind of shows. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised to see all the living habitats of the animals. Everything looked clean and the animals looked very healthy.

I think the aquarium is absolutely one of the best I have seen so far and would highly recommend it. The entrance price fee might scare of people off a bit and I can understand it might be especially expensive when you go with the whole family but it’s worth it in my eyes. For me five stars.
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Member Rating 5 out of 5 on November 22, 2012

Vancouver Aquarium
845 Avison Way
Vancouver, British Columbia V6B 3X8
(604) 659-3474

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