White Rock together with South Surrey, the southern part of the City of Surrey, is located on the Semiahmoo Peninsula overlooking Semiahmoo Bay and surrounds the quaint seaside City on three sides.

White Rock offers a destination for all to enjoy. Just south of Vancouver and only five minutes north of the US – Canada border, it is distinguished for its quaint B&Bs, galleries, boutiques and fine waterfront dining with spectacular sunsets over the Georgia Strait.

The City of Vancouver is a 30 to 60 minute freeway drive north. The Canada – US Border is 5 minutes away to the south, with 2 crossings to choose from Pacific, at BC Hwy 15 and Douglas at BC hwy 99. Both crossings are located in Blaine, WA and are accessible from US I-5. Blaine is approximately 1.5 hours north of the Greater Seattle area. The Vancouver International Airport is only 20 minutes away.

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There aren’t many pacific islands where you can surf in the morning and ski in the afternoon, especially ones that are ranked number one by more than one famous travel magazine, many years running!

But there is one!

An island with a history stretching back as far as the ice age, that perches on the western edge of a great continent and one that is growing very quickly as a “must see” destination.

Only about three hundred and fifty miles in length , Vancouver Island sits in the Straits of Georgia, north-west of Seattle and an hour and forty minutes by ferry from the mainland of British Columbia, on the west coast of Canada. Vancouver Island is home to the capital city of British Columbia, Victoria, and has been since 1850 at which time the interior gold rush brought prospectors and a supporting cast of many people to this pristine island.

Today, the temperate climate, stunning scenery and world class amenities make this island a travelers mecca, and for good reason: or to be precise, many good reasons. English speaking, well actually “Canadian” speaking, easy to drive and everything within fairly short distances helps make any vacation here very enjoyable and relatively stress free, especially as accommodations and food services are widespread, well located and of the highest standard: many rated the best on the continent and some, the best in the world.

But it’s the diversity that is the main attraction. Whale watching, body surfing, long cycling trails, wilderness camping, world class spa-resorts, museums, historical sites, famous gardens, ski-ing, sailing, salmon fishing, diving, real wild-life, or spa treatment with a Pacific ocean view. Home grown produce markets, fresh seafoods, local wineries, breweries and cideries, wilderness camping, bed and breakfast or famous five star hotels,

Vancouver Island supports it all and it’s there to be discovered. Jazz festivals, art festivals, opera, book fairs, antique fairs, garden tours, agricultural fairs, theaters and ghost walks. Marathons, cycling races, golf, lacrosse, soccer and ice hockey: and even the tall ships make an appearance!

Vancouver island is a celebration of agricultural, maritime and historical; of First Nations peoples and others from many nations. Of British and Spanish and Asian influences against a backdrop of stunning mountain scenery: a wilderness with all the amenities. Quality shopping, extensive tourist services, modern transportation and yet, the unusual. Float plane services, eagles on the lamp posts, art galleries on the walls, eight hundred year old trees, sea kayaking and afternoon tea with triangular sandwiches.

But more to the point, what shall we have for lunch!

How about some local oysters to start with, followed by a home grown emu burger on a home baked bun with garden grown tomatoes and locally grown herbs picked fresh for the table. Perhaps some locally made goat cheese and a pint of ale brewed on the premises. Actually I think I will have a small glass of the locally made blueberry port wine with my home grown strawberries, although the flambe’ pears look rather nice!

Hey, take some time to Discover Vancouver Island for yourself, you will be glad you did.

About the Author

Dave is a retired Canadian who has taken up building websites. For more, in-depth information for the traveler to Vancouver Island visit ‘Discover Vancouver Island.com’ and check out the FREE travel videos!

Situated only 25 minutes North of Whistler, Pemberton is a world apart. It is a quiet valley surrounded by the most magnificent mountains you will ever see. Nestled within lie two challenging, championship golf courses, many quaint B & B’s, and a well serviced town of 3,000 with the purest drinking water on the planet.

Pemberton tourism is not only increasing but is doing so quickly and sensibly. A far cry from when it was named after Joseph Despard Pemberton, a land surveyor of the Hudson Bay Company back in the 1850s. Back then the gold rush was just getting underway as news of discoveries reached San Francisco. Some of the miners followed the route from Vancouver up the Harrison River and Lake and into Lillooet Lake. Seeing the beauty of Pemberton, they settled in the area of Mount Currie.

Here are five very exciting activities waiting for your arrival:

Trail rides. Delight in a slow gait up through the magnificent cedar and pine forest, emerging above the tree-line where you will marvel at the beauty of the gorgeous array of wild flowers. View the wild and magnificent Coast Mountain Range stretching out before you for miles in every direction. Take a breather alongside a pristine mountain lake where your guide provides you with a stick to your gut lunch. Your friendly horse will take you home safely.

Jet-boat rides. The specially designed jet-boats are incredibly stable craft. They are able to carry their passengers safely over the roughest of white water. No propellers to foul, the propulsion system is simply a very high capacity pump which creates a jet of water to push the boat through the water. Excellent for river cruising. Variety is the keyword with Pemberton Adventure ranch river tours. From the fairly quite Green and Lillooet rivers to the gold rusher action of the lower Lillooet rapids there is excitement for every taste.

Mountain snowmobiling in the Whistler area is a whole new deal. First of all the area is unbelievably huge. Mountains rise up to over 8,000 feet. Glaciers can be 1,000 feet thick with an annual snowfall of over 30 feet. And the beauty of it is you have an amazing choice of areas to explore. You could snowmobile for an entire winter and never hit the same area twice. Mountain snowmobiling is such fun. You have the urge to tell anyone who will listen about your fantastic adventure.

Glider Soaring. Imagine yourself seated in the cockpit of this glider as your experienced pilot guides you to within mere feet of the ruggedly spectacular mountains of the coast range. See the ski slopes of Whistler, the fertile Pemberton Valley and the emerald green glacial lakes dotting the landscape. Ride the thermals like the Bald Eagles do as you soar over the majestic mountains and valleys unfolding before your eyes. No engine noise to disturb your thoughts, only the stillness of the scene keeps you in the reality of the moment.

River Rafting Whistler waterways is a lot of great fun. When the snow melts in the mountains and the rivers flow fast it’s time to don the helmets and floatation devices and climb aboard. It’s called rafting or whitewater rafting but it all means that it’s a recreational activity using a rubber raft to navigate a river or lake. No matter how you may try to describe it, it all comes down to a fantastic ride and a lot of Great Fun!

About the author:
Joe and Irma Mac Millan have enjoyed the Whistler Mountain and valley area of British Columbia for many years. They have camped, hiked and skied the mountains and fished and kayaked the rivers and lakes. Their website Whistler-Outdoors.com/ is a must visit for anyone considering a trip to Whistler as well as the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. They invite one and all to take a look.

I’d never heard of Da Vinci’s “Inquest” when I visited Vancouver. Now, I can’t get the Canadian TV program out of my mind. Shot for seven years in some of the city’s most colorful neighborhoods, the award-winning crime show was to Vancouver what “CSI” is to Miami. And the reruns remind me this city deserves more than a “port of call” stop on a cruise to somewhere else.

“The weather is super, eh?” The East Indian cabbie sounded surprisingly Canadian as he made small talk en route from the airport. We were motoring through Vancouver in a Prius, the car of choice for cab drivers in this super progressive seaport city.

Quietly, almost stealthily, we passed through the busy streets of a densely populated downtown, pulling up to the Pan Pacific Hotel and the adjacent cruise ship terminal. I barely recognized this spot as Canada Place from my two trips to Expo ’86. That event, as much as anything, had put Vancouver on the map.

A blast of the horn and the gleaming Holland America cruise ship was calling her passengers to board. She’d been docked here patiently as her charges toured the town. I watched them juggle their purses and packages from my hotel suite window, which wrapped halfway around the room and offered views of the city on one side and the harbor on the other. High above the plaza, I was, as my friends called it, “living large.”

It was easy to get caught up in the energy of a city like this.

More than 900,000 passengers come through Vancouver each year; many on their way north to Alaska. They find the climate here appealing and the food and shopping exceptional.I was eager to experience both. Setting out on foot, I headed toward the city’s oldest district, Gastown. With its handsome brick buildings and cobbled streets, Gastown was enjoying a renaissance, of sorts, although still a bit rough around the edges. More than once I passed people who looked like they were right out of Da Vinci’s “Inquest.” But Gastown was hip, too, and funky. My favorite sidewalk attraction was the steam-powered clock that whistled and whirred on the quarter hour.

I built up an appetite walking through Gastown and that was a good thing. My tour group was meeting at Aqua Riva, one of Vancouver’s premier restaurants. Built on the waterfront next to our hotel, Aqua Riva had amazing harbor views and a menu to match. Course after course was exceptional, paired with equally fine British Columbia wines. We topped off the evening with a Canadian kiss — a glass of British Columbia’s celebrated ice wine.

Day two had me following a friend’s advice, with a bike ride through Stanley Park. The hour-long ride offered stunning views of the North Shore mountains and Lions Gate Bridge, as well as a roll through an urban forest and past fragrant rose gardens. The ride was pure pleasure with plenty of places to stop and picnic or rest.

As predictable as a sunset, I had worked up an appetite again and went looking for substance at Vancouver’s popular Granville Island Public Market. The place where chefs shop for fresh produce and seafood, I quickly realized the artisan qualities of their breads, cheeses and other foods. Once a sad and forgotten industrial site, Granville Island is the pulse of the city’s celebrated restaurant scene today. My only complaint was my luggage wouldn’t hold all the specialty foods I was tempted to bring home.

It would take more space than I’ve got here to do this city justice. A guide book would barely scratch the surface. But a list of must-see locations has to include Yaletown (a hipster hangout brimming with boutique shops and possibly the world’s best facial (my skin glowed for weeks after my treatment at a spa called Spaethos); English Bay, where the beaches and sunsets attract locals and tourists alike; and a drive along BC’s famed Sea-to-Sky Highway to Whistler. It’s considered one of the most photogenic highways in the country and Whistler, of course, is a host of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

That’s Vancouver in a nutshell — one of the most exciting cities in the Pacific Northwest. Pardon me, now, while I retreat to the television room. There’s a Canadian crime show I want to catch.

About the Author:

Ginny Prior has a weekly syndicated travel radio show on Sports Byline USA, as well as travel features in print publications across the country. If you have a travel destination you’d like to share, drop a note to The Happy Wanderer at www.ginnyprior.com.