by Lindsay Shapka in Adventure, Travel Tips, Travel
Are you in the mood for a spring or autumn polar dip? Looking for a nice cold swim after a long summer hike? Or were you just hoping to dip your feet into crisp glacier water?
Despite being fed by glaciers and icy cold, these crystal clear lakes are the perfect places to cool off on a hot summer day in the mountains. In Jasper — a mountain town in the Rocky Mountains in Canada — temperatures can head well above 30°C (86°F) in the summer.
Read Moreby Lindsay Shapka in Adventure, Destinations, Travel, Travel Adventures, Travel Tips
To embrace the local travel trend, we are pulling together local travel guides for destinations all over the world with content ranging from gorgeous spots you need to check out to things to know to make your trip better.
Whether you are a local planning your staycation, or someone looking for travel inspiration once quarantine rules are lifted, there is sure to be something in these guides to inspire you to explore!
Read Moreby Lindsay Shapka in Adventure, Destinations, In Photos, Travel, Travel Adventures, Travel Tips
Located on Whistlers Mountain, a short 7 km from Jasper, the tram can hold 26 passengers and takes 7 1/2 minutes to travel from the lower station (1,258m above sea level) to the upper station (2,263m above sea level).
If you want to experience amazing rocky mountain views (without having to hike for hours), this is the way to get them.
Read Moreby Lindsay Shapka in Adventure, Destinations, Travel, Travel Adventures, Travel Tips
There are a lot of stunning hiking trails in Jasper National Park, but when it comes to day hikes, the Sulphur Skyline Trail offers the biggest bang for your time and effort.
Yes, waterfalls are beautiful, glaciers are awe-inspiring, and fragrant flower-filled mountain meadows are delightful, but nothing beats a 360-degree view that seems to stretch out forever and makes you feel like you are on top of the world.
Read Moreby Lindsay Shapka in Destinations, Travel, Travel Adventures, Travel Tips
Virus carrying mosquitoes, microscopic poisonous spiders, giant man-eating bears... there are a lot of things that can kill you when you are traveling. Especially when you aren't aware of them. Every country you visit has dangers that you may never encounter, but are important to at least know about.
Read MoreWandering through an acre-sized ice castle is no longer only possible in a Disney movie — think Elsa’s icy escape in Frozen. The Utah-based company, Ice Castles, started creating these incredible structures in 2009, and for the first time ever, has brought the incredible frozen wonderland to Canada.
Read Moreby Lindsay Shapka in Travel, Travel Tips, Travel Adventures, Adventure
If you plan on travelling during the winter months, and you live somewhere cold, you are usually headed straight for sand, sun and Pina Coladas.
But, just because temperatures have dropped well below the freezing mark, requiring down-filled jackets and large insulated boots, does not necessarily mean that you should head to the summer skies in the south — especially if you are looking for a unique, tourist-free experience.
The Maligne Canyon in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada is one of the Rocky Mountains' most impressive limestone canyons. During the summer months, its hiking trails and bridges are overrun with tourists taking in the stunning views of the smooth, steep walls and the river below.
As soon as the snow falls however, everything changes.
The trails are covered with snow and ice and, for the most part, visitors to the park stay on the ski hills or next to the warm fire in their hotels, leaving the canyon relatively deserted and quiet.
The cold mountain temperatures freeze the Maligne river, that flows through the canyon, and the waterfalls that cascade down its edge forming breathtaking natural ice sculptures.
With some winter boots or crampons (spikes that attach to the bottom of your boots for walking on ice), you can walk right on the river and to a place that few humans get a chance to visit — inside the canyon.
Swirling, churning water has worn the layers of limestone rock to more than 50 meters deep in places, making the sky seem very far away when standing on the frozen river.
Because the canyon is narrow, less than a meter wide in some places, and full of small waterfalls, rapids and caves, it is not a place that a boat can safely navigate and so a view at this level is only possible during the coldest months of winter.
Surrounded by the stunning cliffs, shockingly blue ice and echoing silence, I guarantee that you will not miss the beach for a second.
Besides, I hear there are a few bars in the town of Jasper that make a mean Pina Colada…
One of the best parts of strolling through the historic heart of Portugal’s cities — like Lisbon, Porto, and Lagos — is encountering the stunning decorative tiles that can be found covering the facades of both medieval and more modern homes, restaurants, cafes, churches, shops, and train stations.
But where did all these tiles come from?
Both and assault on and a delight for the senses, the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford is unlike any other museum you’ve visited (seriously, I have been in museums all over the world, and none compare to this one).
In 1974, east of what is now called Xi’an in China, peasants digging a well in their field uncovered one of the largest, and arguably the most important finds of the 20th century — an underground vault full of thousands of intact terracotta warriors and horses standing in battle formation.