The Current - The Current's ultimate travel list: Atlantic Canada edition

Episode Date: April 23, 2025

Four more listeners make the case for their favourite vacation spots, hoping to win a place on The Current’s list of great Canadian travel destinations. Sandra Trask says that Cape Breton Island, N....S., is a place for everyone and every season; Lana Gauthier explains why her family fell in love with Basin Head Provincial Park, P.E.I.; Lisa Proulx shares what’s so special about Gros Morne National Park, N.L.; and Annette Barclay says you just have to visit Kouchibouguac National Park, N.B. You can see the full shortlist and vote for your favourite on cbc.ca/thecurrent.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Fisherman John Coppock and his son Craig were hoping that their day on the water would finish with a good haul of cod. Instead, they reeled in way more than they bargained for. They had a net filled with fish and to their horror and surprise, the body of a man. I'm Kathleen Goldthar and this week on Crime Story, a body in the ocean untangles a sea of lies. Find Crime Story wherever you get your podcasts. [♪THEME MUSIC PLAYING》 This is a CBC Podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is The Current Podcast.
Starting point is 00:00:37 You might know we are on a quest to create the ultimate Canadian travel guide, places that you should see in this country that every Canadian needs to visit of the thousands of submissions we received. We have narrowed it down to 20 finalists. There is now one more week for you to vote for your top destination in Canada. We have a few more pitches to hear in the remaining days. And I'll be talking to listeners who are championing their favorite destinations. Places like the Nahanni River in the Northwest Territories, Stratford,
Starting point is 00:01:03 Ontario, the Bow River in Alberta. You can vote for your favorites online. Go to cbc.ca slash the current. This morning, since I'm in Halifax, we thought it would make sense to highlight some of the picks in Atlanta, Canada. To that end, Sandra Trask is in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Lana Gautier is in Ottawa and at Barclay is in Victoria, British Columbia. And Lisa Proulx is in the Annapolis Valley.
Starting point is 00:01:25 Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Morning. Sandra, you're up first. What is your pick for the ultimate Canadian travel guide? The place that you believe every Canadian needs to go to. Thank you, Matt. That would be Cape Breton Island.
Starting point is 00:01:41 It is Nova Scotia's masterpiece. It has magnificent scenery and is rich in culture. People are warm and welcoming. The island is consistently rated number one island in Canada by Travel and Leisure magazine. I believe it was also rated top one of three islands in the world by the same magazine. Cape Breton Island speaks to you with its natural beauty and its friendly people. It has many picture-perfect communities. And in those communities, Matt, you'll find French Acadian people, you'll find Scottish people, you'll find Mi'kmaq people, and many other ethnicities.
Starting point is 00:02:22 Traditions are alive and well in these communities. There are hiking trails, there's pristine beaches and lakes, there's fishing villages, and loads, and I mean loads of talented musicians. Now let me stop you there because it's interesting. Every Cape Retina I know says that it's the most beautiful place in the world. You may find yourself in a fight with other Canadians saying that it's the best island in the country or even the best place in Nova Scotia, but I'll leave those fights off to the side. What is it, I mean, why do Cape Retiners take such pride in their island?
Starting point is 00:02:56 I believe because of the beauty and because of the people. They're very warm and welcoming people. They're unpretentious. They'll go what are their way to make you feel at home? They're helpful. They're kind. They're friendly. They're everything you want in somebody. And they're scattered everywhere throughout the island. What is the best time?
Starting point is 00:03:17 And people might travel there in the summer, but the best time to go to Cape Retina is in the fall, right? Yes, I would say year round is good, but definitely the fall, the Cabot Trail is the reason for that. Just describe for somebody who's never seen what it looks like in the fall, just try and paint me a picture of that. Hmm, well, there's a spectacular array of vibrant colors.
Starting point is 00:03:41 It's outstanding to experience it in the fall. The Cabot Trail is where I would take somebody in the fall. It's a 300-kilometer scenic drive, one of the most beautiful drives in all of North America. And as Rick Mercer said on your program recently, it's just mind-blowing. You have to see it to experience it. The drive itself takes you along the northern tip of the island and it passes through the Cape Breton Highlands National Park and several quaint
Starting point is 00:04:12 communities along the way. Its landscape resembles much of Scotland's coastline. It has breathtaking views of the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the west and the North Atlantic Ocean to the east. There are mountains and coastlines in view and at the same time throughout most of the drive. You may see some wildlife such as hawks or bald eagles, moose and deer. Yeah, so yeah, you can travel the trail in about four hours, but you really want to take a longer time than that. You can make a day of it or a weekend of it, and you want to stop along the way and do some hiking, perhaps the Skyline Trail. There's fishing in the Marguerite River where you may or you may not catch a wild Atlantic salmon.
Starting point is 00:04:59 You can eat some of the fine seafood we have here. Visit some local breweries and markets, or just soak in the view as long as possible. Cabot trail is outstanding in the fall, and that's why I would encourage people to come. Do you go clockwise or counterclockwise? You can go either way. Personally, myself, I like to go counterclockwise.
Starting point is 00:05:24 You mentioned music. Just finally on this point, why is music and culture so important to Cape Breton Island? Well, there are very famous musicians from here. It's alive and well, the culture. There's the Rankin family. There's Rita McNeil was from here and Natalie McMaster. Many more, many, many more. Culture is very alive and the music touches your soul.
Starting point is 00:05:57 Just a lot of talent and a lot of culture for sure. Pete It is a beautiful place and you've made a great pitch about it, Sandra. Annette, follow that. You're in Victoria. I'm in Victoria, yes. Now, I mean, that's a, you know, you may have some fights as to what the best island in the country is, but you're not pitching British Columbia, you're not pitching Victoria, you are pitching an Atlantic destination. Why are you doing this? Well, as you say, I've lived in Victoria most of my life, but I taught French. And when you teach French on the West Coast, and I was teaching in the 70s and 80s and
Starting point is 00:06:32 90s, it's kind of a desert, a Francophone desert. In those days, it was very difficult to get material about Francophone culture. And I like to expose my students to all kinds of Francophone cultures, not just that from France, which at that time was really the major culture that you'd find in textbooks, etc. And so I started with music in Quebec, and then I went to a concert and I heard this young woman singing a song called Reveille, which was just so heartwarming and touching. And I started investigating the Acadian culture and heard all sorts of things about Tanta
Starting point is 00:07:10 Mars and this. And I thought, I have to go there. But you know, it's a long ways away from Victoria. It's very far for us here. And so I just was determined when I retired, I was gonna go there. And so my friend and I got on our bikes, well, we took our bikes to Bathurst and we rode the Acadian coast from Bathurst to Moncton. Determined, I was determined to go to the Acadian
Starting point is 00:07:41 celebrations and see a Tent Amar and see all the things I'd been teaching my kids about. And so on the map of where specifically are you putting your pin? I mean, through New Brunswick is beautiful and that, as you mentioned, that Acadian coast is a lovely trek, but there's one place that you think we should all go to.
Starting point is 00:07:59 Coochie Booquack National Park. It was just amazing. I was so, I had no idea what to expect and I really, you know, as I said, I wasn't going there to see the geography really. And we came to this park, we rode our bikes in, I could not get over the diversity of this park. There was a, it's a big lagoon, like it's a river estuary and then you go through a lagoon, there's bogs, there's forest, there's dunes, and then you go on this boardwalk and you arrive
Starting point is 00:08:31 at this beach, just sandy, sandy beach. Very few people were there. The water was warm, which for us West coasters, that's a paradise, you know? And there were two young women who were lifeguards and we got into a conversation with them. They told us about all the different programs that they have in the park. They have a lot of indigenous programs. There's a host who was Mi'kmaq who told us about the circle drum, all kinds of, there was just so much information. Yeah, it just looked like a really great place to stay. We were sorry we couldn't stay more than, you know, we stayed two nights, I believe, in the area and then we had to
Starting point is 00:09:16 get on our bikes again. What was it like when you're riding like that? I mean, you see things differently than you would in a car or you would in a train or obviously on a plane. What was it like? I mean, who did you meet when you were riding your bikes? Oh, I can't, from the time we arrived in Bathurst, it was pouring with rain. We were quite worried about landing. At least the pilot told us, oh dear, we might have to go to Moncton and we're thinking, oh my God, don't go to Moncton.
Starting point is 00:09:39 We've got our route planned. Fortunately, we landed, got our bikes together, and had a bit of a problem. And somebody from the airport came, helped us, insisted on driving us to our motel because it was raining. And that was the start of it. Every day we experienced these random acts of kindness. It was unbelievable. You know, people, we'd stop by the side of the road, have our sandwich. All of a sudden a woman appears and she says, you've got to have a drink of my fresh well water and blueberries.
Starting point is 00:10:15 It got to the point where whenever we stopped, we were kind of nervous because all these people would descend on us and ask us, do you need help? Where are you going? We had cars who accompanied us to the right route. It was amazing. At one point, just outside of Miramichi, when you get to Miramichi, well, when you get to any city,
Starting point is 00:10:36 they would have a sign saying, welcome to Miramichi. And we think, oh good, we're gonna be there soon. And then we'd find out, oh, that's just the outskirts. We have another 17 kilometers to go. It was hot, hot, hot. We were having a drink of water, and all of a sudden, this man appears. Bottle of ice cold water, takes us up to the house,
Starting point is 00:10:58 insists on driving us to our B&B. Just lovely people. It was amazing. It's a friendly part of the world. Oh my gosh, yes. Yeah. I think a lot of people will be wanting to go to New Brunswick now, based on your pitch. It's a fabulous holiday to go along the coast, stop at the park, spend, I don't know, I'd spend four nights, four days there.
Starting point is 00:11:20 And then there's so much to see. Well, you have to go to the Acadian Festival. We were there in, well, I was in Shidiak, and experienced a tent tomorrow where everybody dresses up in red, white and blue and they take their pots and pans and they walk down the street making as much noise as they can. And then there's music, there's food. It's fabulous. Just fabulous.
Starting point is 00:11:44 Lanna, follow that. Your pick for the best place in this country that Canadians needed to know about. So it's Basin Head Provincial Park. I'm living in Ottawa. I'm pretty landlocked. So getting out east was a real treat. And getting so close to the ocean, it was just
Starting point is 00:12:01 absolutely mesmerizing. This is on PEI? Yes, it is on PEI. It's on the, I don't know, the eastern kind of south end of the island. And we stayed about an hour away and we loved it so much that we went back twice. And each time it was a totally different experience because of the tides. It was really neat to see. In the fall of 2001, while Americans were still grappling with the horror of September 11th,
Starting point is 00:12:31 envelopes started showing up at media outlets and government buildings filled with a white, lethal powder, anthrax. But what's strange is if you ask people now what happened with that story, almost no one knows. It's like the whole thing just disappeared. Who mailed those letters? Do you know? From Wolf Entertainment, USG Audio, and CBC podcasts, this is Aftermath, the hunt for the anthrax killer. Available now. Now, I'm not putting my thumb on the scale here by any stretch, but I was there last year,
Starting point is 00:13:04 and it was amazing. Just describe for people who have never been, Annette was talking about a boardwalk and some sands. It's known as the Singing Sands, right? Totally. It reveals itself to you. You park, it's free. You walk up.
Starting point is 00:13:22 There are beautiful change rooms. There's a fishing museum, and then you walk out and you're at the top of the hill and in front of you is just blue expanse. There are cliffs to your right and it just seems like the beach goes on forever. And then you walk down and you see kids jumping off the bridge and you step on the sands and immediately you hear the squeak and it stops you in your tracks. That squeak is the sound of the sands singing in many ways. Yes, and you know, you're squeaking along, you're finding your ideal place and it's
Starting point is 00:13:59 all full of families. It's just families enjoying pure bliss in a really blissful place. You went with your family, right? You went with some teenagers? Yes, with teenagers who are not the easiest to trudge along. I was going to say it, but I let you say it. Yeah, sure. Yeah, no, and like the hour-long car drive there, you're just like, look at that, look
Starting point is 00:14:19 at that, and you're just hoping that they put down their phones for all of 10 seconds, and they were really good about it They were totally immersed in the experience I sat on sandbars with my kids and we just let the waves hit us and At one point my two teenagers tossed a ball on the sandbars and as a parent just to watch your kids be kids was such an Awesome experience. We brought our dog. She loved the ocean. I mean, that part in itself that they allowed dogs at this provincial park
Starting point is 00:14:52 was really lovely. And then, you know, there's volleyball court. You go and play volleyball. We played a game of volleyball as a family. And then we walked the long, expansive stretch of beach and it just went on Forever and it got to a point where you go just a little bit longer Just a little bit longer and you're finding all these beautiful little rocks in the sand and then you come across the shipwreck Like I would have never known that there was a shipwreck there and it's full of little crabs and we're poking around and it almost Looked like a car engine. I thought, how did this get here? And then on the way, like we spent the day on the way home,
Starting point is 00:15:29 I was googling the shipwreck and then you're immersed in all this history of the beach. It just was such a beautiful place because it allowed our family to experience such a great time together. I mean, that's part of traveling, is you can go to a place, but it's also, I mean, that idea, as you said, of seeing your teenagers throw a ball around, put the phone down, actually be in that moment is something that you'll remember forever. 100%, like I have this family photo,
Starting point is 00:15:58 and it's all of us with the dog in our hand, and the red cliffs in behind, and my daughter finally got, like she always pretends not to open her eyes in pictures. She's opening her eyes. There are no goofy faces. We're all a little pink from the sun. And it's just absolutely, like I captured a core memory for them and myself.
Starting point is 00:16:19 Wonderful. Lisa, here you are. You're in Nova Scotia in the Annapolis Valley, but you're not picking something in the beautiful Annapolis Valley. You're not even picking anything in the province of Nova Scotia. Nope. What are you picking?
Starting point is 00:16:33 I'm picking Grossmourne Park in Newfoundland, Labrador. And the reason I chose that is my mom and I have visited it twice. Back in 2003, she had cancer and she said, �If I survive this, we�re going to start traveling.� And so the first place we went was Grossmourne and the Northern Peninsula in Newfoundland and we just loved it and couldn�t get enough of it. It�s designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of the geology. They call it the Seven Wonders of Geology in the park.
Starting point is 00:17:13 It's created by plate tectonics and glaciers, so they're huge fjords with waterfalls and the landscape is incredible. You can just drive along the main roads and just see the table lands and all these different types of geology. And the weird and wonderful geology creates weird and wonderful plants. So my mom and I are both naturalists. And so we were always just stopping the car and
Starting point is 00:17:46 jumping out and looking in the ditches for the wildflowers and we went in July on purpose because of the wildflowers and we were following a bit of a trail of the Newfoundland Wildflower Society that they had given us their plant list. So it was a bit of a scavenger hunt and the type of soil or mostly rock that's there, a lot of the weather, the extreme weather, birch trees would be just tiny and instead of growing upright in some areas, they just snake along the ground and it's just like something you wouldn't see here in Nova Scotia. And the letter that you wrote to us, I mean,
Starting point is 00:18:25 what you described sounds almost too far-fetched to be true. You said we kayaked in the clear waters of Bon Bay, we saw whales, moose, caribou, as well as icebergs. Come on. Julie Yes. The icebergs weren't in Gros Morne. Like I said, we went all the way up on the northern peninsula and the icebergs are up at that northern end and down around St. Anthony, and we also went on to Red Bay and Labrador, and we actually up there found icebergs that were coming in and breaking up, and they called them berge bits. And we were actually able to scoop some little berge bits out of the water, take them to our cabin and melt them
Starting point is 00:19:05 and drink them. So it was pretty wild and you can actually buy iceberg beer in these beautiful cobalt blue bottles that's made from the iceberg water. We went to Western Brook Pond and you have to hike in about three kilometers and on the way we came right up to a big bull moose on the other side of the trees, thank goodness. They got a really great picture of him. And then when you get to the end, you take a boat ride in through the fjord and you see
Starting point is 00:19:33 waterfalls coming down where the glaciers carved out this billion-year-old rock cliffs. And we also started off at the Discovery Center in Woody Point where they have, you can learn all about it and then decide, okay, where do we want to go first? And the wildflowers, the showy lady slippers and yellow lady slippers were in bloom in a lot of different places. And we actually were driving along one time and there was a caribou running right beside our car as we were going along and when we got to the B&B there was a guy on a motorcycle and he said he had had the same experience and he said it was really wild and yeah the kayaking in Bon Bay the water is so clear you can
Starting point is 00:20:21 look right down to the bottom and they have an aquarium there where you can go in and actually they have a touch and feel tank where you can pick different you know starfish and things up and they teach you all about what you're seeing. And on our way there like we the second time we went in 2013 we flew into Deer Lake and went to the insectarium there before we drove up into Gros Morne. And it's this huge old post and beam building full of insects from all over the world. But they have, they're not alive, but they do have a greenhouse full of exotic butterflies. So that was a real interesting thing. But there's beach combing, there's hiking trails, and some of the place names are really fun, like Tickle Point Trail. And someone else mentioned the boat, the people,
Starting point is 00:21:13 and that was the other big thing that brought us back. There were how hospitable the people were, the friendly and helpful. One time we were kind of lost and we stopped to ask this gentleman directions, his name was Stedman, and he said, well, I'm not going to tell you, you can chase me over there. So he jumped in his car and we chased him all around until we got to the lighthouse we were looking for. And then he stayed and regaled us with stories of his life he stayed and regaled us with stories of his life there for about an hour. And it was a lot of fun. He was really friendly. It sounds amazing.
Starting point is 00:21:50 I mean, having been there a little bit, it just makes me want to go back. I'm going to let you all go, but just very briefly, the reason we're doing this in part is to get people to think about this country and places in this country that they might not otherwise know about. What's the opportunity here, Lisa, do you think, just in a word or two, for people to explore their own country? What do they learn when they explore Canada? When they explore Canada or specifically
Starting point is 00:22:15 Gros Morne? Well, Canada. I mean, this whole idea is a chance for people to maybe go, and we're focusing on Atlanta, Canada, but to maybe go to a place in this country that they wouldn't go. You could travel to Europe, you could travel to the States if people were doing that. What about here in Canada?
Starting point is 00:22:28 What can you learn from that? Well, I just think, um, you learn what a beautiful place it is no matter where you go. My mom and I have been to Yukon and BC and, uh, Nunavut and Northwest Territories. We've been all around and every time we go, we get this new awe and understanding for how vast and beautiful and incredible our country is.
Starting point is 00:22:53 You know, we usually pick the out of the way places where there's not a lot of people and tourists because that's just what we like to do. But and you can find that anywhere. what we like to do, and you can find that anywhere. So I just really think it brings us together as a country because we meet people just like ourselves wherever we go. And that, what about for you? What do you think we learn when we spend our time and our money exploring this country rather than somewhere else?
Starting point is 00:23:20 Well, I agree with what Lisa just said. And also I think it gives you a perspective on how that part of the country thinks. So when you listen on the news about things happening, you go, yeah, yeah, I get that, you know, fishing is hard, a hard way to make a living. It just gives you an understanding. Well said. Sandra? There's so much to see in Canada. There's so many diverse cultures and you can learn so much. It's so educational to travel. There's a lot to see and a lot to experience. There sure is. Lana, what about for you? I mean, maybe this would be a word to the teenagers who would see, you know, it's more exciting to go to France or to go to England or to travel down to the States
Starting point is 00:24:01 when people were doing that and not worrying about all the things that they're worrying about. Now, what would you say about the importance of traveling here? It feels like home, even when England or to travel down to the States when people were doing that and not worrying about all the things that they're worrying about now. What would you say about the importance of traveling here? It feels like home, even when you're not at home. It just is so warm and welcoming, no matter where you go. You wake up in a different bed, but it still feels like home. You've all made great pitches for the places that you love. And I think there are a lot of people, this is going to be a very busy summer and maybe
Starting point is 00:24:23 fall as well as people explore this country and you've given people some inspiration as to where to go thank you all for talking to us thanks Matt thank you thank you there you have it four more cases made for where you should spend your vacation time Sandra Trask championing Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia Lana Goetje casting her vote for basin head on Prince Edward Island Lisa Proulx supporting Grossmourne in Newfoundland and Labrador and Annette Barclay says you have to visit Kuchibuquack National Park in New Brunswick.
Starting point is 00:24:49 Should one of those places, any of those places, all of those places be on the top 10 list of finalists? You can vote at cbc.ca slash The Current. Vote once a day until the 30th of April. And then on the 1st of May, we will announce the top 10 that make up The Current's Canadian travel list. Once again, you can vote at cbc.ca slash The Current. That is The Current for this Wednesday, the 23rd of April. Q is up next on CBC Radio 1.
Starting point is 00:25:17 Thanks to everyone here in Halifax and Nova Scotia more broadly for their warm welcome.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.