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CG Traveller

Past stories Georgian Bay Bald Eagles Banff Film Festival Beaches of PEI Christmas Bird Count Cycling Cape Breton Charlottetown Polar Bear Capital Winter Rock Climbing - Quebec Cross-Country Ski Marathon Cycling PEI Epicurean Adventures PEI's French Flair Haida Gwaii Holidays on Horseback Killarney Provincial Park Kluane National Park Learning to Luge Heritage in Lunenburg Manitoba Traditions Manitoulin Island Whale Watching - East Coast Churchill Snowmobiling Pangnirtung - Fine Art Quebec's Backcountry Red Mountain Skiing Seabird Sanctuaries - Nfld. Silver Star Mountain Resort Northern Baffin Island Ski and Snowboard Week Royal St. John's Regatta Cool Summer Schools Sunshine Village Vancouver Polar Bear Swim Gourmet Whistler Winter in the Wilderness Yukon River Quest Yukon Quest

Canada's West Coast is famous for its outdoors-loving citizenry. Each New Year's Day since 1920, Vancouverites have been showing the rest of the country just how tough they really are. Come rain, sleet, snow or shine, these brave souls gather on the shore of English Bay for the annual Vancouver Polar Bear Swim. From a modest gathering of 10 stalwart citizens, the Vancouver Polar Bear Swim is now the biggest, best and oldest dip of them all, attracting an all-time-high of more than 2,000 participants in recent years who plunge into the frigid ocean and swim 275 kilometres around the pier. This year marks the 88^th anniversary of this truly Canadian event. Check the links below for more information on the city of Vancouver and its annual winter plunge.

www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/parks/events/polarbear
The Vancouver Park Board maintains a microsite devoted to the city's polar bear swim, which is an 84-year-old tradition that has winter-hardy Vancouverites lovingly leaping into English Bay. Brrr! The site offers everything from history of the venerable gathering to statistics and how-to safety tips for anyone brave enough to take the plunge into the icy water.

www.tourismvancouver.com
TourismVancouver.com is the official travel resource for Vancvouer, hosted by The Greater Vancouver Convention & Visitors Bureau. It is a great site for planning and booking a trip as all the necessities are here — accommodations, arts and attractions, calendar of events and trip planners. The bonus is that the site software offers sophisticated ways of searching for the info you want and need — hotels by neighbourhood, for instance. The Bureua also makes an effort to feature promotions and specials front and centre to keep you in the local loop as you prepare for a trip. During January and February, for example, Dine Out joins more than 100 of Vancouver's favourite restaurants in a food extravaganza that will feature the city's multicultural cuisine, regional ingredients and the province's VQA wines.

www.vancouver.com
Vancouver.com, which is the official site for Vancouver Central Reservations, is totally outfitted for online planning and booking of flights, hotels, car rentals, tours and recreational activities in the Vancouver region. Do-it-yourself travellers can spend loads of time dreaming and checking out all their options before putting together a package of services. If you don't know enough of the spectacular city itself, there are numerous hotlinks to key areas and activities of interest.

www.vancouverscenes.com
A picture is worth a thousand words, right? Add Internet technology, some creative flourish and you have Vancouver Scenes.com. This very cool web site is pure eye candy about one of the country's most naturally luxurious and culturally interesting regions. Great photographs, artistic editing, music and soulful voice-overs will give newcomers an inspirational look at life on the West Coast. The visual montages are divided into five caregories — Parks & Gardens, Seascape, Mountains, Cityscape, and Structures. This celebration of all things Vancouver is an entertaining site whose growing list services and links to related sites (www.seegastown.com) will surely inspire you to go west.