Destination Guides & Maps - Canada

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Capital City: Ottawa

Language: English and French are the two official languages, but there are also 53 native languages. In addition, you'll find plenty of Chinese, Italian, German and Portuguese speakers. Even in Quebec, where French is the official language, English is widely spoken.

Population: 31,592,805.

Ethnic mix: British origin 40% per cent, French origin 27 per cent, other European 20 per cent, Indian and Inuit 2 per cent, other 11 per cent.

Area: 3,851,788 square miles

Currency:

The Canadian dollar, made up of 100 cents. If you've been to the States, you'll find Canadian money familiar - it comes in the same denominations, and is called by the same names - nickel (5c), dime (10c), quarter (25c), etc - but is worth less.

Canada also has C$1 coins (colloquially known as 'loonies') and C$2 coins ('toonies').

If you're buying Canadian currency here before you go, make sure they don't give you too large denominations - bills over C$50 can be hard to change (and some places refuse to accept them because of concerns about counterfeiting).

ATMs are widely available 24 hours a day, so as long as your bank card is linked up to the Plus or Cirrus network you can get by without needing to carry travellers cheques.

If you prefer to take TCs, remember that you'll get better rates of exchange in banks than in hotels, shops and restaurants. The best brands of travellers cheques to carry are American Express or Visa, which are widely recognised - and if you take them in Canadian dollars, you can use them as cash in most places.

Credit cards are widely used - in fact, you'll find it tricky to get by without one, as they're pretty much essential if you want to hire a car (security deposit) or book hotel rooms.

Visa:

Not necessary for UK citizens for visits of up to six months.

Children travelling with one parent or adult should bring a letter of permission from the other parent, parents or legal guardian. Divorced parents with shared custody rights should carry legal documents establishing their status.

This is part of measures being taken by Canadian Customs and Immigration to reduce child abduction.

Geography:

A former prime minister, WL Mackenzie King, once complained that Canada had 'too much geography' - and it certainly seems to have pretty much got the lot.

Its 3.9 million square miles encompass a varied topography of Arctic tundra, forests, lakes and rivers, central plains and vast prairies, mountains and fjords, islands and even a desert.

In the east the Appalachian region - which includes the Maritime provinces and the part of Quebec south of the St Lawrence - is a hilly, wooded area.

A fertile floodplain known as the St Lawrence Lowlands runs from the mouth of the St Lawrence down to the Great Lakes, and is home to most of the population.

In the centre of the country are the prairie provinces - huge, flat and full of wheat. Next comes the Western Cordillera, a mountainous region made up of the provinces of British Columbia, the Yukon (where the country's highest mountain, Mt Logan, rises to 19,844 ft) and part of Alberta. It has the Rocky Mountains as its eastern boundary and the Coast Mountains on the west.

Almost half of the land mass of Canada is made up of the Canadian Shield, the name given to the huge, horseshoe-shaped area that stretches around the Hudson Bay, running from the Labrador coast to the St Lawrence Lowlands, across to the prairies and up to the Arctic.

Everywhere there's water. Apart from ocean on three sides, Canada has seven of the world's largest lakes (some shared with the US) and three of its largest 20 rivers. It contains more freshwater than any other country - 25 per cent of the world's resources. Ontario alone has 400,000 lakes.

There are trees at every turn, too - forests cover around 25 per cent of the country.

Religion:

Catholic 42%, Protestant 40%, other 18%

Time:

Canada covers six different time zones, ranging from three and a half hours behind GMT in Newfoundland to eight hours behind in British Columbia.

Electricity:

The electric current is 110-120 volts AC, as in the US, and sockets only take American-type plugs with two flat prongs. You'll need an adapter and/or transformer if you carry electrical appliances that don't run on 110volts or have an American-style plug.

Emergencies:

For police, fire department and ambulance, in most parts of Canada call 911. In Vancouver Island, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Yukon, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, dial 0 for the operator.

Telephone:

To dial Canada from the UK: 001 + province code + number.

To dial the UK from Canada: 011 44 + city code/phone number minus the initial 0.

The Canadian telephone system is efficient and good value. Long distance calls are cheaper from 11pm to 8am. Coin-operated phones are widely available, as are a growing number of credit card phones.

Avoid making international calls from hotel rooms - they invariably charge through the nose for the privilege.

Post:

Most main post offices are open from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, though some open earlier and later, and some on Saturday mornings. Stamps are also available from hotels and public vending machines.

If you want people to write to you while you're there, they can address it to your name, c/o General Delivery at the main post office in the nearest town or city (where they will hold it for up to 15 days).

Travellers with American Express cards or travellers cheques can also have mail sent to them care of any AmEx office.

Business hours:

Shops generally open from 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, with some staying open for late night shopping on Thursday and Friday until 9pm.

Most shops open on Saturdays and some on Sunday afternoons. Shops in malls tend to stay open longer, and summer opening hours are generally longer than in winter.

Most banks are open 10am to 3pm, Monday to Thursday, and until 6pm on Fridays; some have longer hours.

Internet and e-mail:

Public internet access is widely available via bookshops, cybercafes, public libraries, hotels, etc, so if you have a portable e-mail account such as Hotmail, you can receive and send e-mail wherever you go.

Tipping:

As in the US, tipping is the done thing in restaurants and bars, and wages reflect the fact that staff are expected to make up their income with tips.

The service will not usually be included in the bill; as a general rule, you should leave 15% of the pre-tax total.

Hairdressers and cab drivers usually get 15%, too.

In hotels, allow C$1 a bag for porters, and C$2 a night for maid service (if you're staying somewhere very swish, make that C$2 and C$3 respectively).

BBC World Service:

Central, Mountain and Pacific Canada: 17.84/15.22/6.195/5.975

Atlantic and Eastern Canada: 15.22/9.590/6.175/5.975

Want to get a closer look at Canada? http://earth.google.com/

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