Canada
Kananaskis Country
Alberta keeps a whole working mountain playground one range over from Banff's coaches.
Ridgelines stack west of the city in ranks that keep their distance from postcard fame. Trailheads fill with locals who know exactly why.
Kananaskis is Alberta's working mountain playground: ski hills, scramble ridges, bike valleys and ranch country sharing one sprawling map. It absorbs weekends without Banff's coaches, and its passes rank among the country's highest paved moments. Trail-ride barbecues of Alberta beef finish days the local way.
Family
Lakes, easy trails and ranch rides absorb children without Banff's crowds.
Couple
Pick an empty valley and keep it for the day.
Friends
Scramblers, bikers and idlers all find their valley on one shared map.
- Kananaskis absorbs Calgary's weekends without ever feeling tamed.
- Ski, scramble, ride and ranch country share one sprawling map.
- Its paved passes rank with the country's highest.
Boundary Ranch barbecues Prime Alberta Beef with its famous baked beans after the trail rides.
The valleys otherwise run on what the day-pack carries.
Vatnajökull Ice Caves
Iceland
Cathedral-sized ice caves of electric blue that form and collapse inside Europe's largest glacier.
Blue Mountains
Australia
Eucalyptus haze turns a labyrinth of canyons and waterfalls into a blue hallucination.
Niseko
Japan
Powder so dry and deep that falling into it feels like sinking into cold silk.
Symonds Yat
England
Peregrine falcons hunt above a river bend so tight it almost forms an island.
Niagara Falls
Canada
A river the size of a sea pours over the Horseshoe metres from the promenade rail.
Shubenacadie River
Canada
The Fundy tide charges upriver twice daily, turning a calm brown river into surfable waves.
Osoyoos
Canada
Canada's warmest lake meets its only semi-desert in a valley of vines and orchards.
Val-Jalbert Ghost Town
Canada
A seventy-metre waterfall thunders over a mill village stopped in 1927 and carefully woken again.