So what's great about Canada?

[CFH]

Went last year. Loved it but wouldn't want to live there. Too vast and reckon it would be too cold for me in winter.


Favourite place was Jasper - felt and looked just like the town Rambo shot up in First Blood. Met some good locals and had some decent piss ups shooting pool woth them. Really friendly. It's weird walking home and suddenly a huge elk (?) just wanders down the street. Also came across a bear (cue the gags about 'did you wipe it off and apologise ?' ) but luckily was in the car.

Went onto Vancouver and that was great place too - though wandered off course one night and ended up in the area where all the homeless are. Couldn't believe it in two minutes I went from really nice area to streets with hundreds of bag ladies and junkies on. Was watching my back there I tell you !

Then onto Vancouver Island to see the whales and grizzlies. Nice but again even more remote.

In conclusion i am staying in Yorkshire

I assume you wandered to part of the Downtown East Side. It's not really dangerous at all though, it's just really sad.

As for Vancouver Island, that's where I live and I've never found it to be overly remote. Victoria, the city I live in, has over 300,000 people and Vancouver is about 1.5 - 2 hours away. Some parts of the Island are definitely remote though.

maybe it wasn't dangerous but I panicked. I can handle 10-15 blokes attacking me no problem but now I'm late 30s I reckon I would have struggled with more than twenty thirty.

Stayed in a place called Telegraph Cove on Vancouver Island. Very remote and stank of fish ! Was good for the grizzly tour though and whales etc..

It's definitely not a nice place, and I understand that it would seem very dangerous to someone not familiar with the area and the circumstance and I certainly wasn't passing judgement on what you said. I was just commenting that, in my and many others experience, it's not a dangerous place per se, just an extremely depressing one. There was a club beneath the notorious Ivanhoe hotel where myself and some friends used to occasionally go to watch metal shows, and aside from having to avoid the discarded needles on the streets we never experienced any danger.

I've never been to Telegraph Cove, but I'd imagine it's a beautiful place. Lots of Black bears and other wild life I'd imagine.