Category: Travel

Quebec’s Eastern Townships: Cycling From Montreal to Granby

We spent a week cycling around the Eastern Townships of Quebec, enjoying beautiful bike trails, parks, lakes, and delicious food and drink. Here are photos and recommendations from the first day of our Eastern Townships self-guided cycling tour. It is a pleasure cycling from Montreal to Granby, Quebec.

Begin in Montreal

Cycling from Montreal to Granby route map
Montreal to Granby

Day 1 involved a few hours at the bike shop in Old Montreal acquiring our rental bikes, getting them fitted, and gearing up with the panniers. By the time we left the city and rolled across the two bridges, it was almost noon.

Cycling from Montreal to Granby bridge selfie
Our selfie on the bridge leaving Montreal

Quebec Bike Paths

What a pleasure! We rod on bike paths almost the whole way, and they were nice paths. Well-paved, separated from the road, with good views, these bike paths are fun to ride. We are looking forward to a week of almost all separated cycling paths. For people who spend their days cycling in “lanes” marked by painted images of bicycles in Toronto, this was heaven!

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Living in Utila, Honduras

A little over 2 weeks ago, I embarked on my latest adventure: Professional Scuba training in Utila. These first two weeks have been exhilarating and overwhelming, but now I have more time to post about the experience of living in Utila.

Getting to Utila

Plane view
The view during my flight from Belize City to Roatan

I flew Toronto to Belize City to Roatan (that leg in a small 12 seater plane), spent one night in Roatan, and ferried to Utila the next day. It was a pretty uneventful trip, despite a slight delay due to torrential rains at the Belize City airport. I even met a kind Canadian who spends his winters in Roatan whose friends were picking him up at the airport and offered to drop me at my hotel since it was on their way. Gotta like friendly travelers.

You can also travel to Utila from the mainland. Many people fly into San Pedro Sula and then take the bus to La Ceiba, a coastal city which has ferries to the Bay Islands. Sometimes you can catch a plane direct to La Ceiba and then the ferry, which would be preferable. Transport within the country is cheap, but the buses are not always fast or comfortable, as is common in Central America.

Roatan

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One Night in Stellenbosch

The drive from Cape Town into South Africa’s Garden Route has to be one of the world’s most scenic drives. We spent three days driving it, stopped at beautiful parks along the sea, wineries, and a cheetah sanctuary, and determined that three days on the Garden Route and one night in Stellenbosch was nowhere near long enough.

After our kayaking adventure, our next destination was Stellenbosch, located in The Cape Winelands, the wine capital of South Africa.

Remhoogte Wine Estate
Remhoogte Wine Estate Stellenbosch
The view at Remhoogte Wine Estate

The highlight of our visit to South Africa’s famous wine region was our stay in the beautiful guesthouse at the stunning Remhoogte Wine Estate. Overlooking a lake, the winery is home to zebras, wildebeest, impala, and quite a few friendly dogs. If you spend only one night in Stellenbosch, stay there, and try to go for longer.

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