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Pirate Adventures – Ottawa, Ontario
Badge of Awesome Communities invites you to share your favourite things to see and do in cool destinations around the world. We caught up with the folks from Pirate Adventures Ottawa — one of our featured attractions from the Ottawa, Ontario area — to learn about what they have to offer and what they think…
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Nordik Spa-Nature – Ottawa, Ontario
Relax in North America’s largest thermal spa.
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Great Canadian Bungee – Ottawa, Ontario
Enjoy the thrill of a lifetime with a 200-foot leap into the abyss.
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Experience Food tours – Ottawa, Ontario
Ottawa has become a culinary destination with some of the country’s most talented chefs. What better way to discover this than with an Experience Food Tour?
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Getaway Ideas Perfect For The Traveller Who Loves To Stay Active
If you’re in need of a vacation but aren’t the kind of guy who enjoys sitting by the pool relaxing, then you may be unsure of how to spend your time away. How about using it as an opportunity to try a new sport or to spend some time focusing on an activity that you…
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Spam, Spam, Spam! – Visiting One of The Weirdest Museums in America
Ok, so maybe you like to do kooky things, and that’s good! Life is way too short to worry about what other people have to say about your choices. But no matter how kooky you are, the chances are that you haven’t considered a trip the USA’s very own Spam museum! Well, that is all…
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To Tour Or Not To Tour: An Important Travel Question
If you’re planning a vacation, holiday or trip abroad, you may be wondering whether or not to incorporate a tour? Whether this is for the entirety of the trip or just a day or two, it’s an important travel question. So, to tour or not to tour? Let’s take a look…
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The Surreal Calm of Joshua Tree, USA
If there’s one kind of holiday destination that US has over the rest of the world, it’s the sheer splendor of its national parks. Seeing Old Faithful blow at Yellowstone has to be an item that’s included on most travelling bucket lists. It’s far from the only one, however. In this article, we’re going to…
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Lock and load at Splatzone! Paintball — Cambridge, Ontario
Keen to try paintballing but worried it hurts too much? Splatzone! Paintball‘s low-impact games in Cambridge, Ontario offer all the action — with half the welts.
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Take a Boat Trip to the Tip with Long Point Tours – Turkey Point, Ontario
Long Point: With its secluded beaches and colourful history of pirates, shipwrecks and sunken treasure, you’d half expect to find it somewhere in the Caribbean. Instead, this rare ecological gem is a short two-hour drive from Toronto, Ontario on the shores of Lake Erie.
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Discover a cool way to watch Old Faithful blow: Yellowstone National Park, USA
Jam-packed with the world’s largest collection of geysers, Yellowstone National Park literally explodes with awesomeness. No visit to the park is complete without a visit to Old Faithful, the world-famous thermal pressure cooker that spews a roaring column of boiling hot water over 100 feet in the air every 91 minutes or so.
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Go see Notre Dame Fighting Irish college football game – South Bend, Indiana
Make no mistake: I’m no sports fan. The last time I watched a full hockey game, the Nordiques were still a thing. When I get invited to a Super Bowl party, I usually have to look up who’s playing beforehand. And I still have no clue how offside works in soccer. So when my girlfriend…
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Grind it out at the Grouse Grind in Vancouver, British Columbia
Welcome to Mother Nature’s Stairmaster. On paper, the 2.9 km trail hardly seems daunting. However, when you get to the foot of the Grouse Grind and realize that it comes with its own “you might die” warnings, it starts to sink in that this might be more than a leisurely stroll.
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Bicycle around Angkor Wat: Cambodia
The world is full of awesome things to see. But oftentimes, how you see something matters just as much as what you see. This week’s Blue Marble Badge of Awesome goes to Jon Chilton, for sharing his bicycling experience around temples in Cambodia.
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Shoot Blow Darts in Japan
As the Baby Boomer generation gets older, more and more attention is being paid to “senior-friendly” activities. Your mind may automatically go to things like Bridge, shuffleboard or knitting (or Guerrilla Knitting if you’re super cool). But a rather unconventional activity is picking up steam in Japan: blow darting.
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Go on a Retreat: Washington meets WiFi in Virginia, USA
I think some people thought me strange to drive 9 hours to spend a week in Winchester, Virginia on a “writing retreat.” After all, I work from home. Couldn’t I get the same work done there? Maybe. But I feel there are many advantages to getting away from your daily routine and surroundings. Virginia proved…
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Sandboard the Dunes: Peru, New Zealand, Namibia and more
Growing up in Canada, tobogganing factored big in my childhood. Each winter the hills around Port Albert, Ontario became the grounds for epic battles with my siblings and cousins. I often felt bad that people living in warmer climates were missing out on this awesome activity. But then Ashraf Dean submitted this photo of him…
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Work abroad
Working overseas has many advantages. It looks great on a résumé. It lets you really immerse yourself in the day-to-day life of another country and culture. It’s a great way to make overseas travel affordable. It gets you out of your comfort zone and helps you grow as a person. It broadens your perspective and…
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Take a soak in the Banff Hot Springs, Alberta, Canada
I’ve never had much of a fashion sense. Most of my clothes are unfit for a blind hobo. Despite this complete ineptitude and disinterest in anything to do with fashion, I knew the moment I laid eyes on that old fashioned bathing suit in the display case at the Canadian Rockies Hot Springs in Alberta,…
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Visit the Moeraki Boulders, New Zealand
Tina Coghlan submitted this photo into the “That’s Awesome” Photo Contest of the Moeraki Boulders in New Zealand. I thought they were so cool they deserved their own Badge of Awesome post.
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Stay at the Sleeping Bulldog B&B in Seattle, WA
This is Mojo. Mojo is awesome.
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Have a beer at Oktoberfest, Germany
Prost. Schnitzel. Lederhosen. Oompah. Ziggy zaggy ziggy zaggy, oy oy oy. If these words confuse you, odds are you’ve never been to Oktoberfest. As a resident of the Kitchener-Waterloo area in Ontario for many years, I’ve attended my fair share of Oktoberfest events. If you do go, prepare to have your fill of sausage, sauerkraut,…
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Chase some cheese: Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling, Gloucestershire England
I spent a lot of time this past summer watching the London 2012 Olympics on TV. And while England put on a good show, there’s one sport I was disappointed didn’t get any coverage at all. A sport from their own backyard no less: Cheese-rolling.
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Pipe down the sun: Port Albert, Ontario
If you blink you could very well miss Port Albert. You’ll find this tiny speck on the map on the shores of Lake Huron in Southwestern Ontario. Home to such famous landmarks as the Port Albert General Store, the Inn at the Port and a fish ladder at the “old bridge,” you won’t find much…
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Sleep in a cave: Cappadocia, Turkey
I’ve slept in a lot of different places in my day. Couches, tents, floors, laundry rooms. At the foot of a volcano, in a village on stilts, on a beach, on a mountain, in a farmer’s field. Train stations, bus stations, airports. But I’ve never slept in a cave. And after seeing photos like this…
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Go tubing through the Elora Gorge, Ontario
Tubing through rapids at the Elora Gorge is awesome. Located within the Elora Gorge Conservation Area, about a half hour drive from Waterloo or Guelph, Ontario (an hour or so from Toronto), this activity offers visitors a chance to travel down the Grand River in a very cool way.
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Go “Glamping”: Long Point Eco-Adventures, Ontario, Canada
Luxury camping, zip-lining, star-gazing, mountain-biking, hiking and more make Long Point Eco-Adventures a Mecca for outdoor awesomeness.
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Shoot a friend: Flag Raiders Paintball, Kitchener, Ontario
Games like “Call of Duty” let you shoot your friends in a video game setting. Sure, it’s fun. But shooting your friends in real life with paintballs, and getting to hear them cry out in pain, is better. Way better. Welcome to Flag Raiders Paintball, soldier.
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Visit the museum of broken relationships: Zagreb, Croatia
Ah, love. The heady surge of endorphins. The joy. The companionship. The matching tattoos. The disgustingly sweet pet names that make your friends want to punch you in the throat. But of course, love and break-ups go hand-in-hand. The pain. The binge eating. The binge drinking. The sweatpants. The Sarah McLaughlin purchases on iTunes. The…
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Do a jungle tour, drink some jungle beer: Banos, Ecuador
Is it a problem that so many of my memorable travel experiences involve alcohol? I’ve already told you about the gin I shared with a chief in Africa, and the shot of whiskey I had in the Yukon that contained a human toe. For this week’s Blue Marble Badge, we head to the jungles of…
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Catch and eat your own shrimp dinner: Chiayi, Taiwan
It may not be as hardcore as hiring a ship in the Louisiana bayou to catch your own dinner. But still, the shrimp pool restaurants in Taiwan are pretty awesome. I can’t remember the name of the one I went to, (and likely couldn’t spell it if I did remember) but you’ll find these unique…
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Go for a Canyon Swing: New Zealand
My Dad built a kick-ass swing set in our backyard when we were kids. It was pretty awesome. Awesome as it was, however, it still pales in comparison to this week’s Blue Marble Badge recipient: the Shotover Canyon Swing in New Zealand.
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Ride a 400-metre Jungle Waterslide: Costa Rica
Waterslides aren’t always awesome. Take for instance the “waterslides” I used to play on as a kid: a length of cheap plastic stretched across our gently sloping lawn and a garden hose.
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Sip Gin at the Stilted Village: Nzulezo, Ghana
I’ve woken up in my fair share of strange places after a night of drinking. But looking out my window at 6 am and seeing this has got to be one of the strangest. And, incidentally, one of the most awesome.