Like road trips along the Trans-Canada Highway and lazy afternoons at a lakeside campground or cottage, visiting a national park or national historic site is a classic Canadian travel experience. That's in part because they're run by Parks Canada, which is dedicated to conserving — uncommercialized — large tracts of untrammelled lands, pristine marine environments and places of historical significance.

In this issue, we highlight national parks and historic sites that are less than a day's drive away from large urban centres — and activities you might not expect to find there. Join our writers and photographers on their quest to catch the great monarch migration at Point Pelee southwest of Toronto, on a cross-border hike at Waterton Lakes south of Calgary and on a tour of natural environments being brought back to life at La Mauricie northeast of Montréal. Plus, see how history comes alive at Saint-Louis Forts and Châteaux in Québec, Lower Fort Garry near Winnipeg and along the Trent-Severn Waterway near Peterborough.

Stoke your Olympic spirit this winter with help from Canadian Geographic Travel's sporty guide to fun on snow and ice. Follow Jerry Kobalenko to Calgary's Olympic Oval for a speed skating lesson with two-time gold medallist Catriona Le May Doan, join Lisa Gregoire for a crash course in luge, skeleton and bobsled in Lake Placid, New York, and let Masa Takei guide you through Whistler and the powdery backcountry of Vancouver Island. To wind down, hit a relaxing yoga retreat outside Montréal, or hunker down and wait out the weather at a pair of cozy resorts in Nova Scotia.

PLUS: Find out when the Olympic torch relay is coming through a town near you, see how the two longest skating rinks in Canada measure up and read our expert's list of the country's 10 best sports shrines.

Head downtown on your downtime this fall to autumn adventures in half a dozen Canadian cities. Take your kids on a whirlwind weekend tour of Ottawa, cast for trophy trout in Calgary's Bow River — or cut out the middle man and feast on fish and chips in St. John's. If you'd rather sit back and watch, check out one of North American's biggest powwows in Winnipeg, Montréal's intercultural storytelling festival or the annual Atlantic Film Festival in Halifax. Then hit the highway for a backroads expedition of 10 of the country's most frightening ghost towns.

PLUS: Go eagle watching in British Columbia, hike a new section of the Trans Canada Trail on Cape Breton Island and drink local in Ontario's Prince Edward County.

Discover the hoof-dodging, treasure-hunting, thumb-hammering, guinea pig-eating, soul-nourishing world of volunteer vacations in the summer issue of Canadian Geographic Travel. Join Dawn Calleja on her helping holiday an organic dairy farm in Manitoba, Douglas Hunter at a participatory archaeological dig at Nova Scotia's historic Fort Louisbourg, Patricia Pearson at a Habitat for Humanity construction site in Prince Edward Island and Patricia D'Souza in the Peruvian Andes, where she makes like an Inca mason to help build a better cook stove for a local family. You may never vacation the same way again.

PLUS: Meet the writer-in-residence at one of Canada's top surfing beaches and read our expert's guide to the country's 10 best farmers' markets.

In this issue of Canadian Geographic Travel we celebrate the arrival of spring with a look at 25 of Canada's most spectacular provincial and territorial parks. Whether your passion is camping or canoeing, hiking or hibachi-ing, start your vacation planning right here. Writer Mark Abley visits one of the country's least explored parks, northern Saskatchewan's Athabasca Sand Dunes Provincial Wilderness Park, the most northerly expanse of active dunes in the world and a unique experience for those willing to make the trek.

PLUS: From backwoods authenticity to fine dining, visit one of Canada's 10 best sugar shacks. Maple sap-poached quail eggs, anyone?

Grab an extra pair of mitts, pull on your boots and face Canada's snowy season with a sense of adventure. In this edition of Canadian Geographic Travel trek through the white powdered hills of British Columbia's Glacier National Park with writer Lisa Gregoire and her family on a luxury lodge vacation. Combine exploration and relaxation as you ski, snowshoe and hike along with Jerry and Alexandra Kobalenko on a trip to Quebec's Chic-Chocs Mountain Lodge. Catch the stunning northern lights show in Churchill, MB or catch a fish or two on Ontario's frozen Lake Nipissing. Plus: sample the eats and treats of Banff and Canmore and warm up on the beaches and in the forests of Costa Rica.