By Jennifer Bain
Published January 12th, 2026

Bain There, Done That is Jennifer Bain’s bi-weekly column about travelling Canada in search of quirk.

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**Jasper Hinton Air co-owner and pilot Kristie Eccleston takes people to do heli-yoga on the edge of Jasper National Park in Alberta/Jennifer Bain**

So I took 81 flights last year and apparently spent 12 days and 15 hours in the air as I travelled around the world gathering travel stories.

But those admittedly crazy numbers — logged through a flight-tracking app called Flighty — didn’t track all my movements. They didn’t capture the trains, helicopters, ferries and automobiles that moved me from place to place for incredible experiences.

For that, I give you my six top 2025 travel moments here at home in Canada — and how I got them.

Doing Heli-Yoga in Alberta

**A heli-yoga experience on an Alberta mountain with Jasper Hinton Air co-owner and pilot Kristie Eccleston in Alberta/Jennifer Bain.**

I did a double take when I learned that my helicopter was going to double as my yoga instructor on a mountain in Alberta in September. But Kristie Eccleston, co-owner of Jasper Hinton Air, comes by both longstanding passions honestly. She flew us to a breathtaking piece of Crown land on an unnamed mountain and pointed us to a Parks Canada stone boundary market that signified where Jasper National Park began.

Okay, I’ll confess that I only did a couple of minutes of yoga because I couldn’t resist photographing everybody else doing their sun salutations and then walking to the edge of the mountain. On the way back, I got to sit in the co-pilot seat as we soared through the sky.

Finally Crossing Sable Island Off my Bucket List

**A lone harbour seal (photographed with a zoom lens) is spotted at the Sable Island National Park Reserve/Jennifer Bain.**

If I show you a photo of wild horses on a windswept beach by the sea, chances are you’ll correctly guess that it’s part of the famous herd that lives on Sable Island National Park Reserve off the coast of Nova Scotia.

I’ve been dreaming of visiting this hard-to-get-to park for a decade and when the invitation finally came, I got to choose between taking a helicopter or a fixed-wing plane. Luckily, I picked the chopper because the August week that I flew to Sable with Kattuk Expeditions on Vision Air, the island’s runway was flooded and planes couldn’t land. My small group gratefully explored the crescent-shaped sandbar on foot, ogling not just those amazing horses but seals, birds and all kinds of buildings and relics from shipwrecks and all the people who’ve got to live and work on Sable.

Spending A Very Remote Night on Quirpon Island

**The sun rises over the Quirpon Lighthouse Inn off the northern coast of Newfoundland and Labrador/Jennifer Bain.**

People fantasize that the Fogo Island Inn is the only thing of Fogo Island when in fact more than 2,000 people live there and I have a vacation house there. But when I spent a night in June on Quirpon Island, off the northeastern tip of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Great Northern Peninsula, I realized it was actually the deserted island that people think Fogo is.

I only stayed one night (you should stay two) at the seasonal Quirpon Lighthouse Inn, but it felt like I had the island to myself when I went for a sunrise hike. Quirpon — pronounced kar-poon — is along Iceberg Alley in whale-watching territory. Linkum Tours owner/innkeeper Ed English made sure to spin me by one lovely iceberg on the way back to shore. If sleeping in a former lightkeeper’s residence and eating communal meals isn’t your thing, you can always just sign up for a boat tour.

Romancing the Rails with Rocky Mountaineer

**Jennifer Bain enjoys the wind in her hair while on the Rocky Mountaineer/Jennifer Bain.**

I’m a contrarian so didn’t expect to love the Rocky Mountaineer simply because it’s almost too iconic and popular. I first rode the privately owned train from Banff to Vancouver in 2018. This September, I travelled from Vancouver to Jasper. Both times I enjoyed GoldLeaf service in a bi-level glass dome coach, with meals downstairs and onboard hosts upstairs that doled out drinks, snacks and stories about the history and nature we were seeing. Both times I slept in hotels in Kamloops during the two-day journey.

What’s not to love about a daytime-only train that makes sure you get to see — and not sleep through — the Rocky Mountains? What’s not to love about lemon and honey buttermilk pancakes with Okanagan stone fruit compote and Quebec maple syrup for breakfast, and an Alberta striploin with blistered broccolini, carrots, wild mushrooms and red wine jus for lunch? Expect to do a lot of waving as you pass your fellow Canadians.

A ferry ride between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland

**The cabin I shared with my son aboard the Marine Atlantic ferry between North Sydney, Nova Scotia and Port Aux Basques, Newfoundland/Jennifer Bain.**

To get to Fogo Island every summer, we fly to St. John’s or Deer Lake, rent a car, drive to a dock in Farewell and catch a 45-minute ferry. But last summer, my son and I decided to make things even more complicated and do a road trip. That journey involved nearly 6,000 kilometres of driving through five provinces and two, seven-hour Marine Atlantic ferries between North Sydney, Nova Scotia and Port aux Basques, Newfoundland.

Wisely, we splurged on tiny cabins where we could play cards, catnap and have a private washroom. The only downside was that the summer ferries sell out so it’s nearly impossible to adjust your plans. Still, we loved exploring the wild west stretch of Newfoundland between Corner Brook and Port aux Basques. And Fogo’s always worth the effort, especially when there’s a partridgeberry jam tart cone waiting at Growlers Ice Cream.

Tasting A Piece of France Off the Coast of Newfoundland

**The passenger/vehicle ferry run by SPM Ferries arrives at Saint-Pierre in Saint-Pierre and Miquelon/ Jennifer Bain.**

My Canada includes a quirky piece of France. Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, the last remaining French territory in North America, is a self-governing territorial collectivity that happens to be off the southern shore of Newfoundland. It’s so close that your cell phone often bounces between the two countries. To get there, I’ve flown Air Saint-Pierre from St. John’s and taken SPM Ferries from Fortune, Newfoundland to Saint-Pierre.

What’s the draw? Spending Euros on French pastries, baguettes, galettes and wine. This June, I took the ferry and stayed at the delightful Nuits Saint-Pierre, a five-room boutique bed-and-breakfast spot that counts the crew of CBC police drama series Saint-Pierre as guests. Highlights included a minivan/walking tour that delved into the archipelago’s bootlegging past, a Zodiac tour to see a puffin colony, and a daytrip to Miquelon for a gourmet tour that included a visit to a farm that makes goat cheese. Half the fun, though, was taking a tiny plane between the two islands on a flight that lasted barely 10 minutes.

Coming January 26: Bain There, Done That explores Jennifer’s Canadian travel wish list for 2026

Bain There, Done That - My Six Best Canadian Travel Moments in 2025