Gap Adventures is a multi-national adventure travel company that’s been around since 1991. Since Day One they have been promoting social and eco-friendly travel to each of their many locations, which believe it or not, now includes all seven continents on Earth. Gap continues, to this day, to be the leader in eco-tourism and bringing travellers out of their shell and into the world.

As of recently not only can you experience the the thrill that Gap offers, you can do so with the benefit of Flight Centres travel consultants. They’ll be there for you, helping you make the crucial decisions needed to make your trip a successful one.

Flight Centre and Gap Adventures take care of just about everything, so the hardest part of it all is deciding where you want to go next. Gap Travel currently offers more than 1000 adventure tours, so the best thing you can do is research and ask questions. Thankfully Flight Centre makes that simple as well. You can easily browse through every tour that is offered and find out the specifics. From price, to length of time, to what you’ll see and what you’ll be doing when you’re there.

One thing I love about this partnership they have setup, is the information they have available for you. Upon finding a tour you’re interested in, clicking ‘More information’ will bring you to a page with a tour summary, details on the itinerary, the difficulty of the tour, the dates and rates, as well as a contact number which you can call if you have any other questions. For those not in a hurry, you can also inquire online, something that’s crucial in this day and age, however something that is often overlooked by booking companies.

So what am I getting at? Well, if you’re new to travel, and want to experience something a little outside the realm of normality, booking a Gap Adventure through Flight Centre can be an amazing wall to lean on while you’re adjusting to your newfound surroundings. You can never have too much help when making a big decision like travel!

Live streaming begins Saturday March 13th, 2010 at Yahoo.CBC.ca. Not only that, but the live NHL streaming will also be active through the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs! All you hockey fiends will be happy to hear that you can finally watch the NHL Live online. This is a first for a professional sports partnership to offer live online streaming, and rumour has it this might expand to include more sports in the near future.

This is life changing stuff people! We can now travel, and so long as we have an internet connection, watch Hockey anywhere we go.

Hotels

Many large hotel chains offer free wifi to it’s residents. If you’re able to get close enough to the hotel without looking too suspicious, you might be fortunate to find an unencrypted wifi signal. If it’s encrypted though, you’re going to have to either find someplace else, or find the balls to pretend you’re staying in the hotel and asking the front desk for the Wifi Key. Check out hotels like Days Inn, Travelodge, Holiday Inn, Best Western, Delta Hotels, Super 8’s, Howard Johnson Hotels (aka Hojo’s), or any other decent looking hotels.

Public Librarys

Canada’s public library system is pretty awesome. With most large cities having several locations, you’re never too far from one. Almost all public libraries will have some public computers to use the internet on for free, and many locations are beginning to offer free wifi. Particularly those that are close to Colleges and Universities. A quick google search in your area should turn up the cloesst Public Library in your area.

Coffee Shops

Tim Hortons aside, there are thousands of small locally owned coffee shops that offer wifi to it’s patrons. Order whatever’s cheapest on the menu and you can hang around. Most of the larger coffee shops such as Starbucks and Second Cup will have free Wifi as well.

Tim Hortons

Canada’s favourite coffee shop has slowly, and begrudgingly begun to put free wifi in many of it’s locations. Just ask one of the Staff and they’ll know right away whether it’s offered. It’s a bit of a hit and a miss though.

Hostels

It’s becoming more frequent that hostels offer wifi to it’s patrons. Hostels normally indicate if it’s offered on their brochures and on their website. If you don’t see it a quick phone call will let you know if the internet’s free or if they have Wifi.

Computer / Technology Shops

Many shops that offer computer repair or sell computers and technology have free wifi to offer. Check your local Best Buy, FutureShop, and particularly any Apple Store. You’re best bet is at an Apple Store though, I haven’t come across one yet that doesn’t offer it.

Fast Food Chains

This one’s a head scratcher, but I’m not one to complain about free Wifi. Many Fast Food joints are starting to offer wifi. Check McDonalds first (read more), then try A&W, Wendy’s, Dairy Queen, or any other store that’s prepared to sell you burgers and fries.

Large Apartment Buildings

If you have any morals against hopping onto somebody else’s Wifi signal, this one may not be for you. But for those who don’t care, hang out around a large apartment building and you’re sure to see a whole list full of signals. You wouldn’t believe how many people leave their wifi signals unencrypted.

Universities

Take a walk or drive through campus and you’ll probably find an unsecure Wifi hotspot somewhere. Check the dorms and the library first. Universities these days are getting pretty secure about this kind of stuff, so you might want to leave this as a last resort, unless it’s real close by.

Office buildings

Like Universities, most offices remain pretty secure. But if you’re desperate and you’ve got time, they might be worth giving a try. Smaller business’s tend to be a lot less secure than the larger ones.

Free Wifi Services

Many larger cities have begun to offer free wifi throughout their cities. Keep in mind they are usually a little spammy, with lots of ads and what not, but with a good ad blocker, they’re perfect in a pinch. Check out Wireless Toronto for details

Downtown City Centres

Many large cities offer Free Wifi in the downtown core of it’s city. They are usually unsecure and always busy. Expect slow speeds and intermittent connections.

Campgrounds

Believe it or not some of the larger campgrounds offer free wifi. You’re best bet are ones with RV and Motorhome facilities. If it’s just a piece of land in the bush, you’re probably out of luck. But a quick phone call will reveal if it’s offered.

**If you’ve got any other tips or locations you’d like to reveal, feel free to post a comment and let the world know.

CTV Live Olympic Video Feed

Click image to enlarge!

Seeing as I live in Canada I cannot confirm if this will work in any other countries. Make sure your computer has Microsoft Silverlight installed, head to the CTV Video section and you should be able to catch the events live. If you look in the photo the green arrow indicates where you’ll end up needing to click. Take a close look at the big arrow, there will be a Red Box there with whatever is currently airing live. I’ve got it on right now, watching Canada rock the rink in Speedskating. Woop!

**Update: Just found out if you go to CTV’s Listings they’ll link you up with whatever station is broadcasting the Olympics Live Online. Which is extra handy.

NBC Live Olympic Video Feed

Live Olympics Feed for Americans Only

I just did a quick look to see if I could get connected with NBC’s Live video feed. However like Hulu, NBC has let me down. Turns out they won’t let international viewers take a peek at their intense content. But if you’re in the States, or if you want to bother setting up a proxy, head to the NBC Video Section and give it a whirl.

3rd Party Olympic Streams

I played around with these and had no luck. Just a lot of ads and spam. However according to lifehacker and some of the comments on these 3rd party sites, people have managed to get them to work. I read a post on one of them that their website crashed recently from all the traffic, so it might be a hit and a miss until they sort their website out. If the first two fail you then you should give these a try.

• Watch Vancouver Olympics
• Watch Olympics Online

Head to the Pub

If all else fails, find yourself at a sports bar or pub anywhere in Canada or the US and there’s a good chance you’ll be able to find at least one TV with the Winter Olympics playing.

Best of luck people, hopefully by the next Olympics, streaming video will be all the rage and we won’t have to fight so hard to figure this stuff out. Unfortunately ’til then, we’ll have to settle with what we’ve got. Which is a couple streams, and some archive videos posted within 30-45 minutes of the event finishing.

Photo courtesy of Wili

For traveling couples, the thought of spending a night together in a hostel may not be the height of their romantic lifestyle. However, hotels have a tendency to be expensive. But if you do enough digging, you can find last minute hotel rooms for the cost of a double room in a hostel. Using RatesToGo, RedTag, or CAA,  you should have no problem finding a last minute hotel for under 70 dollars in any major city in Canada, however a little luck can make all the difference.

As a backpacker, it sometimes feels like cheating when you’re comfortable and have the ability to spread out in your own space. It’s way too easy to grow accustom to being in a cramped dorm. However, if you’ve been on the road for months, sometimes decompressing in a private room is all you need. I’ve personally used RedTag along with CAA several times without any problems. These hotel deals are fairly easy to find, you just need to set aside a few minutes to search through some websites to find the best deal, along with the best location.

Remember that if none of those engines turn up with any good deals, hostels and backpackers tend to have some good doubles and ensuites. However during the peak season you may notice they are booked up. So plan a couple days in advance just to be safe.

Our Hostel Booking Engine can be a great tool to use for planning out your next backpacking trip around Canada, especially during the peak seasons when hostels can fill up in no time at all. So book ahead or simply use our engine to find out the cost per night at the hostel of your choice, and you should be well on your way to having a great time backpacking across Canada.

Click Here to browse through hostels you can book online

The iPhone Camera is one of those tools I find myself using almost everyday. Sometimes I’m snapping a picture of the scenery, sometimes some buildings, other times I’m just grabbing a stealthy snap of the ‘Perfect 10‘ I saw on the weekend. While I tend to go a little crazy sometimes with pictures, I find myself angry on occasion just over small things. It always seemed as if the iPhone Camera was missing something. Then came ‘The GorillaCam’. It has the abillity to turn your semi-awesome iPhone Camera into a fully-awesome iPhone Camera. Some of it’s most notable features include:

• Self Timer – A great tool to have for catching those group photos or scoring a shot of your sweet boy-band pose. You’ll probably want the Gorillamobile Tripod for this, unless you’re a master of leaning your phone against Pillows or books.
• Unlimited Rapid-Fire – With the GorillaCam app you can get snap-happy with a sweet 1.6 shots per second. Just click & hold your shutter button and you’ll find yourself telling your subjects, “You’re a tiger, grr”
• Grid Overlay – Overlay an grid to help create more pleasing photos to the eye using that magical “rule of thirds”.
• Time-Lapse – One of my favourite features, take multiple photos spaced at an interval of your choosing. Perfect for getting some cool shots of the clouds moving, cars going by, or actually cattching that action shot you’ve been trying to nail with the old school iPhone camera.
• Auto-save – This extremely handy feature allows you to keep firing away while your photos are being saved in the background. No more holding your phone up waiting between shots.
• Bubble Level – Level out your shots everytime. Great for lining up your photos horizontally and vertically.
• Read more features at the GorillaCam website

These features are all trumped by the best feature of all. It’s free! It’s like they read my cheap mind. Thank you GorillaCam. You rock my world, and my phone.

Download the GorillaCam iPhone App here

For all those Facebook users, check out Mile High Flyer, it is THE application to have to find cheap flights for your friends. And who knows, maybe if they like you enough they’ll actually book the flight and say hello!

Either way, print it off, it should make having a case of the packing-worries a thing of the past.

Click Here to View The Ultimate Packing List

Each hostel comes with it’s own description (in 5 different languages) as well as photos of the hostel that is currently selected. You can also use the applications built in Google Maps feature which will help plot exactly where the hostel is. Once you’ve gone through the booking process, you also have the ability to save the booking in offline mode, which will allow you to view your bookings should you be somewhere with no cell phone reception or Wifi service.

The Hostel Hero iPhone application is very simple to use, and hostels are continuously being added into the application. Whether you’re backpacking through Asia, or traveling Canada on a budget, this program could very well save you some money as well as headaches.

View a Demo of the program below:

Download Hostel Hero here