From west to east, here are our picks for Canada’s top 10 wildest, woolliest, gotta-do-it-now adventures:

Five minutes. That’s the sum total of the Arctic footage in Disneynature’s new eye-popping, globe-spanning documentary “Oceans,” released on Earth Day (April 22, 2010).

So, OK, maybe the Caribbean is the first thing that comes to mind when you think beaches. But don’t forget about Canada! You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the lovely shorelines we’ve got in the True North. Here’s your starter list:

The first time I got invited to a powwow, I was both curious and surprised—my First Nations friends tend to joke with me about being “church candle white.” But when I arrived at the National Indian Cultural Conference at Duck Lake, SK, and was welcomed as Susan Muskrat, in a circle of people with names

To get a real taste of the local scene, I look for joints that have been around a while—and show it. You know, hometown bars with peanuts on the floor, sticky chairs and no elbow room. Character bars with strange art. Or flat-out dives where live music still matters and the locals keep it on the down low. Here are a few of my old (and new) favourites:

It’s pitch black, cold as all get up and I’m standing in the middle of an empty parking lot in Canada’s remote Northwest Territories—clutching a Tim Hortons hot chocolate for warmth and waiting for the show to start.

Canada owes a lot to Quebec’s extraordinary culture of food—its cheeses, foie gras and poultry are among the best in the country. Its organic farms are celebrated.

TORONTO, ON

“Nobody who has lived to prove it,” was one response I got when I asked on Facebook if anyone had ever gone swimming with beluga whales. Another reply: “I’m figuring you’d need a really crazy dry suit for that. They’re super cold water ghosts, yeah?”