Want to treat your daughter to a vacation she’ll never forget? Sign her up for a summertime Canadian hockey camp where two-time Olympic gold medalist Jennifer Botterill (or one of her national teammates) is teaching.

The camps are held across Canada (see below) and are a great way to introduce your kid to a life of fitness—and your whole family to the sport that’s practically a national obsession.

“There are girls who come from other countries that haven’t had as much exposure to hockey,” says Botterill, who once played for Harvard’s hockey team. “They go to summer camp for a week and get to play hockey. That’s kind of a neat way to do it.”

And if you’re visiting Canada in the winter—especially prairie cities like Botterill’s hometown of Winnipeg, MB—look for neighbourhood ice rinks where the kids (and maybe a few adults) are carving up the ice.

“Winnipeg holds true to that classic winter image of Canada,” Botterill says. “[As a child] I went to the community rink at the end of our street, and that’s where I started playing. They definitely have, uh, refreshing winters, so we got a lot of chances to go outside and skate.”

Botterill, who now lives near Toronto, ON, says it was a Canadian road-trip that inspired her to become a serious hockey player: her family attended the 1988 Olympic Winter Games in Calgary, AB. “It was a great family experience,” she recalls.

As an elite-level hockey player, Botterill has been lucky to see a lot of Canada. “I’ve travelled across the world,” she says, “but some of my favourite places in the entire world are right here.

“I love getting out there, hiking in Banff or Canmore in Alberta. The East Coast far exceeded my expectations; we had a training camp on Prince Edward Island, and the beauty of that place! And I’m still discovering all the lakes around ‘cottage country’ in Ontario.”

“Whenever I travel in Canada I take lots of moments to appreciate our country.”

Botterill’s Top 5 Places in Canada to:

• Learn women’s hockey with an Olympian: Just for Girls Hockey Camp, Peterborough, ON  (Botterill recently taught there); or teammate Sami Jo Small’s camps, in multiple locations across Canada.
   
• Sleep: Windermere House, Windermere, ON.
   
• Eat in her hometown, Winnipeg, MB: Meat pies at Festival du Voyageur (Feb. 12 to 21, 2010), or Mona Lisa Ristorante Italiano.
   
• Get away from it all: West Hawk Lake, Whiteshell Provincial Park, MB; or Emerald Lake, Yoho National Park, BC.
   

Stay in shape while seeing the sites: Run along the Rideau Canal, Ottawa, ON.