The blog
These guides answer the questions people actually ask about getting things done locally: where to eat, what is open on a long weekend, which trades to call, and what to do on a wet Sunday. They are written for people who are going this weekend, not for people planning a trip next year.
Written and checked by
Abigail Portland
10 guides published
I rank places and say what the ranking is based on, and where a guide leans on the public map data or on what a business says about itself, it says so. Some of it is logistics: parking, opening hours, how to feed eight people on a Saturday without a booking. Some of it is me being opinionated about lunch.
The one rule I hold to is that the guides cover the whole city, including the half that is harder to write about.
Newest
Five railway tunnels cut through solid granite just north of Hope, on an easy 3.5 kilometre flat gravel round trip. Bring a flashlight, and check the BC Parks advisories before you drive out.
Notes from the loop
A guide that likes everything is useless. So I rank things, I say why, and I tell you when I haven't been back since the owners changed.
More from the blog
The newest guide sits at the top. I go back and rewrite the older ones when something changes on the ground.
Hope is a small town with an outsized free list: historic railway tunnels, a famous landslide viewpoint, more than 80 chainsaw carvings on the downtown streets, and a waterfall at the end of a short forest trail. Every item below was...
Hope does not have a major standalone lights display, and it is worth being honest about that before you plan a trip. Its Christmas lights moment is one weekend inside Fog Fest, when downtown Hope fills with a parade, fireworks, a market,...
Hope Christmas 2026: Fog Fest Foggy Little Christmas December 4 to 6, the Hope Christmas Craft Market on December 5 and 6, and the Silver Creek Winter Market.
Hope's Remembrance Day 2026: a ceremony at the cenotaph in Memorial Park, 325 Wallace Street, beginning about 10:30am on Wednesday, November 11, hosted by the Royal Canadian Legion. Free and open to the public.
Hope's Halloween is small but real: Little Monsters on Wallace on October 31, a free Rec Centre party on October 24, and where the haunted house and pumpkin patches actually are.
Finding trades, health services and everyday supplies in Hope and the surrounding canyon.
What a small canyon town can realistically offer on a Sunday, and what to plan ahead for.
Driving, parking and walking in a small canyon town on the highway, and what to plan for if you are only passing through.
Where to eat in and around Hope, for residents and for people stopping on the way through.
Tips and corrections
Somewhere I missed, or something I got wrong?
I read everything that comes in. If a place has closed, changed hands, or is simply better than I gave it credit for, tell me and I'll go back and eat there again.