May 23-30 is Tourism Week, an annual celebration of our tourism industry and its importance to our lives in the North.
In partnership with Northwest Territories Tourism, we are marking Tourism Week with a thank you to the many NWT residents who have supported our industry’s operators (and our territory’s overall health and safety) by Staycationing.
Memorable vacations are not always defined by how far you go. It’s what you do and who you do it with that makes them special.
Just ask Yellowknifers Dave and Sheila Kellett. They like to travel – especially to help break up the winter months. So when the travel bug bit in the spring of 2021, they decided to make their vacation a Haycation - in Hay River.
It wasn’t a hard decision to make. Hay River has a lot to offer travelers and visitors alike but according to Dave, there was one winning consideration:
“We were able to take our dogs. We had a great little cabin at Castaway Cottages. We could walk the dogs along the shoreline of Great Slave Lake which looks completely different from the South. The sunsets were pretty incredible. The Hay River ski club has great tracks, and they even have a track where you can ski with your dogs. We can’t do that at the Yellowknife ski club! We shopped at some great little stores, went to a couple of restaurants; even took a drive to Enterprise. The weekend we were there K’amba Carnival was taking place so we made sure to catch the dog races.”
Nestled on the shores of the Great Slave Lake, Hay River’s Castaways Cottages is perfectly located for the weekend break or week-long getaway. With 15 acres of shoreline property, you can enjoy an uninterrupted view of the Aurora-filled night sky in the wintertime; or beachfront camping in the summer. No matter the season, Castaways Cottages & Campground is located a comfortable 10 minutes from downtown Hay River – giving you access to the amenities but enough space for a getaway.
With its miles of accessible shoreline strewn with driftwood, picturesque camping, a full grass golf course, waterfall route and weekly Fisherman’s Wharf, Hay-cations took off last year as residents from across the NWT re-discovered the sights and sounds of Hay River. And as Dave and Sheila discovered, the town’s diversity means there’s always something to do – even in the dog days of winter.
We are inviting residents to share their Staycation experiences at Instagram.com/spectacularnwt
You can find these stories on the ITI newsfeed or read them here.