Baddeck, on Cape Breton Island, is a great base for the Cabot Trail, Cape Breton Highlands National Park and Louisbourg’s fortress. Easily explored on foot, Baddeck’s sole street offers an appealing array of accommodation, restaurants and stores and lovely views of Bras d’Or Lake. Take a kayak tour on the North River, visit Kidston Lighthouse or hike the national park’s trails, cliffs and coves. Back in the town, don’t miss the museum devoted to famed inventor Alexander Graham Bell.

Scuba diving, horseback riding, sunbathing... take your pick. "Provo" offers plenty for the happy couple to do, including picture-perfect coastlines to walk along, hand in hand. The island itself is relatively tranquil; try Malcolm Beach to get even further away from crowds.

Refer to Vancouver Island as Victoria Island and risk a chorus of eye-rolls from the otherwise-friendly locals. Yes, Victoria is the main city on the island, but there are many distinct flavours to its logging and fishing settlements. Food and wine enthusiasts flock to the Comox Valley farm region, while the more outdoorsy types get their fix along the remote, forested beaches of North Vancouver Island. Visit the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve at Clayoquot Sound and you’ll return full of cocktail-party factoids.

Cambrils has a well-deserved reputation as the culinary capital of the Costa Dorada. There is a veritable cornucopia of fresh local ingredients, ranging from fish and other seafood to the internationally acclaimed DO Siurana olive oil. Between the historic population center and the ports, life in Cambrils unfurls peacefully around beaches and promenades. Looking on as fishing boats glide into the harbor and discovering the Old Quarter are two of the many pleasures that await in this Catalan town.