Moon Vancouver and Victoria

Kayaking around Bowen Island, driving up to Whistler in a snowstorm, chowing down on pancakes at the Elbow Room, taking high tea at the Fairmont Empress, and joining the mid-day crowd at Butchart Gardens - Andrew Hempstead has done all of this and more. Not because it's part of compiling a guidebook, but because he loves the Vancouver/Victoria region. Andrew has been writing since the late 1980s, when, after leaving a career in advertising, he took off for Alaska, linking up with veteran travel writer Deke Castleman to help research and update the fourth edition of Moon Alaska-Yukon. In the ensuing years he focused on writing about Western Canada, authoring guidebooks to Alberta, British Columbia, the Canadian Rockies, and Western Canada, as well as books to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. He has also authored a book in the "...for Dummies" series, and coauthored books to Atlantic Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as contributed to guidebooks on the Alaska, the San Juan Islands, the United States, and the Pacific Northwest. His writing has appeared in a wide variety of other media, including magazines like National Geographic Traveler, web clients that include Expedia and Alaska Airlines, and Microsoft's Automap. Andrew's library of 20,000 stock images is licensed through the website www.heejee.com to editorial, corporate, and government clients around the world. Andrew lives with his wife, Dianne, daughter Brio, and their two dogs in Banff, Alberta. When not working on his books, Andrew spends as much of time as possible enjoying the wonderful surroundings in which he lives, hiking, fishing, golfing, camping, and skiing. The website www.westerncanadatravel.com showcases Andrew's work while also providing invaluable planning tips for travellers heading to Canada.