The mild summer cruise that glides into the epic Great Bear Rainforest ...Middle East

If making your way through Athens in 40°C heat to board a huge cruise ship destined for equally sweltering destinations around the Med sounds like a holiday in hell, there are alternatives.

Of course there are. But specifically, if you want a cooler summer cruise, your answer lies in the vast wilderness of British Columbia – a land awash with boat-fresh seafood, hulking grizzly bears and breaching humpbacks.

“We really do offer cool cruising, a real tonic if you find the temperatures too much elsewhere,” says mate Carmen (it’s all first names on the MV Swell) as she welcomes me aboard with a smile. A breeze ripples across our bow as we ease out of the marina at Kitamaat, 650km north-west of Vancouver, into the pristine Douglas Channel.

It’s late afternoon and the mercury is just touching 15°C.

“We like it this way,” says Jane, one of my fellow passengers and a native of Vancouver Island. “My husband and I used to fly south into the US or Caribbean on holiday; to Europe too. But now we prefer heading north where you’re not plagued by the same heat and humidity.”

This 88ft-long, charmingly converted old tugboat is operated by Canadian company Maple Leaf Adventurers as a boutique expedition ship for just 12 guests.

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Canada's epic wilderness that's quietest and most spectacular before summer

Along with Jane and her husband Ross, we’re accompanied by an American family and two Germans, who tell me they’ve chosen BC instead of “overpriced and much-too-hot Croatia”.

But avoiding the deadly heat in Europe isn’t the only reason to join a cruise on this side of the ocean. The six-night “Great Bear Rainforest and Kitlope” voyage delivers much more.

What really comes across on this cruise is a deep respect for First Nations people and a genuine celebration of their culture. “We are very serious about both respecting the First Nations and also opening a window for guests into their culture,” says the onboard naturalist, Ethan.

As we enter Xenaksiala lands, he reads a passage from a book written by elder Cecil Paul on the magical Kitlope – a river, a lake and the name given to the area – as part of a small ceremony.

Over the week the crew gently encourage us to read the book, which illuminates the Kitlope and the First Nations struggle to establish a protective conservancy here, which was achieved in 1996.

They also ask me not to publish locations of the much-­revered totem poles we encounter, for fear of them being found and desecrated.

The cultural insight provides depth to the cruise, in tandem with epic wildlife. I’ve never seen a bear in the wild before, but we encounter a brace of these majestic “guardians of the forest” (as Cecil Paul calls them) on the first day, hulking along the banks of the Douglas Channel.

Calling it a channel is something of a misnomer; rather than being a single waterway, it has lots of arms and legs. It’s part of one of the world’s largest fjord systems, which sits largely within the Great Bear Rainforest.

During our voyage an array of wildlife appears: soaring bald eagles, splashing Dall’s porpoises, barking sea lions, wild goats and deer – whales too. I sight humpbacks on three out of the seven days.

We stop at Gil Island’s Cetacea Lab at Whale Point, where founder Hermann Meuter tells us about his remarkable work monitoring the whales of British Columbia as a humpback sleeps like a pet dog in the bay behind him. I’m certainly not missing the Med. The idyllic scenery around Gil Island is typical of the Great Bear Rainforest we’re exploring.

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I go on two family cruises every year - these are the best for summer

Mountains frame the scene with a cinematic grandeur, giving way to forest-shrouded slopes that tumble steeply towards waters that veer from cobalt to emerald. Ethan explains that while temperate rainforest like this was once abundant around the world, precious little survives today.

Great Bear’s 6.4 million hectares are home to numerous tree species, including Sitka spruce, western red cedar, western hemlock and amabilis fir, some examples of which are 1,000 years old.

Kitamaat is a long way to come for a cruise (an almost 10-hour flight from the UK to Vancouver, another two-hour flight to the city of Terrace and a 45-minute drive from there), so, back on dry land, I tag on a weekend in Vancouver.

Not only is it BC’s biggest city, but surely Canada’s most engaging and cosmopolitan, too. Not to mention temperatures top out at around 23°C in summer. Hemmed in by mountains on one side and the Strait of Georgia on another, the city is outdoorsy and active.

Vancouverites spend their spare time hiking, cycling and bashing around on boats. I lose a morning to Stanley Park, enjoying a dip in the water and a hike through its surprisingly thick red cedar, bigleaf maple and Douglas fir woodland. A bracing RIB ride with Sea Vancouver at speeds of up to 30 knots has me reaching for my jacket.

The food scene, meanwhile, has been awarded a constellation of stars since the Michelin Guide launched here in 2022. At one-starred Published on Main, I take a bar seat and savour the freshest local produce – from Coho salmon and Dungeness crab to dry-aged Fraser Valley duck.

I get chatting to the restaurant’s manager, Aaron Sayomac, who praises BC both for its great-value and fuss-free dining, and for its climate. “British Columbia is cool in every way,” he says – and it’s hard to disagree.

How to get thereBritish Airways and Air Canada both fly from Heathrow to Vancouver; the latter flies onward to Terrace, a 45-minute drive from Kitamaat.

How to cruise thereMaple Leaf Adventures offers cruises in British Columbia aboard the Swell and two sister ships, sailing yacht Maple Leaf and cruiser Cascadia. The next Kitlope trips take place in June 2026 – book ahead as they sell out well in advance. From C$8,033 (£4,330) including fees and a C$200 (£107) sustainability tax.

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