Canadian Snowmads
There’s a whole winter beyond the usual route.
Snowmads is a community for Canadians exploring the possibility of spending part—or all—of winter beyond the United States. Somewhere warm. Somewhere interesting. Somewhere you could settle in for a while.
Why we started Snowmads
We’re Stephen and Paula, Newfoundlanders, travellers and the people behind Canadian Snowmads. We started with a question that seemed worth sharing: what could winter look like if Canadians explored more of the world’s long-stay possibilities?
A few weeks or months abroad asks different questions from a short holiday. You need somewhere to buy groceries, do laundry, get around, find care if you need it and build a routine you actually enjoy. The view matters. So does the walk home with the shopping.
Snowmads brings those questions together—and gives Canadians a place to compare notes with people asking the same things.
Stephen
Stephen brings around thirty years of international travel and industrial safety training, alongside his work in travel risk management. His approach is practical: prepare well enough to enjoy the freedom that travel offers.
Paula
Paula brings a background in nursing and medical education alongside her work as a travel advisor with True North Travel. She helps turn destination ideas into practical travel plans, with attention to the details that make a longer stay work.
What makes someone a Snowmad?
You don’t need to sell your house, become a digital nomad or spend six months away. You might be planning your first extended winter trip, comparing a few weeks abroad with staying home, or looking for a different destination after years of winter travel.
Couples, solo travellers, experienced winter residents and people still wondering whether they could do this all belong in the conversation. Curiosity is a good starting qualification.
What you’ll find here
Destination rankings
Place-by-place assessments of how winter living might work for Canadians, with practical strengths and compromises alongside the score.
SnowMatcher
A way to compare destinations against your own priorities and build a shortlist worth investigating.
Planning and shared experience
Useful questions, practical preparation and lessons from people turning a winter idea into everyday life abroad.
How we approach the rankings
We assess destinations rather than treating an entire country as one winter experience. A city, an island and a coastal corridor can offer quite different lives, even within the same country.
The public scores are editorial opening assessments, not scientific measurements, guarantees or claims that we have personally lived in every destination. Some older reports use different category sets; read the individual scorecard when comparing them. SnowMatcher’s preference-based matching is separate from those public totals.
We value useful corrections and firsthand experience. The number starts a conversation; the details help someone make a better decision.
A Canadian point of view
“Wintering Beyond the USA” describes our focus. We explore the places, practical questions and opportunities Canadians encounter when they choose a different winter route. It gives the community a shared starting point.
Our aim is an informed, welcoming conversation. Members’ budgets, mobility needs, interests and comfort levels vary. We make room for those differences and ask people to bring helpful experience rather than assumptions.
And then there’s Gordo
Gordon W. Snowmad is our enthusiastic companion in the search for a better winter. He has strong opinions about bakeries, occasionally questionable research methods and an impressive ability to turn a destination assessment into lunch.
Same latitude. Better attitude.
Travel planning and commercial relationships
Paula’s travel-advisor services through True North Travel are separate from the site’s editorial opening scores. If you want help investigating travel arrangements, visit Ask Paula. The help available and any fees or booking terms should be confirmed before you commit.
Where content includes an affiliate or commercial relationship, we aim to identify it so you can understand the relationship when considering a recommendation.