Discover
the best of Canada with this curated bucket list of must-see
attractions, outdoor adventures, and hidden gems. Explore iconic
landmarks, breathtaking landscapes, and unique cultural experiences
across this vast and beautiful country.
Niagara Falls (Ontario)
Stand at the brink as 3,160 tons of water plunge every second, sending cool mist across your face and a low thunder through your chest. From the Canadian side you get sweeping, cinematic views: emerald water curling over the Horseshoe Falls, rainbows drifting in the spray, and boats nosing into the churn. Neon Clifton Hill and quiet parklands add a surreal contrast to this century - old spectacle, which still feels wildly, gloriously elemental.
Banff & Lake Louise (Alberta)
In Banff National Park, jagged Rockies spear a cobalt sky while glaciers feed rivers the color of turquoise milk. Paddle the mirror of Lake Louise or watch alpenglow set Mt. Victoria aflame. Elk browse roadside meadows; pine and cold stone scent the air. Gondolas, hot springs, and trailheads fan out to jaw - dropping viewpoints that make even short walks feel epic, and long ones feel like pilgrimages.
Old Québec City (Québec)
Within Québec City’s fortified walls, cobbled lanes twist between stone façades, copper roofs, and café terraces where the smell of butter and espresso lingers. Buskers play along the promenade as the St. Lawrence glints below. Step into churches older than Canada itself, browse artisans’ ateliers, and warm up with poutine or cassoulet before climbing to the Château Frontenac’s storybook skyline, glowing after fresh snowfall.
Vancouver & the Sea - to - Sky (British Columbia)
Between rainforest and ocean, Vancouver pairs sushi bars with cedar - scented trails. Cycle the Stanley Park Seawall, then ride the Sea - to - Sky to granite cliffs, waterfalls, and the Sky Gondola’s swaying vistas. Kayakers carve glassy inlets at dawn while food trucks and craft breweries hum by night. Here, mountains, beaches, and a multicultural table collide within a single day’s wander, in any season.
Northern Lights (Yukon)
On clear winter nights in Yukon, curtains of green and violet unspool across a sky so sharp you can hear the snow’s hush. Away from town glow, the aurora pulses like breath - folding, brightening, vanishing. Warm up in a cabin, step back out, and you’ll find Orion tilted above spruce silhouettes and frost glittering underfoot: a private theater of cosmic weather that rewires your sense of time and place.
Cabot Trail (Nova Scotia)
The Cabot Trail loops around Cape Breton’s headlands, where crimson cliffs meet a restless Atlantic. Gaelic villages, fiddles, and ceilidhs animate small halls; eagles ride cliff thermals; seafood shacks steam fresh lobster. Pull - offs reveal whales arcing offshore, while fall turns the highlands copper and gold. Hike the Skyline Trail for a sunset that pours like honey into the gulf, then follow night skies pricked with stars.
Gros Morne National Park (Newfoundland & Labrador)
At Gros Morne, the Earth’s mantle rises rust - red to the surface, and fjords slice inland like flooded cathedrals. Walk the Tablelands’ alien rocks, drift beneath glacier - carved walls on Western Brook Pond, and hear pockets of music in fishing towns where clapboard houses bleach in salt air. It’s raw geology, sea culture, and big sky stitched into one unforgettable coast, best savored at an unhurried pace.
Indigenous Carving & Storytelling (Haida/Tlingit, BC)
Join a small community workshop in coastal British Columbia where carvers coax ravens, salmon, and killer whales from red cedar while elders share origin stories and protocol. You’ll smell wood shavings and cedar oil, learn why certain forms and colors matter, and see how language, song, and art interlock. It’s hands - on, respectful participation that deepens how you read totem poles and bentwood boxes afterward.
Ice Canoeing on the St. Lawrence (Québec City)
Part endurance sport, part folk tradition, ice canoeing sees teams vaulting boats across broken floes and paddling through slush between Québec City and Lévis. Suit up with guides, then learn the wild rhythm: push, jump, paddle, repeat. The river steams in Arctic cold, bells ring from Old Québec, and you finish flushed and grinning - an exhilarating winter rite that’s equal parts chaos and choreography.
Churchill Polar Bear Viewing (Manitoba)
In autumn near Churchill, Manitoba, polar bears gather on the tundra waiting for Hudson Bay to freeze. From a heated tundra vehicle with elevated windows, you watch white hulks pad across frost, noses lifted to the wind. Foxes flick by, snowy owls perch on hummocks, and the horizon feels endless. It’s humbling, safe, and guided - wildlife proximity that never loses its sense of awe and responsibility.
Algonquin Canoe - Camping with Loons (Ontario)
Slide a canoe into tea - colored lakes where pine, birch, and maple lean over mirrored water. Portage between beaver dams, camp on rock points, and listen for loons yodeling across the dusk. Guides teach efficient strokes, bear - smart food hangs, and how to read wind on ripples. At night, embers crackle and the Milky Way arches overhead - Canada distilled into paddles, campfire smoke, and silence. Dawn brings mist lifting off coves, moose tracks stamped in mud, and coffee that tastes better beside a quiet shore.
Maple Sugaring in a Québec Sugarbush (Québec)
When days warm and nights still bite, sap rises and sugarbushes wake. Walk among metal buckets and tubing lines, then step into a steamy cabane à sucre where syrup boils and fiddle tunes bounce off wooden beams. You’ll taste tire d’érable on snow, tuck into pea soup and tourtière, and see how families mark spring with ritual, sweetness, and an open - door table. The season is brief, the aroma unforgettable, and every table turns strangers into neighbors as winter loosens its grip.
Tombstone Territorial Park (Yukon)
Black - tooth mountains lance up from golden tundra, and caribou stitch distant slopes as weather scuds through four seasons in an afternoon. Tombstone feels primordial: permafrost polygons, kettle lakes, and a loneliness that sharpens the senses. Campsites sit beside wind - bent spruce; trails climb to passes where the Dempster Highway dwindles to a thread. In late August, valleys burn crimson with dwarf birch and blueberry.
Mingan Archipelago (Québec)
Along the north shore of the St. Lawrence, a necklace of limestone islets bristles with sea stacks shaped like chess pieces and toppled castles. Puffins bob in cold water; wildflowers rattle in salt wind. Kayak between arches, beach on white pebbles, and watch fog unspool off the horizon. Nights bring lighthouse beams and a hush broken only by gulls and the slap of tide. Park wardens run simple campsites, and boat operators in tiny villages can drop you on islands where you may not see another soul all day.
Fogo Island Outports (Newfoundland & Labrador)
Weathered stages teeter on stilts above green water; laundry snaps along fences; artists and fishers share kettle tea in kitchens that face the weather. Fogo’s lanes lead to berry barrens, sea - carved footpaths, and a small but fierce cultural scene. Traditional punts and ultra - modern inns coexist, honoring craft and community resilience at the edge of the North Atlantic. Come in late summer to pick partridgeberries and watch capelin roll, or in winter to feel the sharp beauty of pack ice along the shore.
Grasslands National Park (Saskatchewan)
Here the horizon is a perfect circle and the soundtrack is wind through speargrass and the chirr of prairie dogs. Bison graze in the Frenchman Valley; ferruginous hawks hang over buttes; night skies spill uncountable stars. Hike coulees patterned with cryptobiotic soil, discover tipi rings, and learn how this rare shortgrass ecosystem survives fire, drought, and time. Come prepared for sun, sudden storms, and a darkness so complete the Milky Way looks close enough to touch.
Athabasca Sand Dunes (Saskatchewan)
Far from roads, dunes as tall as cathedrals march for 100 kilometers along Lake Athabasca, rippling like hammered silk. Rare plants cling to shifting slopes; clear rivers cut green threads through gold. The silence is absolute, broken by the whisper of sand and the wingbeat of terns. It’s Canada, reimagined as desert edged by boreal forest and impossibly blue water. Reaching them requires forethought, permits, and experienced outfitters - but the payoff is otherworldly solitude and fragile beauty.
Campobello & Grand Manan (New Brunswick)
In the Bay of Fundy’s tide - lashed mouth, these islands trade fog and sun by the hour. Cliffs drop to sea caves; ferries nose between working harbors; lighthouses flash like metronomes. Walk headlands scented with spruce, scan for porpoises and whales, and linger over scallops and dulse chips. Life moves at a salt - curing pace - unvarnished, friendly, and quietly spectacular. Tide charts, ferry schedules, and weather radios are the day’s metronome; your reward is space, sea light, and tangible maritime heritage.
Sourtoe Cocktail (Dawson City, Yukon)
In a gold - rush saloon, a preserved human toe - shrivelled and storied - rests in a shot glass. Order your whiskey, listen to the captain’s gravelly oath, and steel your nerves: “You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow, but your lips must touch the toe.” It’s morbid, campy, and oddly communal; photos, cheers, and certificates seal your induction into the Yukon’s strangest club. The ritual’s been run since the 1970s, with a succession of toes and tall tales to match - equal parts dare, folklore, and fundraising.
Tidal Bore Rafting (Nova Scotia)
Where the Bay of Fundy’s colossal tide charges up the Shubenacadie River, placid mudflats transform into a roller - coaster of chocolate waves. Guides nose Zodiacs into standing rapids that appear from nowhere; you bounce, scream, and surf brown froth as eagles wheel overhead. Between sets, you squelch through warm mud like kids. It’s messy, safe, and deliriously fun - pure Fundy physics in action. Bring a change of clothes and a sense of humor; showers of silty water are guaranteed, and the grins last well past sunset.
Diefenbunker Cold War Museum (Ontario)
Built to shelter Canada’s government in the event of nuclear war, this four - story underground warren near Ottawa is a time capsule sealed in concrete. Step past blast doors into mint - green corridors, a war cabinet room, a CBC studio, and artifact - laden offices that look abandoned at 4:59 p.m., 1963. The eeriness is softened by witty exhibits and escape rooms that turn dread into curiosity. Guides unpack spycraft and civil - defense quirks with dry Canadian wit, making history feel immediate rather than abstract.
Magnetic Hill (New Brunswick)
Park on a sloped road, take your foot off the brake, and - impossibly - your car seems to roll uphill. The trick is an optical illusion created by the surrounding terrain, but the childlike wonder is real. Pair it with a nearby vintage amusement park, petting farm, or winery, and you’ve got a lighthearted stop that turns physics into family folklore and a perfect road - trip story. Even skeptics laugh, because your brain insists on magic despite the map; it’s harmless wonder you can repeat as often as you like.
Toronto (Ontario)
CN Tower EdgeWalk or LookOut views.
Insider Tip: Sunset slots sell out - book a few days ahead.
Distillery District galleries and tasting rooms.
Best Way: Go mid - week; combine with a theatre show nearby.
Kensington Market food crawl.
Good to Know: Many spots are walk - in only; bring contactless payment.
Montréal (Québec)
Plateau murals + bagel hop (St - Viateur vs Fairmount).
Insider Tip: Early morning for warm bagels and empty streets.
Mont - Royal lookout walk.
Best Way: Hike via the Serpentine path; return through Mile End cafés.
Jean - Talon Market tasting lap.
Good to Know: Peak produce July–Sept; carry small cash for quick buys.
Vancouver Island (British Columbia)
Tofino surf lesson + hot springs boat trip.
Insider Tip: Spring/fall shoulder seasons mean gentler crowds and prices.
Victoria Inner Harbour + Royal BC Museum.
Best Way: Walkable loop; add afternoon tea or a craft brewery stop.
Cowichan wine trail.
Good to Know: Many tasting rooms are family - run; check off - season hours.
• Backcountry hiking in the Rockies (AB/BC).
Tip: Start early for parking and stable weather; pack layers and bear spray.
• Sea kayaking with whales (Vancouver Island/Inside Passage).
Good to Know: Choose certified guides; fog and tides require local knowledge.
• Ski the Powder Highway (Kicking Horse/Revelstoke).
Tip: Mid - Jan–March for storm cycles; book avalanche courses for sidecountry.
• Tidal hiking at Hopewell Rocks (NB).
Good to Know: Check tide tables twice - plan to see both high and low in one day.
• Coast - to - coast seafood feast (lobster, spot prawns, oysters).
Tip: Order seasonally; ask for local wine/beer pairings to match your catch.
• Powwow attendance with respect (Prairies/Ontario).
Good to Know: Follow MC guidance; photography and regalia rules vary - always ask.
• Québec terroir tour (cheese, cider, ice wine).
Tip: Rent a car for countryside stops; many producers offer cellar tastings.
• Maritime kitchen party & ceilidh night.
Good to Know: Family - friendly; bring cash for donations and be ready to clap along.