Best Places to See in Canada
Discover Canada’s most beautiful places with our guide to exploring the country’s stunning natural and city landscapes. We will take you on a journey through some of the most breathtaking scenery.
This post provides an index of our ready-made, map-based itineraries by geographic area within Canada. Each guide provides in-depth advice and a photographic odyssey. They are a valuable resource for planning your upcoming trips.
Author & Photographer: George Mitchell
Our recommendations are not influenced by affiliate links – we have none. Our advice is based on extensive experience driving across Canada as well as travelling for three years around the world.
All of our recommendations are top-rated by Google Maps Ratings, which is based on everyone, not just tourists. Each place in our custom Google Maps is appended with a Google Maps Rating (G0 to G5).
British Columbia Itineraries
The area of British Columbia (BC) is 7% bigger than France and the UK together, 21% larger than Turkey, 2.2 times the size of California, and 40% bigger than Texas!
Vancouver and Southern Itineraries
Vancouver may have the best panorama of any coastal city in the world. It’s also one of the two most ethnically diverse cities since over 50% of the population is foreign-born.
The Sea-to-Sky Highway (G4.9) is the second most scenic road in Canada. Highway 99 travels along the misnamed Howe Sound. It is actually a gigantic fjord. The highway provides gorgeous Porteau Cove views (G4.8), the Sea-to-Sky Gondola (G4.7), waterfalls (G4.7), and hikes. The highway takes you inland to the Whistler ski resort with its’ Peak-2-Peak Gondola. Few tourists continue on to the spectacular Joffre Lake glaciers (G4.8), Duffey Lake (G4.7), and Lillooet (G4.7).
Victoria Itineraries
Victoria, the capital city of BC, has the best climate. This is the city of flowers and gardens, views and volcanoes! It’s one of our favourite places. Victoria may just be the best small city to visit in all of North America.
Future posts will cover Pacific Rim NP, Tofino, Ucluelet, Cathedral Grove (G4.8), Parksville, Nanaimo, and Salt Spring Island (G4.7).
Northern BC Itineraries
Northern BC is 60% of the total area of BC. It is home to 256,977 people in an area 3% bigger than France and 34% bigger than California!! While there are very few residents, the best part is that there are even fewer tourists. Don’t miss Barkerville Historic Park (G4.7), Fort St. James National Historic Site (G4.7), Bear Glacier (G4.8) and the Nisga’a Museum (G4.7).
Rocky Mountain Itineraries
For nature and scenery, the Canadian Rockies are THE must-see of Canada. Calgary is the closest gateway city if you are flying. Here are some of the itineraries we have triaged from living in Alberta for a long time. The Rocky Mountains span both BC and Alberta.
Prairies Itineraries
The Prairies refer to the vast grassland region that spans Alberta (AB), Saskatchewan (SK), and Manitoba (MB). Altogether, these three provinces are the size of Mexico! I have also included Thunder Bay in far Western Ontario (ON). Here are the places you should see as you drive across Canada:
Yukon Itineraries
The Yukon (YT) is a territory of Canada in the Arctic. The Yukon is 14% bigger than California and 9% smaller than Spain! All this wilderness space comes with only 36,000 people. Are you ready for a very different experience in the Great North? The Yukon is a great place to connect with First Nations people. The term First Nation is used in Canada rather than aboriginal or a reserve. Twenty-three percent of the population of the Yukon is Indigenous. They have welcome centres and offer hosts to meet and connect with you.
Central Canada
Ontario
Ontario is the second-largest province in Canada. It is about 94% of the size of Colombia or of the total area of Spain and France.
There are many more places we have not yet blogged about, like Ottawa with its Neo-Gothic Parliament buildings (G4.6). Below Parliament Hill, along the Ottawa River, is my favourite city walk, the Trans-Canada Trail (G4.5), which leads to the Rideau Canal (G4.7).
The ByWard Market area (G4.4) is where tourists and locals go out to eat. I thought it was a fad that Ottawa has a lot of Irish pubs. I only recently realized that this was because 19% of the Ottawa population is Irish Canadian! Two other places worth visiting are Champlain Lookout (G4.8). Gatineau Park (G4.7) is where you can see beautiful autumn leaves during the Fall Rhapsody Festival. The other place is the superb Canadian Museum of History (G4.6).
Toronto is famous for its food experiences, CN Tower (G4.6), Royal Ontario Museum (G4.7), Distillery District (G4.6), St. Lawrence Market (G4.6), and Toronto Island (G4.7).
Quebec
Québec is the largest province in Canada, covering an area of 1,542,056 km². It is about the same size as Mongolia or the total area of Texas, California and Montana in the USA!
Montréal is famous for its food experiences, Notre-Dame Basilica (G4.7), and Mont Royal Belvedere (G4.8). Quebec City, with the most European architecture and atmosphere in Vieux-Québec (G4.9) and Montmorency Falls (G4.7), Saguenay Fjord (G4.8), and Gaspé Peninsula (G4.6): Percé Rock (G4.8) and Forillon National Park (G4.8).
Maritime Provinces
“Eastern Canada” includes Ontario and Quebec. So the term “Maritime Provinces” means the Atlantic Coast. It includes New Brunswick (NB), Nova Scotia (NS), Prince Edward Island (PE), and Newfoundland & Labrador (NL). Here you will find the friendliest people. The total area of these four provinces is nearly the same size as France and 5% bigger than Thailand.
New Brunswick
New Brunswick offers the Fundy NP (G4.8), Hopewell Rocks PP (G4.7), Reversing Falls of the Bay of Fundy (G4.2), Saint Andrews, the Hartland Covered Bridge (G4.7), and Kouchibouguac National Park (G4.7).
Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island (PE) has PEI National Park (G4.8), Cavendish Beach (G4.7), Victoria-by-the-Sea, and Point Prim Lighthouse (G4.7). Green Gables Heritage Place (G4.5) is the fictional home in the famous book, Anne of Green Gables. But the most unique feature is that the whole province has red rocks, soil, and beaches. Even the roads are red.
Nova Scotia
The top must-sees in Nova Scotia (NS) include the Cabot Trail (the coastal road G5.0) and the Skyline Trail (a hike G4.7) located in Cape Breton Highlands NP (G4.9).
Another must-see in Nova Scotia is Fortress Louisbourg National Historic Site (G4.8). After that, be sure to include Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site (G4.6), Halifax, Peggy’s Cove Lighthouse (G4.8), Lunenburg (G4.7), Kejimkujik NP (G4.8), and other seaside scenery…
Newfoundland & Labrador
Newfoundland (NL) offers St. John’s: Signal Hill National Historic Site (G4.8), Gros Morne NP (G4.9), Conception Bay (G5.0), Witless Bay (G4.7), Cape Spear Lighthouse (G4.8), L’Anse aux Meadows (G4.8), Bonavista Peninsula, and iceberg, whale and puffin watching.
Final Comments
This is a set of many itinerary options across Canada. The places are all highly rated by the people, as shown by the high Google Maps ratings. I hope this will make you realize how you can only see one region in a short vacation trip. We travelled 19,000 km (11,806 miles) from Ottawa to the Yukon to Vancouver and back in 2017. We spent three months!
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Itinerary Maps
We have developed a custom Google map that provides an instant itinerary for each post. The link to the map is found within each post. We pinned all the places mentioned in the post, appending the Google Rating to the name. We have found that the Google Rating is more reliable than TripAdvisor or other sources. This is probably because Google Maps includes the opinions of locals and not just tourists.
Google Maps Ratings
Google Maps provides a rating from 0 to 5 for all sights, hotels and restaurants (but not cities). All of our recommendations are appended with the rating (prefixed with a G) from Google Maps. As it is based on feedback from tourists and locals, it is much more reliable than travel booking websites. We consider a score of 4 to 4.39 to be Very Good; 4.4 to 5 to be Excellent.
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