Also unmissable
Lake Louise & Moraine Lake
Two of the most photographed lakes on Earth, fifteen minutes apart in Banff National Park.
Banff National Park
Alberta
Headline attraction
Banff National Park & the Icefields Parkway
The single most photographed landscape in Canada and the one almost every first-time visitor wants to see. Turquoise glacier-fed lakes ringed by near-vertical limestone peaks, geothermal hot springs at sunset, the 230-kilometre Icefields Parkway running from Lake Louise to Jasper through a continuous wall of glaciers, and roadside elk on the way to dinner. Allow at least three days; five if you can.
Read the full Alberta guide
Entertainment complex
West Edmonton Mall
North America's largest shopping mall with indoor amusement parks, ice skating, and water parks.
Edmonton
For the kids
Royal Tyrrell Museum
The world’s leading dinosaur museum, set among the otherworldly badlands of Drumheller.
Drumheller, 90 min from Calgary
Adventure
Athabasca Glacier
Walk on a glacier 230 km north of Banff on the Icefields Parkway — guided ice-walks daily in summer.
Jasper National Park
British Columbia
Headline attraction
The Sea-to-Sky Highway & Whistler
Highway 99 leaves Vancouver and immediately starts climbing — the cliffs of Howe Sound on one side, the Pacific below, the snow-capped Coast Mountains directly ahead. Ninety minutes north you reach Whistler, the largest ski resort in North America in winter and an alpine-meadow wonderland in summer. Among the world’s greatest coastal drives, with stops at Shannon Falls, Stawamus Chief, and Brandywine Falls on the way.
Read the full BC guide
Marine life
Vancouver Aquarium
One of the largest and most advanced aquariums in the world, located in Stanley Park.
Vancouver
Ancient forest
Cathedral Grove
One of the most impressive old-growth Douglas-fir stands in the province — towering 250-year-old trees.
Vancouver Island
Marine wildlife
Whale Watching
See orcas, humpbacks, and gray whales along the BC coast — some of the best viewing in North America.
Vancouver Island & Gulf Islands
Classic Victorian
Butchart Gardens & Inner Harbour
Fifty-five acres of formal gardens above the Pacific, plus afternoon tea at the Empress in Victoria.
Victoria, Vancouver Island
Manitoba
Headline attraction
Churchill: polar bears, belugas & the aurora
There is nowhere else on Earth like Churchill — a small subarctic port on the western shore of Hudson Bay reachable by VIA Rail from Winnipeg or a short flight north. In October, hundreds of polar bears gather on the tundra waiting for sea ice to form. In summer, thousands of beluga whales fill the river mouth. In winter, the aurora overhead is almost nightly. The single most ecologically extraordinary destination in Canada.
Read the full Manitoba guide
Art & culture
Winnipeg Art Gallery
Western Canada's leading art museum with world-class contemporary and historical collections.
Winnipeg
Zoo & nature
Assiniboine Zoo
One of North America's most respected zoos with animals from around the world and dedicated conservation programs.
Winnipeg
Outdoor sculpture
Leo Mol Sculpture Garden
Over 200 sculptures in this lush riverside garden — the world's largest permanent sculptural garden.
Winnipeg
Wild & quiet
Riding Mountain National Park
Boreal forest, prairie and aspen parkland meet, with bison, moose, bears and the resort village of Wasagaming.
Western Manitoba
New Brunswick
Headline attraction
The Bay of Fundy & the Hopewell Rocks
The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides on Earth — the difference between high and low water can exceed 16 metres, the height of a four-storey building. At low tide you can walk on the ocean floor among the famous flowerpot rocks; six hours later the same spot is twelve metres underwater. Add the Fundy Trail Parkway, Fundy National Park, and a coastline of red sandstone cliffs that few outside the Maritimes have seen.
Read the full New Brunswick guide
National park
Fundy National Park
Acadian forest, salt marshes, the dramatic shoreline, plus 25 waterfalls and 100 km of hiking trail.
Bay of Fundy coast
Historic city
Saint John Old City Market
The oldest continuously operating farmers’ market in North America — the heart of the historic port.
Saint John
Living history
Kings Landing
A re-created 19th-century Loyalist settlement on the Saint John River with costumed interpreters.
Near Fredericton
Family favourite
Magnetic Hill & Acadian Coast
The classic optical-illusion drive in Moncton, plus the warm-water beaches and Acadian heritage of Shediac.
Moncton & the Acadian Coast
Newfoundland & Labrador
Headline attraction
Gros Morne National Park
A UNESCO World Heritage Site on the west coast of Newfoundland where you can walk on the Earth’s exposed mantle — the Tablelands plateau is one of the rare places on the planet where the rock that normally lies kilometres below the surface has been pushed up to view. Add fjords carved by glaciers, the Long Range Mountains, and the village of Woody Point and you have one of the great geological landscapes anywhere.
Read the full Newfoundland guide
First on the continent
Signal Hill & Cape Spear
Where the first transatlantic wireless signal was received in 1901, plus the easternmost point of North America.
St. John’s
Wildlife
Witless Bay Puffin Colony
The largest Atlantic Puffin colony in North America — half a million birds, plus humpback whales feeding inshore all summer.
Avalon Peninsula
Viking heritage
L’Anse aux Meadows
The only confirmed Viking settlement in North America — eleventh-century Norse longhouses on the northern tip of the island.
Great Northern Peninsula
After dark
George Street & Jellybean Row
More bars per metre than any other street in North America, plus the rainbow Victorian townhouses of downtown.
St. John’s
Nova Scotia
Headline attraction
The Cabot Trail, Cape Breton
Travel + Leisure has named the Cabot Trail one of the world’s greatest drives for thirty years running, and the verdict is correct. Three hundred kilometres of two-lane road looping the northern coast of Cape Breton Island — ocean cliffs, the Highlands plateau, fishing villages clinging to coves, moose at dawn, and roadside kitchen parties where Cape Breton fiddle has been kept alive better than in Scotland itself.
Read the full Nova Scotia guide
Postcard classic
Peggy’s Cove
The most photographed lighthouse in Canada, on a granite headland 45 minutes from Halifax.
South Shore
Working harbour
Halifax Citadel & Waterfront
Star-shaped fortress firing the noon gun since 1857, plus the most accessible working harbour in Atlantic Canada.
Halifax
UNESCO town
Old Town Lunenburg
A UNESCO World Heritage British colonial town painted in the brightest colours on the Atlantic, home of the Bluenose II.
South Shore
Culinary tradition
Nova Scotia Lobster
The world's finest lobster, fresh off the boat — experience classic Maritime seafood at its source.
Throughout Nova Scotia
Northwest Territories
Headline attraction
The Aurora Borealis over Yellowknife
Yellowknife sits directly under the auroral oval with 240+ clear nights a year — the most reliable place on Earth to see the Northern Lights. The peak season runs from late August to mid-April, and the lights are often overhead, not on the horizon. Add the houseboats of Old Town, ice roads across Great Slave Lake (the world’s tenth-largest lake), and Dene cultural experiences and you have a destination unlike anywhere else.
Read the full Northwest Territories guide
Wilderness
Nahanni National Park
One of the first four UNESCO World Heritage Sites ever designated — Virginia Falls is twice the height of Niagara.
Dehcho region
Iconic neighbourhood
Old Town Yellowknife & houseboats
A floating community of brightly painted houseboats moored to the rock shore of Back Bay.
Yellowknife
Engineering wonder
Tibbitt-to-Contwoyto Ice Road
600 km of winter road over frozen lakes and tundra — the longest ice road in the world.
North of Yellowknife
Inland sea
Great Slave Lake
The tenth-largest and deepest lake in North America — trout fishing in summer, ice fishing villages in winter.
South of Yellowknife
Nunavut
Headline attraction
Auyuittuq National Park, Baffin Island
The name means "the land that never melts" in Inuktitut. Granite mountains rising 2,000 metres straight out of the Arctic Ocean, the Penny Ice Cap (one of the last remnants of the ice sheets that covered North America), the Akshayuk Pass with its sheer rock walls, and a true wilderness reached only on foot or by boat from the hamlet of Pangnirtung. Among the most extraordinary landscapes on Earth.
Read the full Nunavut guide
Capital city
Iqaluit & Nunatta Sunakkutaangit
The Inuit cultural museum and a city of 8,000 surrounded by tundra, sea ice and walking traffic of caribou.
Capital, Baffin Island
Wildlife
The Floe Edge
The boundary between sea ice and open water in May/June — narwhal, bowhead whales, polar bears and walrus.
Pond Inlet & Arctic Bay
National park
Sirmilik National Park
Glaciers and ice caps on Bylot Island — one of the most important seabird nesting areas on Earth.
North Baffin Island
Living art tradition
Kinngait (Cape Dorset)
The most famous Inuit print-making community in the world — visit the West Baffin Co-op studios.
South Baffin Island
Ontario
Headline attraction
Niagara Falls
Six million cubic feet of water cresting the Horseshoe Falls every minute. Niagara is the most-visited attraction in Canada for a reason: it is genuinely overwhelming up close. Combine with the Niagara Parkway (Winston Churchill called it "the prettiest Sunday afternoon drive in the world"), the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, and 80+ wineries along the Niagara Bench, and you have far more than a day-trip.
Read the full Ontario guide
National icon
CN Tower & the Toronto Islands
553 metres of glass-floored vertigo, plus a ferry ride to car-free islands with the city skyline behind.
Toronto
National capital
Parliament Hill & the Rideau Canal
Canada’s gothic Parliament building and a UNESCO-listed canal that becomes the world’s longest skating rink in winter.
Ottawa
Natural wonder
Niagara Falls
Six million cubic feet of water cascading over the falls every minute — one of the world's most powerful natural attractions.
Niagara region
Theme park
Canada’s Wonderland
Canada's largest amusement park with world-class roller coasters and family attractions.
Vaughan, near Toronto
Prince Edward Island
Headline attraction
Green Gables Heritage Place & the PEI North Shore
Lucy Maud Montgomery’s green-gabled farmhouse in Cavendish is genuinely the inspiration for one of the most-read novels of the twentieth century, and the surrounding landscape — red sandstone cliffs, white sand beaches, lupins along the roadside, lobster boats heading out at dawn — is precisely as Montgomery described it. Combine with a drive of the Cavendish Coastal Trail and the Prince Edward Island National Park.
Read the full PEI guide
Engineering icon
Confederation Bridge
The longest bridge over ice-covered water in the world — 12.9 km linking PEI to New Brunswick.
Borden-Carleton
Birthplace of Canada
Charlottetown & Province House
Where the Charlottetown Conference set Confederation in motion in 1864 — the “birthplace of Canada”.
Charlottetown
PEI tradition
Church-hall lobster suppers
New Glasgow and St. Ann’s lobster suppers — the freshest seafood experience in Canada.
Across PEI
Wild dunes
Greenwich Dunes
Parabolic sand dunes 25 metres high backed by a freshwater pond — a 4 km hike from the parking area.
PEI National Park, east end
Quebec
Headline attraction
Old Quebec City
The only walled city north of Mexico — stepping inside the ramparts of Old Québec is the closest thing in North America to walking into seventeenth-century Europe. The Château Frontenac watches over the St Lawrence from atop the Cap Diamant cliff, French is the language of the cobblestone alleys, and every corner ends in something that looks like a postcard. A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985.
Read the full Quebec guide
Historic quarter
Old Montreal
Cobblestone streets, heritage buildings, galleries, and restaurants in Montreal's most atmospheric neighbourhood.
Montreal
Natural world
Montreal Biodome
Four ecosystems under one roof: tropical rainforest, laurentian forest, St. Lawrence river, and polar climate zones.
Montreal
Museum experience
Montreal Museums
World-class museums including the Biodome, Insectarium, and Planetarium in the heart of the city.
Montreal
Culinary heritage
Quebec Food Culture
From poutine to tourtière, Quebec's distinctive cuisine blends French tradition with New World ingredients.
Throughout Quebec
Saskatchewan
Headline attraction
Grasslands National Park
The only park in Canada protecting native mixed-grass prairie — the landscape that once covered the entire interior of the continent. The night sky here is a designated Dark Sky Preserve where you can see the Milky Way from horizon to horizon, free-ranging bison wander the West Block, and burrowing owls and prairie rattlesnakes live in country that feels less changed by humans than almost anywhere else south of the boreal forest.
Read the full Saskatchewan guide
National story
RCMP Heritage Centre & Wascana
The official RCMP training depot in Regina, plus North America’s largest urban park.
Regina
Hidden history
Tunnels of Moose Jaw
Historic underground tunnels connecting buildings from the Prohibition era — a fascinating piece of Saskatchewan history.
Moose Jaw
Underground exploration
Moose Jaw Heritage
Guided tours through the famous Al Capone tunnels with tales of rum-running and jazz-era history.
Moose Jaw