The 11 Best Travel Experiences in Canada

Hidden in the Valley of the Ten Peaks in Banff National Park, Moraine Lake is fed by glacial meltwater that gives it its extraordinary turquoise colour.

The classic view from the Rockpile overlook, with the lake reflecting the surrounding peaks, appeared on the Canadian twenty-dollar bill.

Established in 1885, Banff is Canada's oldest national park and one of the world's most spectacular.

Turquoise lakes, ancient glaciers, hot springs, abundant wildlife, and the postcard town of Banff itself make this an unmissable destination in the Canadian Rockies.

Lake Louise is the Canadian Rockies at their most theatrical: a milky turquoise lake framed by pine-clad ridges, with Victoria Glacier hanging at the far end and the famous red canoes gliding out from the boathouse dock.

The colour is real, glacial rock flour in the meltwater, and it shifts with every hour of light.

Easy lakeshore paths and grand teahouse hikes ring the water.

The Icefields Parkway runs 232 kilometres between Lake Louise and Jasper through the Canadian Rockies, tracing the Continental Divide past turquoise lakes, hanging glaciers, and the vast Columbia Icefield.

Peyto Lake's overlook and the Athabasca Glacier, reachable on foot or by ice-explorer vehicle, are signature stops, while roadside pullouts deliver mountain views throughout.

Bears and bighorn sheep often appear near the road at dawn and dusk.

A sub-Arctic town on the Hudson Bay coast known as the polar bear capital of the world, where bears gather each autumn waiting for the sea ice to freeze.

Specially built tundra vehicles bring visitors safely within metres of wild bears, and the same stretch of coast offers beluga whale watching in summer and reliable northern lights viewing in winter.

No road connects Churchill to the rest of Manitoba.

The walled heart of Quebec City is the only fortified colonial city north of Mexico still standing, its narrow cobblestone streets climbing from the St.

Lawrence River up to the castle-like Chateau Frontenac hotel.

Founded by French settlers in 1608, the Old Town's stone houses and ramparts earned it UNESCO World Heritage status, and the Dufferin Terrace boardwalk gives sweeping river views.

A glass-towered harbour city wedged between the Coast Mountains and the Pacific, where downtown ends abruptly at the seawall and North Shore peaks rise directly across the water.

Stanley Park's rainforest and shoreline path wrap the downtown peninsula, while Granville Island's public market sits a short ferry hop across False Creek.

Vancouver pairs an outdoor-focused lifestyle with skiing, hiking and beaches within a short drive of downtown.

VIA Rail's transcontinental flagship crosses Canada in four days aboard 1950s stainless-steel dome cars, from Toronto through the Canadian Shield and prairies into the Rockies at Vancouver.

Glass-domed Park cars let passengers watch scenery from above the roofline, and Prestige cabins include their own bathroom and picture windows.

The appeal is less one view than the sheer, unhurried scale of the country passing by.

A former limestone quarry on Vancouver Island transformed over a century into 22 hectares of themed display gardens, from a sunken formal garden to Japanese and Italian sections.

The National Historic Site draws more than a million visitors a year and stays in bloom nearly year-round, with fireworks and illuminated evening walks through the summer season.

Niagara Falls sits on the border between Ontario and New York State and comprises three waterfalls: the Horseshoe Falls, the American Falls, and the Bridal Veil Falls.

The Canadian side offers the most dramatic panoramic view of the Horseshoe Falls, which at 57 metres tall and 670 metres wide is the most powerful waterfall in North America.

A small fishing village on Nova Scotia's rocky Atlantic coast, built around one of Canada's most recognisable lighthouses, perched on wave-smoothed granite boulders above the open ocean.

The working harbour still holds lobster boats and fish shacks alongside the crowds, and a short walk along the shoreline rocks gives open views out to sea.

Waves can sweep the outer rocks without warning.