Find out when to visit Canada and where to go
Choose your own adventure
SPONSORED CONTENT
“The Great White North”, “maple leaf country”, “the land of lakes and rivers” – as you might guess from how people describe Canada, its dramatic landscapes take a seasonal journey from ivory through to vivid colour. In winter, its incisor-shaped peaks gleam white and onyx like a lithograph. In spring and summer, the thaw brings out the deepest blues and greens in lakes, while whales swim up the great rivers or hug the sea-stacked coastline. Autumn means bear-filled forests and prairie lands turning from green to sunburnt orange and ruby red. With such a wild and wondrous country, it can be hard to know where to begin. How about a quiz, then, designed to help you find out which epic Canadian adventure is right for you? When you’re done, contact Audley Travel, which has 25 years of experience and a five-star rating on Trustpilot, to help you piece together the perfect experience. One of its travel specialists will first listen to what you enjoy, before creating a raft of suggestions for your perfect trip, then finessing it to the finest detail. Even after your holiday begins, you can call on Audley and its local partners for advice, day or night. Just click below to start…
SHARE
words: Mike MacEacheran
illustrations: Kerry Hyndman
EXPLORE AUDLEY
START QUIZ
Flaming autumn by horseback, the aurora borealis on the tundra or winter whale encounters? Take the quiz that helps you choose
secondary text for headline
Which do you prefer?
NEXT QUESTION
SNOWY WONDERS
AUTUMN COLOURS
FINE WEATHER
Canada’s unfathomably black night sky, evergreen forests and iron-grey mountains come riotously alive in winter. It is the ultimate season for wonder, with snow-laden woodlands from Alberta to the Yukon taking on the whoosh of dogsleds and skiers, while the northern lights colour the heavens. And whether you prefer your heart in your mouth, or feet on the ground with eyes on the horizon, bucket-list adventures are available through Audley all season long.
x
When autumn arrives, Canada’s woods and forests become ablaze with colour – and the wildlife provide a spectacle to match it. In the west, black bears and grizzlies, keen to fatten themselves up before winter, patrol riverbanks and inlets to gulp down a sashimi banquet of sockeye salmon. In Ontario, meanwhile, the lake-filled interiors glow red, orange and gold, creating a picture perfect backdrop for a life-affirming moose safari out on the water.
Horse riding trails roll through grasslands; hikers climb through pine for horizon-busting views; out in the ocean, humpbacks breach while kayakers paddle to empty beaches. In the golden days of spring and summer, there is always an outdoor adventure waiting. Channel the spirit of a rancher on the Saskatchewan prairies, or take a more relaxing path to adventure on a whale watching cruise on Québec’s Gulf of St Lawrence. The triumph of a Canadian holiday in such good weather is that adventure is always in the air.
WINTER ADVENTURES
NORTHERN LIGHTS
To see the aurora borealis dance across the night sky is a bucket-list experience. But what other delights await? The tundra forest of the Yukon is the breeding ground of ginormous reindeer herds and, after a spirit-soothing drive from Whitehorse to Dawson City, you’ll become as gush-prone as the locals about how glorious the territory is. Equally thrilling is a polar bear safari in Manitoba: it’s impossible to exaggerate the sheer wonder of such a signature Canadian experience.
SEE RESULT
Reindeer
polar bear
If nature is on your travel bucket list more than any winter sport, then Canada has all the answers you need. The tundra forest of the Yukon is the breeding ground of ginormous reindeer herds and, after a spirit-soothing drive from Whitehorse to Dawson City, you’ll become as gush-prone as the locals about how glorious the territory is. Equally thrilling is a polar bear safari in Manitoba: it’s impossible to exaggerate the sheer wonder of such a signature Canadian experience.
Life always feels better from the water in Canada. Yes, this is a country of winding mountains and electric-blue lakes, but it is also one of cove-nibbled estuaries over which sea stacks stand sentinel, and superlative tidal inlets inhabited by fantastic whale species. Plan time out on the water and you’ll be delivered into a world apart, be that kayaking among the spindly rock towers of the Bay of Fundy, or motoring across Québec’s Gulf of St Lawrence on the lookout for humpback, fin, pilot and the rare North Atlantic right whale.
moose
bears
WATER WILDLIFE
THE GREAT OUTDOORS
Riding on horseback – in the company of cowboys and cowgirls across the swaying grasslands of Saskatchewan – might seem like the ultimate in Canadian time travel, but it is only one of many summer adventures that offer a glimpse of a quieter, more meditative world. Another is hiking through old-growth hemlock and spruce forest, with rewarding views of glittering lakes, chisel-cut summits and domed mountains. In the Canadian summer, the great outdoors is always a doorway to yesterday.
kayaking The coastline
Whale watching
on horseback
on foot
Alberta
START AGAIN
BOOK HOLIDAY
Shuffling on snowshoes through a talc-dusted old-growth forest, as trappers once did, offers a link with the Canada of yesterday. In winter, Alberta bursts with activity and, beyond the ski slopes of the province’s bucket-list resorts (Lake Louise, Banff Sunshine Village, Mount Norquay and Marmot Basin near Jasper), there are enough activities to knock your woollen socks off. Just after sunrise, strap up your snowshoes for a meditative pre-breakfast yomp along a virgin forest trail around Lake Louise to be rewarded by curious hare and elk logging your progress, while lynx lie low amid the trees. If you’re the type to have a summit-gleam in your eyes, splash out on heli-hiking or climb a frozen waterfall. It’s a rare Canadian treat that’ll make you feel like an action hero, whether you’re a first-timer or not. Otherwise, winter in Alberta is for blissful country lodges with a backstory in Canmore, Banff and Jasper (all part of Audley’s suggested self-drive itinerary), where log fires burn, cocoa and rye whisky is poured freely and the cloudless night sky trembles with piercing stars. If a dazzling comet trail arced overhead to the sound of a lonely crooning wolf, it would surely come as no surprise.
Winter
Yukon
Of all the animals in the Yukon, the most emblematic is the reindeer, or caribou, as the territory’s Indigenous First Nations Gwich’in call them. Massive herds cross the open tundra, and seeing them around Dawson City or in the forests of the Yukon River Valley is worth the plane ticket alone. Where the Yukon really comes into its own is on a road trip, as in Audley’s suggested itinerary. The highways were made for a motorhome or RV trip, and the roads out of provincial capital Whitehorse beat a lesser-driven path to national parks that feel like they’re yours – all yours. Kluane National Park is great for a flight-seeing trip over leviathan glaciers and Mt Logan (the highest mountain in Canada at nearly 6,000m), while Tombstone Territorial Park is for aurora borealis lights that make a mockery of high-tech pyrotechnic shows. The changing of the seasons adds ever-present drama to your trip. A snowmobile is a good substitute for four wheels in winter – especially on the Southern Lakes – and a trek by foot around the Yukon Wildlife Preserve brings the chance to encounter reindeer, arctic fox, moose and muskox. Then it’s indoors into a backcountry lodge in a forest or on a lakeshore with a tempting view. Such a potent cocktail of towering mountains and raging rivers sums up the Yukon’s wild appeal.
Year-round
Manitoba
Closer, then closer still. The tundra vehicle inches forward, your seat sways from side to side as the giant wheels roll over the uneven terrain. The trained guide peers through binoculars, ready to alert you to the sight of one of the largest carnivores in the world. In the middle of a patch of snow, you hit the wildlife jackpot: a mother polar bear and its cub. There are no bared teeth. No hostility. Only pure, unadulterated wonder. The sight of a half-sleeping bear and its adorable offspring is the ultimate subarctic dream. Every autumn, Manitoba offers heart-stirring wildlife experiences exactly like this, when polar bears start to gather on the western shores of Hudson Bay, waiting for the bay to freeze and give access to their winter feast of seals. The small town of Churchill is known as the polar bear capital of the world: in autumn, bears outnumber its 900 residents. Churchill is also the realm of the aurora borealis, best seen in February and March. When the majestic purple and green shimmering lights fill the dark sky on a winter’s night, it will take your breath away. Don’t worry, you’ll have a heated tent and hot cocoa to keep you warm – but that’s of little concern when the mystical aurora borealis dances above. When you travel to Manitoba on Audley’s suggested itinerary, your trip starts with a few days in the provincial capital of Winnipeg, a bustling city full of arts and cultural attractions. Afterwards, you’ll travel to Churchill for incredible polar bear viewing and a chance to view the northern lights – experiences you’ll never forget.
Autumn/winter
Ontario
You’ll hear plenty about the culture of the First Nations Indigenous peoples around Algonquin Provincial Park – and here the ancient tribal tradition of canoeing is your portal to one of Canada’s most sensory experiences: a moose safari. Autumn in Ontario sees the changing of the leaves reflected in the province’s mirror-still lakes and, around this time, Algonquin takes on a particular type of magic. Dip your paddle in the pre-dawn light and set a course into a wonderland of maple hills, craggy ridges, calm ponds, wetlands and myriad lakes home to splish-splashing white-tailed deer, beaver, black bear and moose. The park is home to some 5,000 of the world’s heaviest deer species, and to see the great bulk of one – perhaps with a calf – racing though the water from the prow of your canoe, is to be dazzled by a Canadian experience so many never consider. The First Nations history is tangible here, so too on nearby Manitoulin Island on Lake Huron, where the Anishinaabe First Nations can guide you around what is the world’s largest freshwater lake island – an essential part of Audley’s suggested Ontario itinerary. There are six Indigenous communities on Manitoulin and these are the gatekeepers to spirit-lifting days of camping, hiking, fishing and swimming. Aptly, Manitoulin is locally known as Ojibwe – “Spirit Island”. In such an evocative landscape, you too might feel better connected to the land, water and sky.
Autumn
British Columbia
At first there’s a rustle in the sedges, then a snuffling shape emerges on the shoreline. Your adrenaline levels rocket and you realise that watching a 1,000-pound grizzly as it spies sockeye salmon leaping up the rivers of British Columbia isn’t something you could ever get used to. Even so, this is the daily routine in autumn in the Great Bear Rainforest, a wilderness in the province’s Coast Mountains with floatplane-accessible lodges and bucket-list catamaran safaris, a trip highlighted in Audley’s suggested itinerary, Bears of British Columbia. The salmon run, from September to November, creates a bounty for grizzly, black and spirit bears, and it is a time when this Amazon of the north is alive with activity. Listen for the sound of nature off-duty: trees shaking off rain, seabirds dipping for fish, coastal wolves scavenging beaches, water rippling with the motion of humpbacks out in the bays. Afterwards, return to your floating lodge for a tasting menu with wine. Inland, meanwhile, British Columbia in autumn is as pretty as a landscape painting, and its sights just as timeless. Leaf-peeping larch season is always the talk of Kootenay Lake and historic Nelson, frequently labelled the most perfectly pristine town in Western Canada. Fernie, cradled to the east by the Rocky Mountains, is also where the colours pop from green to vivid yellow, gold and red. Imagine crowd-free hiking trails wrapped in alpine forest and tied with a bow of swirly summits. And – the clincher – there are snuffling bears to spot here, too.
New Brunswick
If you want to get out on the water, New Brunswick has marine life, salt breezes and ocean superlatives all bound up in one easy trip suggested by Audley. This part of Atlantic Canada awakens in the summer, with the transfixing Bay of Fundy the main lure. Not only is it home to the world’s largest tides, but 160 billion tonnes of water flows in and out of the bay during every tidal cycle. No matter how long you stay, you’ll struggle to exhaust all options. You could head out on a world-class whale watching safari, in the company of a dozen species of cetacean – say hello to minke, humpback, fin and the endangered North Atlantic right whale. Or take a kayak out at Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park to explore the higgledy-piggledy rock formations along the shoreline. Your mind will run riot, picturing all sorts of animals, cartoon characters and household objects among the tree-topped sea stacks, the most famous being the “flowerpot” rocks. Hungry yet? Lobster never tastes better than when freshly caught off the coast of New Brunswick. Then, for one last hurrah, it’s idyllic St Andrews, located deliciously close to the sea, or a trip to the hiking trails and lagoons of Kouchibouguac National Park.
Summer
Québec
Since you’re wanting a holiday that’s wall-to-wall with wildlife, you’ll be spoilt for choice in Québec, particularly in summer. Audley’s advice is to spend a day or two in metropolitan Montreal, then it’s on to the main event: whales, whales, whales. The Saguenay Fjord and the mighty St Lawrence River – up to 100km wide and as deep as Big Ben – deliver whale watching gold, with blue, minke and beluga all frequenting its waters; they are easy to spy from the top deck of a lolling boat charter (you won’t even need binoculars). As sundown sneaks up on you, it’s back to Québec’s fairytale forests for a bear watching experience as good as any in Canada. Some 60,000 black bears inhabit the province’s arcadian woodlands, and this natural habitat provides a bounty of berries, fruits and sedges that Ursus americanus devours happily as you watch. Tadoussac on the Saguenay Fjord estuary also offers a bear bonanza, as does Lake Saint-Jean, west of Saguenay in the thickly forested interior. Part of the appeal here is the landscape, which is as rugged, wild and elemental as North America gets. Stomach rumbling? Québec’s attitude to food shows its French roots, with organic farms, fruit orchards, markets, wineries and maple syrup sugar shacks filling all the spaces in between on the map.
Saskatchewan
If you daydream of the wide-open plains of North America where buffalo roam over carpets of swaying prairie grasses, then there is only one destination: Saskatchewan. It offers mussed-haired adventures on horseback and it’s a destination with a backstory – of cowboys and cowgirls, ranch lands and immigration into this historic hinterland. Perhaps more than anywhere, it is the weather that shapes your horseback riding experience. Spring is a kaleidoscope of colours and scents, with wildflowers blooming and the prairies increasingly coloured in as the days pass. Locals will tell you the summer crowds haven’t arrived yet, and there’s no hum of insects on the breeze. It’s easy to get closer to wildlife in standout spots like Prince Albert National Park or Grasslands National Park, where, with animals awakening from hibernation, the sense is of being a pioneer in the Old West. To get up close on horseback, a ranch stay is essential, and easily achieved as part of an Audley itinerary. Signs of civilisation slip away – highways turn to cattle tracks, towns into single-farm steadings with million-dollar prairie views. And when you’re out on these grasslands, you’re in the company of the best horse riders and most experienced ranchers on dyed-in-the-wool farmsteads, where livestock corralling and campfire cookouts are a way of life, not just a sideshow for tourists.
Spring
Vancouver
Vancouver has a special magic when the summer crowds have abated and winter – a season that’s always more temperate here – is on the snow-fuzzed horizon. It’s a city best explored on foot, and that starts at iconic Canada Place on the seafront, or on a yomp through Stanley Park. The Vancouver Canucks – the city’s ice hockey flag-bearers – use skates, of course, but they keep the pubs of the Gastown and Yaletown areas in full swing right through winter. And for three weeks in January and February, the city hosts Canada’s largest food get together, the Dine Out Festival. This is a time when Okanagan wine slips down like falling snow, and everything from Michelin-starred grub to haute pub cuisine is a steal. You can walk off those calories on the illuminated night trails at Capilano Suspension Bridge – think of it as a passage into snow-laden Narnia woods – or ride the Grouse Mountain cablecar for snowshoeing or powder hunting on the urban ski fields overlooking the Strait of Georgia. The boundless lights of downtown Vancouver glow through the winter’s night, or, perhaps, through the après-ski buzz of a craft beer or cocktail from the mountaintop chalet’s observatory. In the mood for more exercise? Then it’s off along the Sea to Sky Highway to Whistler, the largest sports resort in North America, with 200 well groomed pistes, or head further afield with Audley’s Best of the West itinerary.
