I went to Canada and now I can't shut up about it
I booked this trip on like a random Tuesday night when
flights were cheap and I had zero plans. Didn't research much. Just went. And I
came back a completely different person who now aggressively recommends Canada
to everyone including strangers.
Here's my completely unsponsored, unfiltered brain dump.
Okay when do you go
Summer — June through August — is the obvious answer. Warm,
everything's open, the national parks are peak gorgeous. But also half the
planet had the same idea so Banff in July feels like a theme park sometimes.
My actual recommendation?
September. Hear me out. Crowds thin out almost
overnight after Labour Day. Prices drop. In fact, this is the best time to visit
Canada.
May works too if September doesn't work for you. Shoulder
season is genuinely underrated here.
And okay random one — if you like winter and are a bit
unhinged, Quebec City in January during their Winter Carnival is unlike
anything I've experienced. It's minus twenty and people are just outside having
the time of their lives. Ice sculptures everywhere. People skating on the
canal. It shouldn't work but it absolutely does. Just prepare your face for the
cold because wow.
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Where to actually go — honest edition
Niagara Falls
I know. I KNOW. It sounds like the most basic tourist thing
ever. Go anyway.
You can watch a million videos of Niagara Falls and none of
them will prepare you for standing there in person. It's the sound more
than anything — this constant roar that you feel in your chest. And the sheer
amount of water just endlessly, relentlessly going over the edge. It's one of
those rare natural things that actually lives up to the hype.
Do the Hornblower boat tour where you get completely soaked.
Wear the poncho. Embrace being wet. It's hilarious and also the best way to see
it.
The town around the falls though? Skip it. It's basically a
Vegas knockoff — casinos, chain restaurants, haunted houses, an actual Ripley's
Believe It Or Not which tells you everything. Just go for the falls, give it a
few hours, get back in the car.
Vancouver
If I could pick one city in the world to just live in for a
year, Vancouver might actually be it and I don't say that lightly.
Mountains literally visible from downtown. The ocean right
there. Stanley Park is this enormous forest right in the middle of the city and
you can cycle the whole seawall around it and it takes like two hours and the
whole time you're cycling next to the water with mountains in the background
going "this is genuinely not normal, cities shouldn't be allowed to look
like this."
Granville Island has a fantastic public market — not a
tourist trap market, an actual local market with incredible produce and food
stalls and artisan stuff. Sit outside with some food and watch boats go by.
Very good for the soul.
And the food scene in Vancouver completely blindsided me.
The Asian food especially — ramen, dim sum, Japanese BBQ, Vietnamese — is
legitimately some of the best I've had anywhere in the world. Not "good
for a Western city" good. Actually incredible. Budget extra meals here
because you will want them.
Banff National Park
Okay. Okay okay okay.
Banff is the reason I became someone who tells everyone to
go to Canada. Moraine Lake specifically broke something in my brain. You walk
up to it and it's this lake with the most unhinged turquoise color you've ever
seen — it looks like someone cranked the saturation slider to max — and there
are mountains all around it and snow on the peaks and it's just. It's a lot. I
stood there for like twenty minutes not saying anything.
Critical info you need before you go: Get to Moraine
Lake before 7am. Not "fairly early." Before 7am specifically. If you
show up at 8 there's no parking and you get bussed in from a lot down the road
which is fine but you lose the magic of arriving and having a few quiet minutes
before the crowds. Set an alarm. Bring a thermos. The early start is completely
worth it, I promise.
Lake Louise is equally stunning and slightly more
accessible. The Fairmont hotel on the lake is beautiful even if you're not
staying there — grab a coffee and sit on the terrace and pretend you're rich
for twenty minutes.
The hiking around Banff is incredible at every level too.
You don't have to be some kind of serious outdoor person. There are easy walks
that will still have you stopping every five minutes because a mountain view
appeared.
Montreal
Montreal is its own thing entirely. It doesn't feel like the
rest of Canada, it doesn't really feel like France — it's just Montreal, which
is a compliment.
The food scene is genuinely excellent and I will die on this
hill. The Montreal bagel debate with New York is real and ongoing and I'm not
picking sides publicly but privately I have opinions.
The nightlife surprised me. Montreal has this late-night
culture where things start at like 11pm and nobody goes home at a reasonable
hour and somehow the whole city is on the same page about this. The festival
situation in summer is also stacked — Jazz Festival, Just For Laughs, Osheaga.
If your dates line up with any of them you'll have an incredible time without
even trying.
Also the people here switch between English and French
mid-conversation so smoothly it'll make your head spin a little.
Quebec City
Right so imagine someone took a beautiful medieval French
town and just placed it in Canada. That's Quebec City. That's literally what it
is.
Go at night. Walk around with no plan. Find a restaurant by
how it smells. Sit outside. The atmosphere will do all the work.
The food leans proper French — cassoulet, duck confit, good
wine, little desserts that come on a tiny plate. It's a nice vibe shift from
the bigger cities.
Ottawa
Everyone skips Ottawa and honestly I think that's because it
sounds boring — it's the capital city, it's where the government is, whatever.
Parliament Hill itself is worth seeing. The Byward Market
area has good food and a decent bar scene. It's a genuinely pleasant city that
asks nothing of you except to wander around in it.
In winter the Rideau Canal freezes and becomes the longest
naturally frozen skating rink in the world and you can skate it while eating a
Beavertail — a flat fried dough pastry thing — and feel very specifically like
you are doing Canada correctly.
Jasper National Park
Less famous than Banff. Less crowded than Banff. Equally
beautiful. Do the math.
The drive between Banff and Jasper on the Icefields Parkway
is one of the great drives on planet earth and I will accept no debate on this.
It's about three hours and you will stop constantly because every pullout has a
different insane mountain view. Glaciers. Rivers. Wildlife just hanging out by
the road. Set aside the whole day for it.
Jasper is also a Dark Sky Preserve — they control light
pollution specifically so you can see the stars. On a clear night the sky there
is something I don't have adequate words for. Just lie on the ground and look
up and let your brain reset.
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Food — the real talk
Nanaimo bars: Chocolate, custard cream, coconut. No
baking involved. Found everywhere. Extremely good.
East coast lobster: If you go anywhere near Nova Scotia or PEI — and I'm begging you to go near Nova Scotia or PEI — eat the lobster. Fresh lobster. From the ocean that was right there an hour ago. It's a completely different experience from lobster anywhere else. PEI mussels too. Don't sleep on them.
Money stuff — real numbers
Canada is expensive, no
sugarcoating it. A sit-down dinner is easily $25-40 a head before drinks. Shoulder
season (May or September) cuts accommodation costs noticeably
- Book
Banff literally months early — I cannot stress this enough, it sells
out
- Transit
in cities is good and cheap — stop Ubering everywhere
- Eat at markets — Granville Island, Byward Market, Jean-Talon in Montreal — all excellent, all way cheaper than restaurants
Week itinerary — no fluff version
Day 1 — Toronto. Land, eat something, walk Kensington
Market, collapse
Day 2 — Niagara Falls. Day trip, do the boat tour, back to Toronto for
dinner
Day 3 — Fly to Calgary, drive straight to Banff
Day 4 — Lake Louise in the morning, hike in the afternoon, eat well in
Banff town
Day 5 — 6am alarm for Moraine Lake. Afternoon: more hiking or just
staring at mountains
Day 6 — Fly to Vancouver. Stanley Park seawall, dinner somewhere
incredible
Day 7 — Granville Island market, eat dim sum somewhere, cry a little at
the airport
Got 10 days? Add a night in Montreal. Got 12? Throw in
Quebec City. Got 14? Drive the Icefields Parkway properly instead of rushing
it. More time = better Canada, simple as that.
Final Tips
Layers are not optional in the mountains. I wore a
t-shirt to Moraine Lake at 6am and nearly died. Bring a proper jacket, not a
fashion one.
Wildlife is not a petting zoo. Every year someone
gets too close to a bear or a bison for a photo and it goes badly. Stay back,
use your zoom, don't be that person.
Book everything early. I keep saying this but I mean
it. Banff especially. Popular trails like the Plain of Six Glaciers have
reservation systems now. Check before you go.
Tipping is a thing. Around 18-20% at restaurants,
similar to the US. Factor it in.
Download offline maps. Cell service vanishes in the
parks. Google Maps won't save you in the backcountry. Download the area before
you leave the hotel.
Travel insurance. Get it. Canadian healthcare doesn't
cover international visitors and a single emergency can cost thousands.
Look — I'm not a travel influencer, I don't have a brand
deal, I have no reason to sell you on Canada. I just went, got completely
blindsided by how good it was, and now I tell everyone about it with a slightly
unhinged amount of enthusiasm.
It's the mountains at 6am when nobody else is there yet.
It's finding a tiny restaurant in Montreal that turns into a three hour meal.
Just go. Slow down when you get there. Let it actually land.
You'll come back already looking at flights for round two.
Trust.
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