Canada is vast, varied and almost impossible to do justice to in a single trip. What you see depends entirely on where you go and when. Visit British Columbia in late summer, and grizzly bears are lining the rivers during the salmon run. Fly north to Churchill in October, and polar bears are gathering along the frozen shores of Hudson Bay. Head east to Newfoundland in spring, and 10,000-year-old icebergs are drifting past the coast.
Then there’s the culture, the cities and the history that sit alongside the wildlife. Viking ruins on Newfoundland’s northern tip, First Nations communities sharing traditions thousands of years deep, and cities like St John’s and Vancouver that couldn’t be more different from one another.
If you’re wondering what to do in Canada, these are our 15 picks for the best places to visit on your Canada holiday. Speak with our Travel Specialists to plan them into your tailor-made trip.
1. Watch Polar Bears in Churchill, Manitoba
Best Time to Visit: October—November
Churchill sits motionless on the western shore of Hudson Bay, accessible only by air or rail. Every autumn, the remote town strangely ends up harbouring more predators than people who reside there. As the sea ice begins to form, the polar bears gather in numbers found almost nowhere else on the planet, waiting for a freeze that’ll carry them out to hunt.
The best way to see the 600 kg mammal is by Tundra Buggy – purpose-built vehicles that whisk you off into the Churchill Wildlife Management Area, where, as well as bears, the Arctic fox skates across the frozen tundra while the snowy owl glides above the snow-laden treeline overhead. The bears are remarkably close, often approaching your buggy with an inquisitive wonder; watching them in this stark, open landscape is an experience that stays with you long after you leave. But, to make it all the more special, those wanting the most immersive experience possible should seek out the Tundra Buggy Lodge, which lets you sleep inside the wildlife area itself, with bears lumbering past the windows as if you weren’t there.
Evenings in Churchill include Indigenous cultural presentations on life in the remote north, and a visit to the Itsanitaq Museum offers insight into Inuit heritage. Our Tundra Buggy Lodge Polar Bear Adventure sample itinerary is built around this narrow seasonal window.
2. Kayak with Beluga Whales on the Churchill River
Best Time to Visit: July—August
Churchill isn’t just limited to polar bears. Every summer, thousands of beluga whales migrate into the Churchill River estuary to feed, calve and socialise in the warmer shallow waters. The concentration is staggering, and the best way to experience it is from a kayak.
Paddling in silence as white belugas surface around you, sometimes just metres away, is one of Canada’s most intimate wildlife encounters. They’re curious, vocal and unbothered by your presence, going about their life like any other day. Zodiac boat excursions offer a different perspective, covering more of the river and getting you closer to larger groups. Between whale outings, dog carting with huskies and visits to the Polar Bears International House and Parks Canada Visitor Centre round out what’s a genuinely unique summer trip to the sub-Arctic.
Our Belugas & Bears Adventure sample itinerary is timed for July and August, when beluga kayaking and a full-day Tundra Buggy excursion for polar bears on the tundra are both possible on the same trip. Speak with our Travel Specialists to find out more.
3. Visit Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta
Best Time to Visit: July—August
Waterton Lakes National Park is one of the most beautiful places in Canada. Mirror-like lakes perfectly reflect the vibrant green vegetation, which rises to the crowns of the mountaintops in the heavens above. Your exploration may take you not only to the lakes but also to areas such as Cameron Falls – its rushing cascades washing over a billion-year-old Precambrian rock face. Hikers will especially appreciate the range of easy-to-moderate and challenging routes.
Throughout its 505 square kilometres, you’re bound to come across a wealth of wildlife. Grizzly and black bears wander along the forested trails, beavers are hard at work creating their dams in the streams and ponds, plus many of the 260+ bird species glide with grace overhead.
4. Spot Grizzly Bears in the Great Bear Rainforest
Best Time to Visit: August—October
The Great Bear Rainforest stretches along British Columbia’s central and northern coast, covering over six million hectares of ancient temperate rainforest. It’s up there with the best places on Earth to watch wild grizzly bears, particularly during the salmon run when they gather along rivers to feed, often visible from raised platforms and riverbanks before your very eyes.
The rainforest itself is extraordinary even without the bears. Cathedral-like stands of old-growth cedar, Sitka spruce and western hemlock tower above moss-covered forest floors, and the rivers that draw the grizzlies also support bald eagles, black bears and wolves. Indigenous communities including the Nuxalk and Kitasoo/Xai’xais nations have called this coastline home for thousands of years, with their guides offering a perspective on the landscape and its wildlife that goes far deeper than what you’d find on your own.
Planning a visit? Our Great Bear Rainforest & Chilcotin Circle Route sample itinerary is a good place to start. As well as the Great Bear Rainforest, you’ll explore Chilcotin, Canada’s ‘wild west frontier’, where landscapes are rugged and the outdoor activities endless.
5. Drive the Sunshine Coast and North Vancouver Island
Best Time to Visit: June—September
Travelling from Vancouver up the Sunshine Coast and onto North Vancouver Island is a rewarding British Columbia self-drive route, taking over two weeks of ferry crossings, coastal rainforest and small island community visits to complete. Ferries connect peninsulas and islands along the way, and each crossing opens up a new stretch of coast to explore.
Dall’s porpoises, Steller sea lions and bald eagles are common sightings from the road, whereas the waters around Telegraph Cove are known for some of the province’s best whale watching. The cultural highlight is Alert Bay, home to the ‘Namgis First Nation and the U’Mista Cultural Centre, which houses an important collection of Indigenous ceremonial regalia.
Our Sunshine Coast & North Island Circle sample itinerary covers this full route with accommodation, ferry bookings and driving distances planned in advance. You’ll observe iconic wildlife, connect with indigenous cultures and marvel at the region’s natural beauty.
6. Watch Orcas off Vancouver Island
Best Time to Visit: April—October
The waters around northern Vancouver Island support a huge population of resident orcas. Johnstone Strait and Blackfish Sound are the epicentre, where pods return each summer to hunt, socialise and rub their bodies on the pebble beaches of Robson Bight Ecological Reserve. Whale watching trips from Telegraph Cove and Tofino bring you into these waters, where humpbacks, grey whales and Dall’s porpoises are regularly spotted alongside the orcas.
If you want to go beyond a day trip, multi-day sea kayaking expeditions through the Johnstone Strait offer something genuinely rare. Paddle through the same waters the orcas travel, camping on the shore each night and waking to the sound of whale blows echoing across the strait.
7. Explore Vancouver
Best Time to Visit: Year-round (best June—September)
Vancouver sits between the Pacific Ocean and the North Shore Mountains, a dramatic setting that juxtaposes a contemporary, glass skyline with rugged, natural fjords.
You can make a day of Stanley Park and its 400 hectares of temperate rainforest on the edge of downtown, heading through to the coastal trails that loop past beaches, totem poles and views across to the mountains. Granville Island’s public market features a colourful assortment of food produce in its food hall for you to browse, and the Capilano Suspension Bridge takes you 70 metres above the rainforest floor on the North Shore. One moment, you could be in the heart of the city in the morning, and the next, surrounded by old-growth forest by lunch.
8. Chase Icebergs off Newfoundland’s Coast
Best Time to Visit: May—June
Every spring, icebergs that have broken away from glaciers in the Arctic drift south on the Labrador Current, passing Newfoundland’s northern and eastern coast. Twillingate, known locally as Iceberg Alley, is the best place to see them. Enormous blue-and-white formations float past rocky headlands close enough for you to view them from the shore.
The scale is difficult to appreciate until you see one in person. What’s visible above the water is only a fraction of the full structure, and in the right light, it glows a deep, translucent blue that photographs rarely capture. Boat tours from Twillingate take you closer, and the same waters often produce early-season humpback whale sightings as they begin their summer migration.
Humpback whales make our list of the 10 Species to See & Where to Find Them in Canada. There are over 80,000 classified Canadian wildlife species spread out across the country – which are the ones you should have at the top of your wildlife-watching wish list?
9. Explore Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland
Best Time to Visit: June—September
Gros Morne National Park is one of the very best places in Canada to visit for anyone interested in geology and wishing to explore dramatic landscapes.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site on Newfoundland’s western coast, the park is best known for its geological significance. The Tablelands is where the planet's mantle has been forced up to the surface, creating an orange, barren landscape that looks more like Mars than eastern Canada. A few kilometres away, Western Brook Pond is a landlocked freshwater fjord carved by glaciers, with sheer cliffs rising 600 metres on either side.
The hiking here is exceptional, to say the least. Trails range from gentle boardwalks through boreal forest to the challenging summit of Gros Morne Mountain, where the views across the park and out to the Gulf of St Lawrence reward every step of the climb. Moose and caribou roam the park’s interior, and the coastal sections are rich with birdlife.
10. Discover St John’s, Newfoundland
Best Time to Visit: Year-round
Canada's easternmost city is perhaps its most distinctive. St John’s is built around a narrow harbour, with rows of brightly painted wooden houses (known as Jellybean Row) climbing the hillside above the waterfront. The city is compact and walkable, with a food scene built around fresh Atlantic seafood, a live music culture that fills the pubs along George Street most evenings, and a warmth from locals that tourists consistently remark on.
Signal Hill, just above the harbour entrance, opens straight out onto the Atlantic from the site where Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless transmission in 1901. St John’s is also the closest major Canadian city to the UK, making it a natural starting or finishing point for a Newfoundland self-drive, with Witless Bay’s puffin colonies just a short drive south.
11. See Puffins and Whales at Witless Bay
Best Time to Visit: June—September
Just south of St John’s, the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve is home to a huge Atlantic puffin colony. Boat tours take you out to the nesting islands, where hundreds of thousands of puffins, common murres and razorbills crowd the clifftops during breeding season. The puffins are the draw, but it’s the sheer density of seabird life across the reserve that makes it so impressive.
You can also see the magnificent humpback whales on the same boat trip, often breaching or lunge-feeding within clear sight of the puffin islands. The proximity of St John’s makes it an easily accessible destination for major wildlife encounters, which can be added to the start or end of your Newfoundland self-drive without requiring a detour.
Our Newfoundland Explorer Self-Drive sample itinerary takes you to Witless Bay for puffin watching before travelling north to the Bonavista Peninsula, where more puffin colonies reside. You’ll also cruise through the glacier-carved, land-locked Western Brook Pond fjord.
12. Sail British Columbia’s Coastal Waters
Best Time to Visit: July—September
A multi-day sailing expedition along British Columbia’s coast is an immersive way to experience the beauty of the Pacific wilderness. Rather than simply visiting the coast from the shore, you can live on the water for days at a time, moving through the sheltered channels of Johnstone Strait and Blackfish Sound, past old-growth forest that reaches right down to the waterline and into fjords completely inaccessible by road.
Orcas, humpback whales, sea lions and dolphins are all regularly encountered, and the onboard kayaks let you paddle into quieter estuaries where bald eagles nest overhead and the only sound is the water itself. Onboard naturalist guides know these waters intimately, identifying individual whale pods by their markings and explaining the behaviours you're watching in real time. Evenings are spent anchored in remote coves, often with no other vessel in sight.
To learn about the wild places, coastal ecosystems and stories that tie people and nature together here, our British Columbia Sailing Expedition sample itinerary runs through the peak summer months when marine wildlife activity along the coast is at its busiest.
13. Walk the Viking Ruins at L’Anse aux Meadows
Best Time to Visit: June—September
At the very northern tip of Newfoundland, L’Anse aux Meadows is the only authenticated Viking settlement located in North America. The site dates back over 1,000 years to when Norse explorers sailed west from Greenland and established a small encampment on this remote, windswept coast. Today it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with reconstructed sod-roofed buildings and archaeological remains that bring a storied chapter of history to life.
The setting hasn’t changed much since the Norse arrived all those years ago. Open grassland runs down to a rocky shoreline, icebergs drift past in late spring, and the nearest town is a long drive south. It serves as a reminder that Canada's appeal goes well beyond its wildlife and into a history that stretches back further than most people expect.
14. Self-Drive the Yukon
Best Time to Visit: June—September (Summer) | September—March (Northern Lights)
The Yukon is Canada at its most raw. This sparsely populated territory stretches across boreal forest, open tundra and mountain ranges, with very little between the small communities that dot the highway. You can drive for hours without seeing another vehicle, and the skies above you are some of the biggest you’ll ever experience.
In summer, the midnight sun keeps the landscape lit deep into the evening, and the wildlife along the road includes moose, black bears and bald eagles. In winter, the Yukon becomes an excellent way to experience the Northern Lights, with dark skies and minimal light pollution producing displays visible for hours at a time.
It’s not for everyone, but for travellers drawn to true wilderness and open road, the Yukon is one of the best places in Canada to visit.
Our Yukon Explorer Self-Drive sample itinerary begins in Whitehorse, a lively riverside town shaped by the Klondike Gold Rush, before heading to the Southern Lakes. Stop in Carcross to learn about its First Nations heritage and finish in Dawson City, ‘the Paris of the North’.
15. Experience Indigenous Culture with First Nations Communities
Best Time to Visit: Varies by region
Some of the most meaningful experiences in Canada come from spending time with the Indigenous communities who’ve lived on and cared for these landscapes for thousands of years. What you learn from First Nations guides about the wildlife, the land and the history of the places you’re visiting goes far deeper than anything you’d get from a conventional tour.
In British Columbia, Klahoose First Nation guides lead grizzly bear viewing at Toba Inlet. You’ll be taken by boat through the fjords of Desolation Sound to watch bears feed on spawning salmon from raised platforms along the river.
In the Great Bear Rainforest, Kitasoo/Xai’xais communities welcome tourists to Spirit Bear Lodge, where wildlife excursions sit alongside evenings in the Big House learning about coastal First Nations traditions. On the Atnarko River, Nuxalk guides share the story of ancient petroglyphs at Thorsen Creek, carved into the rock for millennia.
Whereas for Vancouver Island, the ‘Namgis First Nation can host you at Alert Bay, home to the U’Mista Cultural Centre and an important collection of potlatch regalia.
You’ll get to stay in a small, Indigenous-owned lodge that places culture, community and respect for the land at its heart on our Toba Inlet Grizzly Bear Adventure sample itinerary. Plus, enjoy two full days watching grizzly bears as they fish and move through their natural habitat.
Ready to Visit the Best Places in Canada?
From polar bears in Churchill to icebergs off Newfoundland, Canada’s tourist attractions span the full width of the country and every season of the year.
Every experience on this list can be built into a tailor-made itinerary designed around your interests, timing and travel style. Speak to one of our Canada specialists and we’ll help you decide where to go, when to travel and how to bring it all together.
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