Canada - Highlights
Stately buildings and iconic cultural institutions are the hallmark of grand dame capital Ottawa. Toronto blends world-class theatre with an ethnic kaleidoscope and Francophile sophisticates Montreal and Quebec City party with a certain je ne sais quoi.
Trace Canadian heritage at Ottawa's Museum of Civilization. View First Nations art at the greenhouse-like National Gallery of Canada. See intricately carved totem poles at Vancouver's Museum of Anthropology and Stanley Park, and Victoria's Royal British Columbia Museum. Montreal's Biodome and Botanical Garden give a plant slant after a cable-car ride up the Olympic Stadium tower.
See the architectural legacy of Canada's rail pioneers in chateau-style hotels including Quebec City's turreted Chateau Frontenac and Victoria's Empress. Stay in Rocky Mountains siblings the Banff Springs Hotel and Chateau Lake Louise. See the neo-gothic Notre Dame Basilica dominate Old Montreal, and shoot up Toronto's CN Tower to lord it over everything in the world's tallest free-standing structure.
Splash out with the kids at West Edmonton Mall's indoor water park. Laze in warm waters off New Brunswick's beaches – Kouchibouguac National Park's seawater lagoon reaches 30°C. Let the kids sleep over with belugas at Vancouver Aquarium. Watch humpback whales off Newfoundland, killer whales off Vancouver Island, moose in Ontario's Algonquin Park and polar bears in Manitoba's Churchill.
Winter is a good time to visit Canada. There's skiing, skating on Ottawa's Rideau Canal, ice-climbing on frozen Quebec and Rockies waterfalls, snowmobiling and sleigh rides at resort hotels, and nature's own light show – the Aurora Borealis.
Drive through the Rockies to River Deep, Mountain High by Canadian songstress Celine Dion. Walk on the Wild Side with Lou Reed in a wilderness lodge. Watch the lumberjack show at Vancouver's Grouse Mountain to the strains of The Lumberjack Song by Monty Python.
