Why Canada Will Always Be My Favorite Country for Travel

Two obsidian eyes peered from behind an ice mound, betraying the snowy camouflage of a baby harp seal. We stared at each other before it belly-flopped my way. It was curious about our group of journalists outfitted in orange Mustang Survival Suits. The ice floes in the Gulf of St. Lawrence outside of Quebec serve as their birthing platforms. A colleague took a photo of me with my new friend, we grabbed our gear and trekked over the rippled icy surface to our helicopter ride back. 

When I tell someone I’m a travel journalist, they inevitably ask me what places I love most. I have my list of favorites outside of the U.S. — the colorful Amalfi coast, Tokyo, the mythical landscape of Greenland. But when it comes to the country I return to most, it’s always Canada. 

And that’s when I get raised eyebrows: “Really? Canada?” Yes. Canada. 

Canada is more than the home of Deadpool, poutine and a population the size of California. It’s not just where all snow is made (don’t look that up), or even the place of the greatest maple syrup heist ever. Canada is also a world of great cities, stunning landscapes and rich Indigenous culture. 

Whether I’m cycling around Lac Saint-Jean in Quebec, or looking for polar bears in Manitoba’s subarctic or kayaking in the damp air of the rainforests in British Columbia, Canada has always provided a necessary escape. But it is also where I find my assumptions about the world, even Canada itself, regularly challenged. 

The Escape

Canada’s major cities have their own character. Quebec City has its European charm. Ottawa is the seat of power dressed in gothic revival architecture. Toronto is Canada’s New York City — full of culture, great food and where most immigrants enter the Canadian “mosaic.” The nearby Hamilton, Ontario has a refreshing in-your-face attitude surrounded by over 100 beautiful waterfalls.

Calgary sits in Canada’s cowboy country, Alberta, and is considered one of the cleanest cities in the world, whose train runs on renewable energy. With over 400 noodle shops, Richmond in B.C. is the dim sum capital of North America and Vancouver, which is far more than movie sets pretending to be cities in the United States, rests at the intersection of city life, the ocean and the Coast Mountains.

And this brings me to what each of these cities have in common: no matter what Canadian city you’re in, you’re never far from the outdoors. Calgary, for example, has local parks and trails, but is also only an hour and a half from Banff National Park. This makes Canada one of the most ideal countries for getting away and disconnecting.

The Canadian Wild

When the borders reopened in 2022, the first thing I did was a road trip through Ontario, popping into my favorite cities, camping at Pog Lake Campground and hiking Algonquin Provincial Park, where I could find sweeping views from the rocky ledges of Centennial Ridges Trail or sit quietly in the rain at the rim overlooking Barron Canyon. 

There are plenty of wild spaces across the globe, but Canada is like an ark, carrying many of those pine-covered mountains, glacial-fed lakes, arctic tundras, deserts and wildlife within its hull.

But it is the wild of British Columbia that brings me back the most. The province is home to flourishing marine life and the lush Great Bear Rainforest. It’s there that I’ve learned to be still, kayaked in its moody rains, found humpback whales tossing their flukes into the air and looked with Indigenous guides for grizzlies feeding on salmon. 

And B.C. never ceases to surprise me. 

A recent road trip along the scenic Sea to Sky Highway (Highway 99), for example, started with a typical B.C. skyscape of mountains carpeted in evergreens, and lakes draped in morning mists. The first stop was the four-season alpine playground known as Whistler, where I cycled trails between the pines and rode the PEAK 2 PEAK Gondola. The gondola stretches almost three miles between the mountaintops of Blackcomb and Whistler Mountains, leading to the jaw-dropping Cloudraker Skybridge, where you feel like you’re on top of the world. 

While this is what you expect in B.C., drive a little further and everything changes.

Forests receded with every mile until reaching the nearly naked mountainsides and grasslands of Lillooet and Cache Creek. I felt less like I was in the B.C. I know and more like I was in the American Southwest. I admit to preferring the lush green version of B.C., but this dry landscape has its own beauty and benefits. Having once been underwater, it is now an exposed geological wonderland. In Cache Creek, for example, this makes the McAbee Fossil Beds Tour possible. More than fossils, though, a visit there is a window into Indigenous cultural history. The fossil tour is managed by Bonaparte First Nation, who also own the land’s title. 

This is how Canada becomes a tuning fork for my soul, because I’ve discovered that to really love the land means to listen to those who cared for it from time immemorial.

Like all land throughout North America, Canada ultimately belongs to someone else. Some cities, like Vancouver, Whistler, Montreal and Ottawa, sit on unceded land. Other cities, like Calgary sit on treaty land, while yet others, like Toronto, are a mix of treaty and unceded territory. In every case, there is a complicated and tragic history. 

This was never more punctuated than when I was in the city of Kamloops, where I found myself immersed at the 43rd Annual Kamloopa Pow Wow. I ate bannock and watched with hundreds of people as those in brightly colored regalia with deep cultural symbolism danced and sang their way to the center of the circle to thunderous and energetic drumming. 

It was a beautiful moment within earshot of tragic historical irony. As we left, we walked by Kamloops Residential School, where Indigenous children were once forcibly removed from their families, languages and cultures to be Westernized. Residential Schools have brought to light the country’s need for reconciliation. The Pow Wow was a celebration of Canada’s First Nations, their land and their strength, but also a call for healing. 

So why do I love Canada? I go to enjoy its great cities. I go to retreat to my sanctuary of the outdoors. I go because it is a mosaic of cultures, with a history that can’t be fixed with a simple “sorry.” And every time I visit Canada, I find that I’m better for it, and that gives me another reason to return.   

Where to Stay in B.C.

If you’re in Vancouver, Skwachays is Vancity’s only Indigenous boutique hotel and gallery. Look for the building with a 40-foot, rooftop totem pole. While you’re in Vancouver, eat at the Indigenous-owned Salmon n’ Bannock Restaurant, explore Indigenous Northwest Coast art at the Bill Reid Gallery and a hike around Stanley Park with Talaysay Tours’ Indigenous guides.

If you’re in the neighboring city of Richmond, check out the bold designs and spacious, luxury rooms of Versante Hotel. At night, visit the colorful Richmond Night Market around the corner and look for a ramen donut. If you’re on Vancouver Island, the Wickaninnish Inn in Tofino is a wonderful beach retreat with a fantastic restaurant and wine selection. 

If you want comfort with immediate access to the wild, the Indigenous Klahoose Wilderness Resort in Homfray Channel will provide everything from gourmet dining, fishing and kayaking to bear tours, heli-hiking and glacier walks. 

In Whistler, Fairmont Chateau Whistler is a luxury experience at the heart of the city. While you are there, have an elevated meal at Wild Blue Restaurant + Bar in town, or the literally elevated Christine’s at the top of Blackcomb Mountain, and visit the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre — a First Nations museum and gallery.

But wherever you stay, Canada will probably become your favorite place as well.