Canada
Canada Travel Guide — British Columbia, Vancouver Island, Churchill & Beyond
We love Montréal. And Toronto. But Vancouver is, without question, our favourite city in the world. It's surrounded by ocean, mountains and forests, it smells like pine and Pacific air, and every direction out of the city leads somewhere that makes you feel like you've wandered into a nature documentary.
But this isn't really a Vancouver guide. Vancouver is the launchpad. Two hours north and you're climbing wildflower meadows above Whistler. A little further, and you’re in the Rockies’ most spectacular national parks. An hour and a half on a BC Ferries crossing and you're on Vancouver Island — the kind of place where your jaw drops the moment you arrive and you start quietly researching property prices. We went camping. We kayaked Telegraph Cove at dawn, watching orange and purple starfish on the seafloor instead of the orcas we'd come for — still worth every minute. Eli swam in Lost Lake at 5am, jet-lagged and surrounded by hundreds of tiny frogs, and mentally returns there whenever she needs to find calm.
Then there's Churchill, Manitoba — a completely different country from British Columbia in every way except the passport. The polar bear capital of the world. No roads in. Tundra in every direction. The Arctic, but Canadian. For a blog with an aurora obsession and a soft spot for the genuinely remote, it was always going to happen.
Canada is enormous and our content focuses on the Pacific Northwest and the sub-Arctic north. Everything below is from experience, not a search engine.
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Frequently Asked Questions
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For us, it's Vancouver, and it's not close. We love Montreal and Toronto, but Vancouver sits at the edge of ocean, mountains, and old-growth forest in a way that makes everything else feel smaller. Every direction out of the city leads somewhere extraordinary — north to Whistler and the Sea to Sky Highway, further to the Rockies, west across to Vancouver Island on the BC Ferries crossing. It smells like pine and Pacific air, and it earns every superlative. We've written a full Vancouver summer guide covering Stanley Park, the fireworks, and the best spots locals actually use.
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Vancouver is an exceptional base. The classic day trip north is Whistler, two hours up the Sea to Sky Highway. South, you can make Seattle work as a long day. But our favorite trips from Vancouver go west, across the BC Ferries crossing to Vancouver Island. We've put together a full guide to the best trips from Vancouver — Tofino, Whistler, Seattle, and a few that most people miss entirely.
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Canada is enormous, and a road trip almost always means picking a region and going deep rather than trying to cover the country. Our content focuses on British Columbia: the Sea to Sky Highway from Vancouver up to Whistler, the BC Ferries crossing to Vancouver Island, and the drive up the island through surf towns, old-growth rainforest, and coastline you can only reach on foot or by boat. Vancouver Island in particular rewards the road trip format. We have a full Vancouver Island guide covering routes, road conditions, and the spots worth the detour.
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The jaw drops when you arrive by ferry and doesn't really close. You can surf in Tofino, kayak Telegraph Cove at dawn with orange and purple starfish on the seafloor, hike through old-growth rainforest, or swim in Lost Lake at 5am with hundreds of tiny frogs for company. The island is huge and the best places tend to be the ones that take a bit more effort. We cover all of it in our Ultimate Vancouver Island guide — road trip routes, surf towns, and the secret spots that most guides miss.
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Churchill is the polar bear capital of the world and accessible only by air or train — there are no roads in. It's a completely different Canada from British Columbia: tundra, sub-Arctic wilderness, and wild polar bears gathering near Hudson Bay each fall as the sea ice forms. Tours go out in specially designed tundra vehicles. We've been, we've written a full Churchill polar bears guide, and we interviewed Barbara Nielsen from Polar Bears International for the conservation side of the story.
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Start by accepting that Canada is too big for one trip. It spans six time zones and multiple distinct wilderness regions. Our experience is in two very different corners: the Pacific Northwest (Vancouver, Vancouver Island, the Sea to Sky corridor) and the sub-Arctic north (Churchill, Manitoba). Each rewards at least a week. If you want help building an itinerary around your specific dates and interests, we offer personal 1-hour travel consultations — real advice from people who've been there, no travel agencies involved.