Canada is enormous. Book it well.
Which Rockies day actually reaches Moraine Lake. Whether the Niagara boat beats the tunnels. When the whales arrive and when the aurora does. Three thousand Canadian tours, reviewed.
The days people cross an ocean for.
Turquoise lakes under glaciers, the falls from underneath, orcas off the Pacific coast, the aurora over the tundra, walled Quebec in the snow. Six Canadian days, and the best way to book each one.
The Canadian tours that sell out first.
Every Canadian review →More travellers take these than anything else in the country — the falls, the lakes, the harbours and the whales, and what makes each one worth its day.
1
Vancouver Half-Day Whale Watching Adventure with Free Photos
Review of Vancouver’s half-day whale-watching catamaran, with expert guides, free wildlife photos, hot drinks, scenic views, and practical tips.
From · $193
Read our review →
2
Quebec City Walking Tour
from $30
3
Premium Tour, Boat & Journey Behind the Falls
from $152
4
Banff Gondola Admission Ticket
from $53
5
Niagara Falls Day Tour with Optional Boat Cruise
from $53
6
Best of Niagara Falls Canada Premium Tour: Behind Falls and Boat
from $147
7
Guided Bus Tour
from $26
8
Big Bus Vancouver Hop-On Hop-Off Sightseeing Tour
from $48
Lake Louise and Moraine Lake: get the timing right.
All Rockies lake tours →
Moraine Lake Road has been closed to private cars since 2023, so the lake is now reached by shuttle or by tour. These three carry the most travellers; the full list splits the rest by how long a day you want.
Moraine and Louise before the coaches
Moraine at first light while the Ten Peaks still hold the shadow, Louise mid-morning with the canoes going out, Johnston Canyon or Emerald Lake on the way back.
Icefields Parkway to the glacier
The road between Lake Louise and Jasper is the point, not the connection. Bow Lake, Peyto, then the Athabasca Glacier under your boots and the Skywalk hanging over the Sunwapta valley.
Banff town, the gondola, the hot springs
Sulphur Mountain by gondola for the six-range view, the boardwalk along the ridge, and enough of the afternoon left for the Upper Hot Springs or a canoe on Vermilion Lakes.
At Niagara, get wet. That is the whole point.
The Canadian side owns the view: the Horseshoe curves away from you, the boat runs into the spray at the base, and the tunnels come out behind the sheet of water itself. Everything else here is a bonus round.
What a day out in Canada costs.
Three price bands, and what each one actually buys. Canada is expensive to cross and surprisingly cheap to enjoy once you are in it.
Walking tours, gondola tickets, falls attractions and harbour cruises — a good Canadian afternoon at the price of lunch.
- 1Quebec City Walking Tourfrom $30
- 2Guided Bus Tourfrom $26
- 3Big Bus Vancouver Hop-On Hop-Off Sightseeing Tourfrom $48
The standard full day: whale boats, Niagara from Toronto, city sightseeing, wine country with tastings included.
The long-haul days and the private ones — Icefields Parkway runs, aurora charters, helicopters over the Horseshoe.
Quebec City still has its walls, and uses them.
Four hundred years of stone above the St Lawrence: ramparts you can walk, a funicular down to Petit-Champlain, and the Château Frontenac watching the river like it owns it. French is the working language and the food follows.
Vancouver puts mountains at the end of the street.
A city where the ski lifts are visible from the seawall and the whale boats leave from downtown. Give it two days, then take the Sea to Sky highway north — Howe Sound, Shannon Falls, the gondola over the fjord — and you have seen why people move here.
- 1Vancouver Half-Day Whale Watching Adventure with Free Photosfrom $193
- 2Big Bus Vancouver Hop-On Hop-Off Sightseeing Tourfrom $48
- 3Victoria & Butchart Gardens Tour with Ferry from Vancouverfrom $228
Three things Canada does that nowhere else can.
Cities and food halls travel. A glacier you can stand on, a pod of resident orcas and a sky that turns green over the tree line do not.
The Orcas of the Salish Sea
Between Vancouver, Victoria and the Gulf Islands live two kinds of killer whale: resident pods that eat salmon and stay put, and transients that hunt seals and roam. Boats run roughly April to October, the zodiacs get closer and colder than the covered cruisers, and the humpbacks that were nearly gone from this water are back in numbers.
- 1Vancouver Half-Day Whale Watching Adventure with Free Photos★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 5,000 reviews
- 2Tadoussac/Charlevoix: Whale Watching Zodiac Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 2,716 reviews
- 3Covered Whale Watching Adventure with Free Photos★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 2,260 reviews
The Yellowknife Sky
Yellowknife sits almost directly beneath the auroral oval, and its winter sky is dry and cloudless in a way the coasts never manage. Tours are a heated cabin, a long wait and a thermos, sometimes for three nights running. Late August to early April is the season; the aurora keeps no schedule and the operators are honest about that.
- 1Aurora Hunting Tours★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 374 reviews
- 2Northern Lights Tour Yellowknife★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 370 reviews
- 3Northern Lights Tours★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 326 reviews
Standing on the Athabasca
The Columbia Icefield straddles the continental divide and feeds three oceans. The Athabasca Glacier is the tongue you can reach: a specialist six-wheeled coach carries you onto the ice, where the surface is grey with rock flour and the meltwater runs blue in the cracks. It has retreated more than a kilometre in a century, and the markers along the approach road say so.
- 1Columbia Icefield Skywalk and Ice Explorer Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 2,444 reviews
- 2Columbia Icefield Tour with Glacier Skywalk★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,860 reviews
- 3Columbia Icefield Skywalk★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 916 reviews
Canadian cities are better once the lights come on.
Every Canadian night out →
Premium Night Driving Tour with Tower Entry
Read our review →
Book these before you fly to Canada.
Most of Canada can be arranged from the hotel the night before. These cannot — they run on shuttle permits, short seasons and timed departures that do not care when your flight lands.
- 01Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, Banff Tour from Calgary/Canmore/BanffPrivate cars have been banned from Moraine Lake Road since 2023. A shuttle seat or a tour is now the only way in, and the sunrise runs go first.
- 02Aurora Hunting ToursThe viewing season is short and the cabins seat a dozen. Clear winter weeks are booked out months ahead.
- 03Columbia Icefield Skywalk and Ice Explorer TicketThe glacier coaches run to timed departures on a road that is only open in the warm months. Mid-day slots go first.
- 04Vancouver Half-Day Whale Watching Adventure with Free PhotosThe boats sail roughly April to October and the summer sailings fill early. Outside the season there is nothing to board.
When the sky closes in, Canada moves indoors and gets better.
Coastal rain from November, prairie cold from December, and fog on the Atlantic whenever it feels like it. None of it cancels a museum, a distillery, a tasting room, an attraction ticket or a gondola that runs in cloud — and the queues disappear.
- 1Banff Gondola Admission Ticketfrom $53
- 2Casa Loma Entry Ticketfrom $29
- 3Banff Gondola Ride Admissionfrom $55
By region — coast to coast
Vancouver117 tours
Banff & Lake Louise188 tours
Toronto95 tours
Montreal148 tours
Quebec City85 tours
Niagara Falls84 tours
Vancouver Island68 tours
Halifax & Nova Scotia57 tours- Every corner of the country →
Calgary to Jasper, the way the Rockies are meant to be seen.
Calgary
Icefields ParkwayThe newest Canadian tour reviews.
The newest Canadian reviews →
Saint-Sauveur: relaxation session in a Nordic thermal spa
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Saint John Night Driving Tour With Skywalk & Martello Tower
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Saint John Driving Tour With Skywalk, Martello Tower & Fort
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Saint John: Guided Kayaking Tour of St. Martins Sea Caves
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Royal B.C. Museum in Victoria: Full-Day Admission Ticket
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Canadian Rockies: Helicopter Flight with Exploration Hike
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Rockport, ON: 1000 Islands /Boldt Castle Sightseeing Cruises
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