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4 of the best Canada road trips

May 20, 2025by Editorial Travel Weekly

shutterstock 572212744 Credit lastdjedai

Rev up with Canada road trips perfect for repeat visitors, write Alice Barnes-Brown and Katie McGonagle

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Winding coastal roads, wilderness-bound highways and wildlife sightings from behind the wheel – few countries do epic road trips better than Canada. Whether clients want to meander between small towns and cities or venture out on wide open roads through sweeping scenery, there are endless options to explore.

But if you’re looking to steer them away from the busiest areas and most popular times of year, here are options for second-time visitors to try during the shoulder seasons.

1. Best Canada road trip for city and countryside

With Virgin Atlantic flights to Toronto launched last month, agents have a new way to send clients across the pond. Journeyscape’s Ontario in Depth itinerary eases clients in with two car-free nights in Toronto, where they can ascend the CN Tower’s observation deck or cycle through a few neighbourhoods: try pedalling to Kensington Market for street art and vintage clothing.

Once clients pick up their hire car, it’s a 90-minute drive around the edge of Lake Ontario to their first base at Niagaraon-the-Lake, where leafy vines produce Canada’s signature ice wine. Plus, there’s a day out to Niagara Falls on the cards.

Dominique Kotsias, product manager at Journeyscape, says: “This journey doesn’t just tick off the Ontario classics such as Toronto and Niagara Falls. You venture north, with a mix of experiences and scenery.”

In Muskoka, hundreds of small lakes provide serene habitats for beaver, moose, heron and more.

Suggest swapping the car for a kayak, reminding clients to fortify themselves with maple syrup‑laced pancakes before setting out.

The next (and longest, at almost four hours) drive takes them to the shores of Lake Huron at Manitoulin Island, where a hike with an Indigenous guide is a fascinating way to learn about the Anishinaabe peoples. To break up the journey back to Toronto, there’s a stop in picturesque Tobermory, the diving capital of the Great Lakes: clients who don’t dive can still see shipwrecks on a glass‑bottomed boat tour.

Book it: Journeyscape’s Ontario in Depth itinerary is priced from £1,974, based on two sharing. Includes transfers and car hire, some meals and excursions, but excludes flights. Virgin Atlantic flights from Heathrow to Toronto start from £573 return.
journeyscape.com

Near Tobermory, in Canada’s Great Lakes region. Image credit: Destination Ontario

2. Best Canada road trip for wildlife

Prestige Travel’s Newfoundland and Labrador Explorer self‑drive trip covers more than 1,300 miles of the region’s best spots over 15 days. Beginning in St John’s, Canada’s oldest city, clients can expect an array of art galleries, crayon‑coloured houses and seafood bars serving the latest catch from lobster to oysters.

The route then takes clients on a five‑hour drive to Twillingate, where two nights allows ample time to go whale‑watching and spot icebergs.

As they make their way to the former whaling town of L’Anse au Claire in northerly Labrador, they’ll go via Rocky Harbour for a hike into the fjords of Gros Morne National Park.

En route back to St John’s, there are two overnight stops in beachy Cow Head and Gander, a small town immersed in Atlantic aviation history and the setting for popular musical Come From Away.

Denise Hunn, North America programme manager at Prestige Travel, says: “I love this itinerary as the landscapes and experiences are so different to those found in other parts of Canada. Gros Morne National Park hosts a high density of moose and black bear, while the province has one of the world’s largest caribou herds, amazing colonies of bird species such as gannets and puffins, plus the waters are home to 20 species of whale.”

Book it: The 15‑day Newfoundland and Labrador Explorer costs from £3,250, based on two sharing. Includes car hire, an iceberg and whale‑watching cruise, admission to Gros Morne National Park and flights departing September 1.
prestigetravel.co.uk

St. John’s, Newfoundland. Image credit: Destination Canada

3. Best Canada road trip for families

Taking kids around the country by car might not sound appealing – but introduce them to Canada’s dinosaur capital at Drumheller and they’ll have more to think about than asking ‘Are we nearly there yet?’

Starting with two nights in Calgary to adjust to the new time zone, families can immerse themselves in Rocky Mountains landscapes at Banff, then move on to the Canadian Badlands, where canyons and cowboy culture meet dinosaur fossils and dark sky preserves. Archaeological digs are still underway at Dinosaur Provincial Park plus there are plenty of fossils on display at Canada’s only palaeontology museum.

Lorna Curry, head of product at First Class Holidays, says: “This is Alberta’s wild side, a road trip through landscapes created over millennia. The views are epic, with skies that reach as far as the eye can see, and not just one, but two Unesco World Heritage Sites, plus with the dinosaur capital of the world, it’s great for a family holiday.”

Add biking or kayaking at Cypress Hills Provincial Park; go west along the Red Coat Trail to see rock art at Writing‑on‑Stone Provincial Park; and stop along the return leg to Calgary at Head‑Smashed‑In Buffalo Jump to learn about traditional hunting practices with an Indigenous guide, for a journey that is as educational as it is enjoyable.

Book it: Jurassic Adventures in Southern Alberta costs from £3,239, with flights from Heathrow, 10 nights’ accommodation, car rental, plus entrance to Head‑Smashed‑In Buffalo Jump and Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology.
fcholidays.com

Image credit: Travel Alberta/Michael Matti

4. Best Canada road trip for history

If clients have already roamed the Rockies or clocked up miles along the Cabot Trail, one of the many selling points of a country the size of Canada is there’s always somewhere new to explore.

Manitoba is rarely a first‑time destination, but it has plenty to entice repeat visitors with its unique cultural mix.

Winnipeg alone has more than 100 languages and nationalities and you’ll see many of them in evidence at The Forks, a designated historic site that has evolved over centuries from a rest stop by the Red and Assiniboine rivers into a fur‑trading post, train terminus and now home to galleries, festivals, public art exhibits and a huge indoor market.

Top sights include the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and Qaumajuq, the world’s largest collection of Inuit art at Winnipeg Art Gallery.

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Winnipeg. Image credit: Destination Canada

From there, it’s almost 100 miles to Whiteshell Provincial Park, where the Mennonite Heritage Village displays original barns, houses and even a working windmill used by this immigrant community.

Compare it with the Icelandic influence farther north in Gimli and Hecla, both on Lake Winnipeg, which wear their Viking heritage with pride during the Icelandic Festival of Manitoba each August. And finish with a visit to Riding Mountain National Park on the way back to the city.

Book it: Canadian Affair’s self‑drive, Manitoba The Heart of Canada, costs from £1,999 including flights, 11 nights’ accommodation and 12 days’ intermediate car hire with insurance, based on a September 16 departure.
canadianaffair.com

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The Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Winnipeg. Image credit: Destination Canada

Best of the rest

Drive the Dempster Highway

Forget traffic jams – this bucket-list route takes in 458 miles of some of the most untouched scenery in the world, between Dawson City in the Yukon and Inuvik in the Northwest Territories.

Along the way, learn about the history of the Klondike Gold Rush, go hiking in Tombstone Territorial Park and drive across the Arctic Circle.

Sail the Sunshine Coast

British Columbia’s coastline is top road-trip territory, with ferry services connecting straits of land between the bays and inlets that dot this shoreline. Travellers are likely to see more whales, bears, elk and other wildlife than fellow tourists, bookending the trip with time in Vancouver and BC capital Victoria.

Mosey round the Maritimes

Combine three Canadian provinces in one trip with a journey through Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Highlights include the Lighthouse Route to Lunenburg, the Fundy Coastal Drive and the famous Cabot Trail – with plenty of stunning scenery and delicious seafood to be had on the way.