Canada

Picking one side of Canada for a first visit

Scale decides every Canadian itinerary. The Trans-Canada Highway runs about 8,000 km from St. John's to Victoria, and even the flight from Toronto to Vancouver takes over 4 hours. A first visit should pick one side of the country and stay there.

• The east in ten days: three nights in Toronto, with a day at Niagara Falls. Take VIA Rail to Ottawa for Parliament Hill and the national museums, then continue to Montreal (2.25 hours) and Quebec City (3.5 hours more) for the walled old town and the Château Frontenac.
• The west in two weeks: start in Vancouver and ferry to Victoria. Then fly or drive to Calgary. Give the Rockies a full week: Banff and Lake Louise first, then the Icefields Parkway north to Jasper. Spare days go to Whistler or the Okanagan, a lake valley known for fruit and wine.
• Three weeks or longer: link both halves with a domestic flight, or add the Maritimes. Halifax is the natural base there, with Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island.

Book the Rockies first. Summer rooms in Banff and Jasper sell out, Parks Canada campsites take reservations, and popular spots such as Moraine Lake run on reservation or shuttle systems in summer. The Rocky Mountaineer runs only from late April to early October.

Rental firms add steep surcharges for dropping a car in another city, and unlimited kilometres usually apply only inside the province where you picked it up. Cross the border into the next province and many contracts cap you at 200 km a day.

Outside the cities you will drive, so book a car early for summer.

Summer hiking, Canada Day and autumn colour in the east

June to September suits most trips to Canada, when Toronto's highs average 24 to 27°C, the Rockies open for hiking and festivals cluster around Canada Day on 1 July. Late September and October bring fall colours to the east, and December to March is ski and northern-lights season.

Coastal summers top out in the low 20s; the interior reaches 25 to 30°C.

Fall colours peak in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes while Toronto days are still 15 to 22°C, the best weeks for an eastern road trip.

On the prairies and in the interior, daily averages hover near minus 15°C and wind chill can push readings below minus 40°C. Whistler and the Rockies are the ski areas, and Yukon and the Northwest Territories the places for northern lights. The Icefields Parkway is often closed by snow, so carry winter gear on any mountain drive.

A run of holidays starts on 21 June with National Aboriginal Day, continues with Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day on 24 June (a major celebration in Quebec), and ends with Canada Day on 1 July. Calgary adds its Stampede rodeo. Ottawa's Tulip Festival is in spring, and theatre seasons at Stratford and Niagara-on-the-Lake run into the fall.

Poutine, Montreal bagels, lobster and butter tarts

Canadian food is regional. Quebec has the strongest identity, with poutine, tourtière meat pie and Montreal's bagels and smoked meat; the Atlantic coast has lobster and the West Coast has Pacific salmon. Butter tarts, Nanaimo bars and maple syrup turn up nationwide, and restaurant tips run 15 to 20%.

Poutine is fries smothered in gravy over cheese curds; look too for tarte au sucre. Breakfast might bring peameal bacon, and Halifax has its donair (sliced beef in a pita with a sweet condensed-milk sauce).

Nanaimo bars are chocolate-topped custard squares, and beaver tails are fried dough dusted with icing sugar.

Try the brewpubs over the big lagers. The drinking age is 18 in Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec and 19 elsewhere, and bars may not accept a foreign driving licence as ID, so carry your passport. Most provinces sell liquor only in licensed stores.

Take shoes off in private homes. In Quebec, start with bonjour before switching to English.