I am considering a cross-Canada road trip from Vancouver to Newfoundland this summer. I'll be travelling solo and mainly be doing wild car camping. I plan to mainly stick close to the Trans-Canada, but of course explore a little off the beaten path.
I'm looking for recommendations of places to see, unique sights, hidden gems, beautiful nature experiences, places to eat, etc. For example, a friend mentioned the Tunnels of Moose Jaw which would have never been on my radar.
In the interest of keeping it Canadian this summer, what do you suggest as some "must-sees" across the country?
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Craig Baird, who lives in Stony Plain, starts his cross-country road trip tomorrow for his Canadian History Ehx podcast and writing. He’s doing it all camping and car camping. He’ll be posting his adventure on Twitter.
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Make sure you don't skip out on Prince Edward Island. Pretty easy to take the bridge from New Brunswick and the ferry back to Nova Scotia. It's a beautiful part of the country with some of the nicest people you'll meet.
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Take the detour south at Medicine Hat on HW41. Elkwater is your town for supplies and a nice lake. Continue south to TWP74 (there are a few options heading east), easy enough to figure out and get to Ft Walsh which has some good hiking trails where we saw lots of wildlife like moose and deer. Place has a some interesting dark history(massacre) if you have time for the visitor centre, worth doing before you hit the trials so you know where the blood piles are.
We were staying in Elkwater so headed back there, but I'm sure there is more neat stuff heading back up to the TCH. Really cool area. Oh, I'd try to time it for mid-week, Elkwater gets a bit busy on weekends and it is so nice when no one is around.
EDIT: some pics
Spoiler!
Elkwater:
Stormy skies are incredible.
Drive to Ft Walsh:
Ft Walsh area
Last edited by Fuzz; 06-25-2025 at 09:25 AM.
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Make sure you don't skip out on Prince Edward Island. Pretty easy to take the bridge from New Brunswick and the ferry back to Nova Scotia. It's a beautiful part of the country with some of the nicest people you'll meet.
My mother's side of my family is from PEI so it's on the list! It's been about 20 years so I'm looking forward to heading back.
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I would consider taking highway 3 from Vancouver to Medicine Hat rather than Highway 1. It adds probably about an hour to your trip, but I find that drive much better, with some more interesting towns along the way.
Highway 1 from Vancouver to Calgary is pretty quick, but I find pretty boring. Not sure about how your camping would work but it's only about a two day drive if you're stretching it out. Highway 3 has for stupid road trip attractions:
Coleman, Alberta - big Piggy Bank
Sparwood - Big Truck
Cranbrook - Ed the Elephant (gets super hot when it's sunny out)
Creston - Sasquatch at the Columbia Brewery
Salmo - World's largest penny and Dragonfly cafe was pretty good when I was there
Then you have interesting towns, beaches, etc. with Osoyoos and Grand Forks. Moyie has a provincial park but it's windy, so you might catch some wind surfers on it. And you're right at the border in a couple spots if you want to cut across to the US for any reason.
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Dinosaur Provincial Park (near Brooks so not far off the TCH). The landscape is spectacular, completely different from the prairies. I'd also recommend coming home a different way once you get back to Saskatchewan. Veer slightly north and follow the other TCH (#16) through Saskatoon, Edmonton, and Jasper for some different scenery. It won't add much time to the trip either.
One day I'm going to road trip to Tuktoyaktuk and aim to be there on June 21st. I'd like to get a convoy of like 3 pick-up trucks with some buds and we just drive, stop whenever we want and basically camp on the side of the road. Sleep in the bed of the truck (no homo) and carry on. Someone on this board did it, I think Fuzz.
Could chew through some serious volumes of audiobook and podcast. 44 hours each way according to the google.
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I've done that trip sleeping in the back of my SUV the whole way there and back. Grabbed a hotel a couple times as a treat.
You'll be shocked at how huge Ontario is. Takes forever to drive across. Everything there sucks, too.
Honestly, blast through the prairies and Ontario. It's all the same as Calgary with the same type of people. Once you hit Quebec it gets interesting and the Maritimes are awesome. Like, every maritime province is awesome.
That was the highlight of my cross-Canada adventure...a detour into France. It's super weird and cool. Literally have to go through French customs and everything is French. When I was there they even used European plug-ins. All the cars were Peugeots and stuff. Totally trippy.
Agree with whoever said PEI is cool. It is. Confederation Bridge is cool, too. Only plan to stay a day or two, though. It's really small and unless you're an Anne of Green Gables superfan there's really jack-sht to do after you've seen a couple lookouts and checked out the red dirt. I think I stayed three days and by the third day I hit a movie in Charlottetown to kill time before I left.
Quebec City is awesome. Montreal is cool. Halifax rules. St. John's is fantastic.
Toronto sucks balls. Just a big blah city. Niagara Falls are worth a look-see. Most of the Ontario cities you've always heard about (Thunder Bay, Sudbury, Hamilton, etc.) are all garbage. Ottawa is actually really nice and cool, though. Don't miss that. Lots to see and do and the Museum of the History of Civilization is super sick.
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One day I'm going to road trip to Tuktoyaktuk and aim to be there on June 21st. I'd like to get a convoy of like 3 pick-up trucks with some buds and we just drive, stop whenever we want and basically camp on the side of the road. Sleep in the bed of the truck (no homo) and carry on. Someone on this board did it, I think Fuzz.
Could chew through some serious volumes of audiobook and podcast. 44 hours each way according to the google.
Ya, I did it from Whitehorse in a rental RV. I've travelled a lot, and that's still one of my top trips ever. We ended up listening to the entire Hip discography on the Dempster.
There are a few places to pull off and camp(we did a few nights), but you are really better to just use the campgrounds. They are fairly affordable from what I remember, and not too busy except for Tombstone, but even there we didn't book and they had lots of space.
June 21 is a good target, we did Canada Day on the McKenzie which was unforgettable and the sun did not set that far north.
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Agree with whoever said PEI is cool. It is. Confederation Bridge is cool, too. Only plan to stay a day or two, though. It's really small and unless you're an Anne of Green Gables superfan there's really jack-sht to do after you've seen a couple lookouts and checked out the red dirt. I think I stayed three days and by the third day I hit a movie in Charlottetown to kill time before I left.
I couldn't disagree more with this. I'm not sure how you messed up visiting PEI that much but there's an absolute ton of things to check out around the island that have nothing to do with Anne of Green Gables.
- Climb to the top of West Point Lighthouse or even stay the night at the inn inside it
- East some great seafood on the ocean shoreline at Point Prim
- Go ride a bike on the Confederation Trail
- Enjoy the small town life while having a beer on the patio at Bogside Brewing in Montague
- Check out the boardwalk, sand dunes and beach at Greenwich in PEI National Park
And that's not even including all the stuff you can do in Charlottetown. I was there for 4 days and didn't get to everything I wanted to see.
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I couldn't disagree more with this. I'm not sure how you messed up visiting PEI that much but there's an absolute ton of things to check out around the island that have nothing to do with Anne of Green Gables.
- Climb to the top of West Point Lighthouse or even stay the night at the inn inside it
- East some great seafood on the ocean shoreline at Point Prim
- Go ride a bike on the Confederation Trail
- Enjoy the small town life while having a beer on the patio at Bogside Brewing in Montague
- Check out the boardwalk, sand dunes and beach at Greenwich in PEI National Park
And that's not even including all the stuff you can do in Charlottetown. I was there for 4 days and didn't get to everything I wanted to see.
Your list literally covers two days. Did those (didn't stay in the Inn, but parked outside it for the night and was woken up by a Parks dude just checking in and letting me know I wasn't supposed to overnight there, but he'd let it slide).
A beer at a brew pub? lol, you can do that in literally every stop in every place along your journey. And that is enjoyable, but definitely not something unique to PEI.
I am considering a cross-Canada road trip from Vancouver to Newfoundland this summer. I'll be travelling solo and mainly be doing wild car camping. I plan to mainly stick close to the Trans-Canada, but of course explore a little off the beaten path.
I'm looking for recommendations of places to see, unique sights, hidden gems, beautiful nature experiences, places to eat, etc. For example, a friend mentioned the Tunnels of Moose Jaw which would have never been on my radar.
In the interest of keeping it Canadian this summer, what do you suggest as some "must-sees" across the country?
My dad drove from Alberta to Newfoundland and back probably 10 times in his life, I've done it a few times.
Like it's been said, but take the time to stop at as many tourist spots (World's biggest) as you can. Terry Fox monument outside Thunder Bay is a must do. Out east the Cabot Trail around Cape Breton, taking time to stop on the Bay of Fundy and the magnetic hill are my go tos. Depending on how you detour in NS, Peggy's Cove is beautiful.
Also, I know you plan on sticking to the Trans Canada, but just past Thunder Bay you can take highway 11 around northern Ontario and connect back at North Bay. It is one of those stretches where there is no service for a couple hundred km, but it was the most beautiful wilderness if that is your thing, and no traffic so just a relaxing drive.
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Take the detour south at Medicine Hat on HW41. Elkwater is your town for supplies and a nice lake. Continue south to TWP74 (there are a few options heading east), easy enough to figure out and get to Ft Walsh which has some good hiking trails where we saw lots of wildlife like moose and deer. Place has a some interesting dark history(massacre) if you have time for the visitor centre, worth doing before you hit the trials so you know where the blood piles are.
We were staying in Elkwater so headed back there, but I'm sure there is more neat stuff heading back up to the TCH. Really cool area. Oh, I'd try to time it for mid-week, Elkwater gets a bit busy on weekends and it is so nice when no one is around.
This is good advice. If you were wanting to stay south of Calgary, you could take the Crowsnest Highway (Highway 3) all the way to Vancouver and come back on the TCH.
If you really wanted to do a huge loop though BC, you could head north out of Vancouver on 99 and hit Squamish, Whistler, Pemberton, Lillooet and meet up with the TCH at Kamloops (technically Cache Creek).
I've done all of that and the scenery is incredible.
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Canada Road Trip Recommendations
