Where to visit in Canada?

[MerryMarigold]

Hopefully in the summer. Got family in Toronto and Montreal. Would love to see some mountains/ lakes. Would love to visit PE Island, but these all cover vast distances so maybe not realistic. Kids are 11,11,14. 2-3 weeks away. Any ideas for an itinerary?

If you like your kids enough hire an RV to go up or down the Rockies, Calgary to Edmonton or vice versa, or just do it by car, 5-7days. You can fly in/from both places. Also the Canadian badlands below Calgary are well worth seeing. If you happen to be going early July don't miss the Calgary Stampede. I only know about this area of Canada though!

Banff National Park... so beautiful I joked that the mountains and lakes looked fake ! (Fly to Calgary as it's only a short drive away)

The Laurentians to the north-west of Montreal are beautiful. Small mountains (weird Disneyfied Tremblant resort is worth a visit) and lots of beautiful lakes nearby. Mont Orford to the east is also stunning - you can see for miles, across the US border if the weather is really clear. Both doable in a day but I’d stay a bit longer.

Quebec City also great fun. Take the train up the coast to La Malbaie.

Don't know about Montreal but if you can get over to the West in an RV visit The Rockies. Banff, Lake Louise is stunning. Dinosaur Provincial Park , Drumheller - the hoodoos were amazing to see and hearing coyotes and bears at night in an RV was an experience!

Meghan and Harry’s?

(Sorry, couldn’t resist! )

Thank you. I'll check out these places and RVs. Maybe an internal flight though!

As others say, the west is gorgeous, and is great for a first time visit to Canada. However, if you are wedded to seeing family in Montreal/Toronto I would think about doing a southern loop under Lake Ontario - head from Montreal to the mountains in Vermont via the 1000 islands region, to the Ben and Jerry's factory near Burlington, VT, then across through the Adironacks and Finger Lakes in upstate New york, Letchworth SP. I think it's under 2 hours Montreal to Burlington, VT and then on to Niagara Falls, about 7 hours. Plenty to do and see on the way. It sounds like a lot of driving, but over 2/3 weeks you would be okay. Slightly closer to your family, Tremblant is great, so is "cottage Country" up in Muskoka, Bruce Peninsula is also worth a visit as is Algonquin, which runs a "wolf Howl" during the summer, where the trackers find the wolf pack during the day then in the evening you go and listen to them. You can get a cottage or MEC offer camping gear for rent if that's more your family's thing. But canoeing and kayaking in the summer is lots of fun, hope you have a great holiday!

Distances here are huge. I think you need to decide if you want to go east - so Toronto, Montreal and potentially PEI, or west - Alberta/the Rockies. I'm biased as I live on the doorstep of the mountains in Calgary but there is also amazing scenery in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick/Nova Scotia.

The Eastern option would require multiple internal flights so you'd need to take that into consideration. In Alberta your best bet is to hire an RV or car (depending on your accommodation preferences) and do a loop from Calgary or if you're really up for a road trip, travel from Calgary to Vancouver and over to Vancouver Island if you have time. You can fly from Calgary - Vancouver but it's a beautiful drive and you can visit Yoho, Revelstoke, the Okanagan, Whistler etc. en route.

I wouldn't go to Edmonton, it's not near the mountains and there are no direct flights to the UK. It's easier to fly in and out of Calgary - an hour from the mountains and direct flight options - or into Calgary and back from Vancouver if you also go to B.C.

So, around Toronto you've got Niagra Falls - the town is tacky as hell but the falls themselves spectacular. You could stay at Niagra on the Lake which is a small historic town with historic sites and vineyards nearby.
Then you've got Alghonqquin Regional Park also close to Toronto. That's certainly got lakes in abundance and was the high light of our trip to eastern Canada.
If you wanted to create an itinerary you could have a 4 nights in Toronto, 2 Niagra on the Lakes, 3 Algonquin, 3 Montreal and split any spare days between 1 of the above depending on what you want to focus on.
For mountains, the Rockies are probably the most spectacular, but that's more western Canada so a bit further out. Places in Banff and Jasper do seem to get booked out quite quickly so you'd need to think about booking that pretty soon.

Muskoka lakes region is amazing. Not too far from Toronto (maybe 1.5 hours drive, if I remember correctly). We hired a gorgeous cabin in the woods, close to the water. We did loads of swimming, canoeing, visiting little towns for weekly markets, it was such a relaxing time.

We also visiting Prince Edward County (NOT to be confused with Prince Edward Island!) and stayed in a lovely little town called Picton. We went to the Sandbanks provincial park, which has a number of gorgeous beaches on the shore of Lake Ontario. We loved exploring all the local towns, all the little antique shops and ice creameries!

@flouncyfanny. I'm now imagining Kate, Wills plus 3 small kids, driving an RV round Canada!