Canada, kids, wildlife, where to start?

[teaandakitkat]

We'd love to travel to Canada next summer, probably for 3 weeks. Me, dh, 3 kids aged 12, 10 and 6. Dh and I have been before in the winter to ski but this time we would mainly want to walk and cycle, and ds12 is really into wildlife and would love to see a bear. He so enjoyed watching the arctic live programme in tv last week, that's partly what has encouraged us to stop thinking about it and actually make plans.
Canada is so vast, where do we even start? When we went before it was easy, we just picked a big ski resort. But this time we have so much amazing country to choose from. I don't know where to start.

Guide books from library
TripAdvisor
Map
Canadian tourist website
Presumably rockies so West coast?
Travel agent eg trailfinders are food or Virgin holidays

I would recommend British Columbia. Have a look at this Virgin site for information but you can always book separately

.https://www.virginholidays.co.uk/destinations/canada/rural-british-columbia-holidays

Whistler have bear safaris throughout the summer. It is absolutely full of brown bears.

Could be combined with Lake Louise/Vancouver Island (which has whale watching).

Tofino is amazing - whales and bears and Eagles etc etc. We stayed at Pacific sands and the beach was lovely for rock pooling etc

Up near Lund is also great for bears and savary island is beautiful for beach trips.

We made great use of the BC ferries to get around

Desolation sound near Lund is a nice place to stay too

I would give Vancouver a miss though. We really didn't like it. Although I am sure lots of people do. I think you can stay in the whistler cabins and do excursions. A lot will depend on your budget.

Seattle is really worth seeing if you have the time/ budget for it.

We had a lovely day on the water in Vancouver and at the food market. Was a nice place to acclimatise but you probably don't want to stay more than a day or two if you're after the wild outdoors

We went last summer for 3 weeks with 2 DC aged 10. We booked with trailfinders and traveled across BC. We flew into Vancouver and out of Toronto, staying in a number of places in between. Best bits were Tofino, Whistler & Banff. We saw bears and various other wild things. Worst bit was Lake Louise - so full of tourists that we couldn't move and as we'd come from Whistler, we'd already seen water that colour. Trailfinders were excellent - sorted flights, car hire & accommodation. Best holiday ever.

You could combine east & west coasts. Agree with everyone that Vancouver Island & particularly Tofino is fab. We stayed at the Tin Wis (first nation ownership) which is right on a lovely beach & rooms have a kitchenette which was useful.

On the west coast Algonquin voyageuroutfitting.com/algonquin-park-wildlife/ is north of Toronto and we saw a black bear there as well as moose etc. In a week we tied this is with a couple of days in Toronto (baseball game was a good evening) and couple of days near Niagara Falls.

Another vote for BC here - especially Whistler! My SIL lives there and I still get excited every time she sends me a picture of a bear (very regular occurrence)... it truly is beautiful there.