Cool places to visit in Canada

Three waterfalls drop into the Niagara Gorge on the border with New York State, and the widest of them, Horseshoe Falls, curves away from the Canadian bank. Together they carry more water than any other waterfall in North America. Niagara Parks manages the Ontario shore, where the promenade runs level with the crest and leads on to the tunnels of Journey Behind the Falls, boats that push into the spray, the Whirlpool Aero Car downriver and the illumination that colours the water after dark.

Location: Niagara Falls, Ontario, on the Niagara River

Access: Ticketed for the Niagara Parks attractions along the Canadian bank

Toronto arranges itself around a concrete column 553.3 metres tall, finished in 1976 by the railway company whose initials it carries and left as the tallest free-standing structure on earth for the next 32 years. Lifts climb the shaft to the Main Observation Level, where a glass floor looks straight down on the rail yards and an outdoor terrace opens to the lake wind. Higher again, The Top is the highest viewing platform in the Western Hemisphere, and EdgeWalk sends harnessed groups around the outside of the pod.

Opened: 1976 · Height: 553.3 metres

Location: Front Street West, downtown Toronto

Access: Ticketed, with EdgeWalk booked separately

The Parliament of Canada works from a suite of Gothic Revival buildings on a bluff above the Ottawa River, with nine hectares of lawn in front of them kept by the National Capital Commission. Around three million people come each year. Guided tours cover the Senate and the House of Commons in the buildings each chamber occupies today, along with the East Block and an immersive show about the institution; the Centre Block itself is closed behind hoardings for a long rehabilitation.

Style: Gothic Revival

Location: Wellington Street, downtown Ottawa

Access: Grounds open; tours of the chambers are booked in advance

James O'Donnell drew this church for a congregation of ten thousand and the main construction ran from 1824 to 1829 on the edge of Place d'Armes, with the towers following in 1841 and 1843. The interior is the reason for the queue: a vault of deep blue scattered with gold stars, walls worked in azure, red and silver, hundreds of carved wooden figures and the great Casavant organ. Sightseeing visits run between services, and after dark the nave becomes the screen for a light and sound show.

Architect: James O'Donnell · Style: Gothic Revival · Built: 1824 to 1829

Location: Place d'Armes, Old Montreal

Access: Ticketed for the daytime visit and for the evening show

Champlain founded Quebec early in the seventeenth century, and the town that grew from it is the only city in North America to have kept its ramparts, with the bastions and gates that still ring it. UNESCO listed the district in 1985. The Upper Town on Cap Diamant holds the churches, convents, the Citadel and the Chateau Frontenac; the Lower Town below keeps the stone houses and narrow lanes of Place Royale, reached by stairs or by funicular. The whole district covers about 135 hectares.

Heritage: UNESCO World Heritage since 1985 · Area: about 135 hectares

Location: Quebec City, on and below Cap Diamant

Access: Open streets; the Citadel and the museums inside are ticketed

A working fishing village sits on the granite shore of St Margarets Bay, 43 kilometres southwest of Halifax, its wooden houses and fish stores wedged among boulders the ice left behind. A light has marked Peggys Point since 1868, and the tower above the rocks draws the crowds. A viewing deck near the lighthouse opens the site to wheels as well as boots. The Atlantic here is not tame: the community warns that rogue waves reach the black rocks even on calm days, so visitors keep to the dry granite.

Lighthouse: established 1868

Location: Peggys Cove, St Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia

Access: Open village, with parking, washrooms and a viewing deck

Canada set aside its first national park here in 1885, as Rocky Mountains Park, and it now covers 6,641 square kilometres of the Alberta Rockies: glaciers, ice fields, coniferous forest and a chain of lakes fed by meltwater. It anchors the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site. The Bow Valley carries the road and the town of Banff, gondolas climb the ridges above them, and the Icefields Parkway runs north past Bow Lake and the Waterfowl Lakes towards Jasper.

Established: 1885 · Area: 6,641 square kilometres · Heritage: UNESCO World Heritage

Location: Alberta Rockies, west of Calgary

Access: Ticketed, a valid national park pass is required to enter

Meltwater from Victoria Glacier fills a lake the colour of jade at the head of a valley in Banff National Park, with a canoe dock on the near shore and walking trails climbing into the cirques behind it. The hamlet that shares the name began in 1884 as a Canadian Pacific Railway outpost and, at 1,600 metres, is the highest community in Canada. Parking fills early in summer: Parks Canada points visitors at transit instead, and reservations are required on the shuttles that serve the lake.

Settled: 1884 · Elevation of the hamlet: 1,600 metres

Location: Banff National Park, Alberta

Access: Park pass required, and shuttle reservations for the lake itself

The largest national park in the Canadian Rockies spreads over 11,000 square kilometres north of Banff, with the glaciers of the Columbia Icefield along its southern edge, Maligne Lake in the middle and elk grazing the verges. It is the second largest dark sky preserve in the world, so the nights count as much as the days. Fire ran through the valley in 2024 and the town is being rebuilt; Parks Canada runs interpretive programmes on how the forest is coming back and publishes what is open each season.

Area: 11,000 square kilometres · Heritage: part of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks

Location: Alberta Rockies, north of Banff National Park

Access: Ticketed, a valid national park pass is required

Four hundred hectares of West Coast rainforest fill the tip of the downtown peninsula, held between Burrard Inlet and English Bay and ringed by a seawall loop of about ten kilometres that is walked and cycled one way only. The Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh peoples were on this land long before the city set it aside in 1888. Cedar totem poles stand at Brockton Point, beaches and forest trails fill the interior, and the sea stack of Siwash Rock rises off the western shore.

Area: 400 hectares · Seawall loop: about 10 kilometres

Location: Downtown peninsula, Vancouver

Access: Open daily from 6am to 10pm; attractions inside charge their own admission

George Grant Mackay hung a footbridge of hemp rope and cedar planks across the Capilano canyon in 1889, and wire cables replaced it in 1903. The crossing crosses 140 metres of gorge, seventy metres above the river, and moves underfoot the whole way. The park on the far bank has grown around it with the Treetops Adventure walkways strung between Douglas firs, the Cliffwalk cantilevered along the granite and First Nations carvings under the trees. A free shuttle runs out from downtown Vancouver.

First bridge: 1889 · Span: 140 metres · Height above the river: 70 metres

Location: Capilano Road, North Vancouver

Access: Ticketed, open through the year

Photo: "Capilano Suspension Bridge" by InSapphoWeTrust (CC BY-SA 2.0).

The Butcharts settled beside the family cement works on Tod Inlet in 1904, and the worked-out limestone quarry behind the house became the Sunken Garden that still opens the visit. More than a million people a year now walk the Rose Garden, the Japanese Garden, the Italian Garden and the Mediterranean Garden on the Saanich Peninsula north of Victoria. Parks Canada lists the whole property as a National Historic Site. Each season is planted differently, with fireworks on summer Saturdays and lights at Christmas.

Founded: 1904 · Heritage: National Historic Site of Canada

Location: Brentwood Bay, Vancouver Island, near Victoria

Access: Ticketed, open daily through the year