Silivia

I have always wanted to check out Canada and have decided to go in August by myself. I will be alone, so a safe place for a lone female to walk around and explore would be great. I see from another post that someone suggested Quebec City, but I would also like do some hiking if possible. I'm thinking about the first week of August and would like to use public transportation to get around if possible. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

GaryA

Canada is a huge country - bigger than the US and virtually everywhere has places to hike and safety is rarely a concern though sh-t happens anywhere. How far from Florida do you want to go. To the Canadian Rockies? To Central Canada, (Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal & Quebec)? To the West Coast? the East Coast? The North?

If you substitute the United States for Canada in your post you will realize how difficult it is to answer your query other than for people to mention their favorite places which is of course totally subjective. But maybe that's the type of responses you want. Even so you have to be a little more specific about whether you're looking for an Urban or Rural trip or a little of both.

mtjt

Ditto the last responder - it's a big and varied country. Some food for thought:
- Quebec City is very nice, makes a great long weekend, but the most interesting area - the "Old City", isn't big enough for a whole week.
- Vancouver is a really nice city, beautiful setting of mountains and ocean, compact downtown for walking, great city park at one end of downtown, Stanley Park, showcasing a sample of the regional coastal temperate rainforest, could probably arrange for tours up into the mountains for hiking. Also, if you can get to one of the ferries (probably some public transit would take you there), you can trip over to Vancouver Island or some of the smaller islands. Great hiking opportunities on these, but public transit to get to the trails could be difficult.
- Banff (town), in Banff National Park - lots of tourist facilities in town, spectacularly scenic hiking all around. I'm sure there are also bus tours for day-trips (e.g. up the Icefields Parkway to the Athabasca Glacier. Book soon if you choose this - extremely popular destination.
- Toronto - great for restaurants and live theatre. Hiking? Well there are city parks and adjacent green areas. About 2 hours drive north is Algonquin Provincial Park which is renowned for hiking, but you would have to arrange transportation to get there.
- Halifax - great small city, very "maritime" atmosphere, compact downtown, nicely developed harbour area, lots of pubs, great Celtic music, some interesting shops. It's in the province of Nova Scotia which has wonderful coastal scenery and great hiking opportunities - but spread around, again I don't think public transit would get you from city to hiking very easily.

Have you leafed through a Fodors Guide to Canada?

Silivia

Thank you Gary A. I am looking for some city for siteseeing, but would also like to do hiking - so, I'm thinking rural. Areas that I thought about were Niagara Falls, Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City. From reading some of the other posts, I think I will end up driving a bit, which is fine.
I probably should have done more research before posting so I could narrow my decision more. But all of the above places look wonderful, but I only have a week for the trip.
I'll try more research first.
Thank you.

Judy_in_Calgary

Hello Silivia,

I've found the Canadian Tourism Commission's web site very helpful when I've been researching an area of Canada with which I'm not familiar. You can select a province and then tick boxes such as "outdoor activities" and "cultural activities" or whatever. Then the web site suggestions destinations that provide what you want.

www.travelcanada.ca

With only a week at your disposal, I would suggest one city plus a nearby natural area. If I wanted to reserve some time for hiking, I certainly would not visit more than two cities, and even then I would choose two cities that were relatively close to each other.

Something that may help you to narrow down your choices is the weather factor. The central provinces of Canada can get very hot, humid weather in summer. If you like heat and humidity, then that's fine. If, however, you want to escape excessive heat, you might want to consider Nova Scotia, which is home to the charming city of Halifax and has a lovely coastline. Other areas that will get you away from excessive heat are the Canadian Rockies (Banff / Lake Louise / Jasper) and the west coast (Vancouver).

If you're okay with heat, I'll put in a plug for Ottawa, which I think is a delightful city. If you were to visit Ottawa, you could consider visiting Algonquin Park after that.

If you want to experience French Canadian culture and FANTASTIC food, you could consider Montreal and/or Quebec City.

Hope that helps.

missk

you can easily see both Niagara & Toronto in one week. It is about a 2 hr drive from one to the other. There are some hiking trails between, see www.brucetrail.org. You would probably also like Niagara on the Lake.
There is public transportation between Niagara & Toronto so if you are not comfortable driving in a metro area it is available but to get to hiking trails a rental would be best solution.
Sorry can't help you with hiking in the Montreal/Quebec region.

Borealis

Just to expand on Judy's suggestion - if you visit Ottawa, you are right on the border of Canada's two largest provinces - Quebec and Ontario, so you can sample the two predominant cultures - English and French. Ottawa is also the nation's capital city, and has a wonderful museums and art galleries. And you are just across the Ottawa River from Gatineau, and Gatineau Park - which is a lovely natural area with walking trails and scenic viewpoints.

Here are some websites for you to check out:

http://www.tourottawa.org/

http://www.capcan.ca/gatineau/

http://www.outaouais-tourism.ca/pack...actions7_e.asp

http://www.where.ca/ottawa/subcatego...subtitle_id=30

http://www.grouptourplanner.com/City_of_Gatineau.cfm


Have a great trip!!

bob_brown

Montreal is a large and highly varied city with the full flavor of its French heritage. There are city parks of large size there which, while not rural, would lead to long walks in a green environment.

My own suggestion is the Canadian Rockies. But that is a heck of a long ways from Florida. Like it is a 4 hour flight from Toronto to Calgary.

Erick_L

There's excellent hiking around Quebec City but you definately need a car to get to any hiking trails.

Parc de la rivière Jacques-Cartier is the closest. I like "Les Loups" trail. Moose are not uncommon.

Parc des Grands-Jardins is about 1½ hour east. Mont du Lac des Cygnes trail is a classic hike and a personnal favorite. Bring some bread for the Canada Jays. They'll come and take it from your hand. Hike to the summit and then do the complete loop.

Even further is parc des Hautes Gorges de la rivière Malbaie. I haven't hiked there yet but know many who did. L'acropole des Draveurs trail is another classic.

See www.sepaq.com for the parks mentionned above.

You could easily take 2-3 days driving and hiking around Charlevoix. Another nice thing to do in Québec City is biking.

Montréal doesn't come close as far as hiking goes. It does have some interesting nature walks in the city though. The city is good for cycling too.

Silivia

Thank you everyone for all the information. From your information and websites, I have concluded I need to extend my vacation!!I was wondering if this is possible:
Fly to Buffalo (to use a jetblue credit). Drive from Buffalo to Niagara Falls that same day. Spend a couple of nights checking out Niagara Falls. Drive to Toronto and explore for 3 days. Fly either to Ottawa or Quebec City for 3 or 4 days. Fly back to Florida from Ottawa or Quebec City.
This means expanding my vacation to about 10 days, but sometimes sacrafices must be made!!

zootsi

Silivia, if you are going to do Eastern Canada, I would strongly recommend Quebec City - it is truly unique in all of North America. As others have mentioned, the countryside outside the city is beautiful, and great for hiking. If you want some 'urban' time, choose either Montreal or Toronto. I prefer Montreal because of it's European feel. Check out the
bonjourquebec.com site for some great info, and try to get them to mail you their free travel guides for Quebec City, Montreal and Charlevoix areas. These books are better than any you can buy in a book store!

HogtownJim

Renting a car in the US and dropping it off in Canada may be an issue and if possible will likely involve a hefty fee.

Consider flying to Toronto and renting a car at Pearson airport for your travels. It's about 60 to 90 minute drive or so to Niagara Falls depeding on traffic and how fast you drive.

Another possibility to explore is taking a shuttle or taxi from Buffalo to Fort Erie or Niagara Falls Ontario and rent a vehicle from there.

Silivia

Yeah - I found out is is very expensive to go one-way, so I'm looking at roundtrip Florida to Quebec City with a stopover in Toronto for 4 or 5 days to visit Niagara Falls and Toronto. Is 4 or 5 days enough for these Toronto and Niagara? It's my first time, so I'm trying to get a feel versus digging really deep. Same for Quebec City - I'm planning 3 or 4 days. Then I can decide which places I would like to come back to for another visit.

BAK

You can get a really good idea of the variety of central Canada by flying to Toronto, spending two or three days here, then renting a car and driving to Niagra Falls for a day, and then, driving back in the evening and passing Toronto, and driving east toward Montreal. Cover some boring roads to near Bellevbille, for instance, and check in there late in theevening. The next day drive trhough Prince Edward County (on a map, it looks like an island, in Lake Ontario near Belleville) and on through Kingston.

I'm generally not postivie about Quebec City -- I think Montral has enough old buildings to keep most American tourists happy)

After a couple of days in Montreal, drive back west through Ottawa and then what we call northern OPntario (not all that far north, but beautiful vacation country) including Huntsville and Brancebridge and Gravenhurst to toronto, returnt he car, and drive home.

It's a big circle, French, English, urban, rural, wealthy, not so wealthy, etc.

BAK

Silivia

Thanks everyone - I'm going to fly into Toronto go to Niagara for 2 days, do 2 days in Toronto for my city fix and then Quebec City for 3 days and hopefully spend one of those days hiking - the other 2 days are travel days getting to and from Florida.