1182 Best Sights in Canada

When this massive wooden-hull gold dredge was in operation (1913–59), it ate rivers whole, spitting out gravel and keeping the gold for itself—on one highly productive day it sucked up 800 ounces. These days the dredge—a Canadian National Historic Site—occupies a spot along Bonanza Creek about 10 miles southeast of Dawson. The dredge is still worth a look, even on your own, if only to ponder the geology and economics that made it viable to haul this enormous piece of equipment into the middle of nowhere at a time when gold only brought $20 an ounce. You can pan for gold yourself in Bonanza Creek, where the Klondike Visitors Association offers a free claim for visitors. Bring your own supplies (almost every gift shop in town sells pans). You can also view the full inner workings of the dredge on one of the Dawson City tours offered by the visitors center.

At this exciting adventure park, a forested trail will take you across a canyon via Canada's two highest suspension bridges (130 meters [426 feet]; 80 meters [263 feet]). There are also viewing platforms where you can marvel over the canyon formation and the surrounding mountain ranges. A play park for kids is included in the fee, but there's an extra charge for the rope challenge course, mountain coaster, giant canyon swing, and zipline. There is also a climbing wall and axe-throwing in the park. Different day passes are available.

When the sky is clear, the telescope at the Gordon Southam Observatory is focused on whatever stars or planets are worth watching that night. Admission to the observatory is by donation and it's open year-round Saturday evenings, from 7 to 11, weather permitting.

Starting at the Malabeam Tourist Information Center, the walk covers the full length of the gorge and is dotted with interpretive panels and monuments. Nearby, you can descend the nearly 250 steps to the wells, holes worn in the rocks by the swirling water. Guided walking tours are also available. According to native legend, a young woman named Malabeam led her Mohawk captors to their deaths over the foaming cataract rather than guide them to her village. The bodies of the Mohawks were found the following day, but Malabeam was not found. The view over the gorge from the center is breathtaking, particularly at snowmelt time or after heavy rain.

The lieutenant governor—the Queen's representative in Newfoundland—lives at Government House, which was built in the 1830s. Myth has it that the 12-foot ditch surrounding the structure was intended to keep out snakes, though Newfoundland is one of the few regions in the world to have no snakes. The original governor, so the story goes, was expecting a warmer colony where serpents might be a problem. In fact, the moat was designed to allow more light into the basement rooms. House tours (free) can be arranged by appointment. The marvelous garden is open all year for you to explore on your own.

Take a stroll through the walled grounds and 35 acres of formal gardens at Government House, residence of British Columbia's lieutenant governor, the King's representative in BC. The 19th-century Cary Castle Mews on-site are home to an interpretive center, a costume museum, and a tearoom. The main house is open for guided tours one Saturday a month.

This 1828 Palladian mansion on the south bank of the St. John River is the official residence and office of New Brunswick's lieutenant governor. Guided tours take in elegantly restored state rooms and art galleries exhibiting New Brunswick art and crafts. The 11-acre grounds, once a 17th-century Acadian settlement, border an early Maliseet burial ground. It's also the venue for a number of festivals and other events every year.

Built between 1799 and 1805 for Sir John Wentworth, the Loyalist governor of New Hampshire, and his racy wife, Fannie (Thomas Raddall's novel The Governor's Lady tells their story), this elegant house has since been the official residence of the province's lieutenant governor—the Queen's representative. Its construction of Nova Scotian stone was engineered by a Virginian Loyalist, Isaac Hildrith, and it's North America's oldest consecutively occupied government residence because the White House, while older, was evacuated and burned during the War of 1812. Half-hour guided tours are offered in July and August, and the Lieutenant Governor's Garden Party in June is open to the public. 

Toronto is filled with back alleys and laneways, most of which are not very nice to look at, but Graffiti Alley is a vibrant amateur spray paint gallery. Running behind Queen West from Spadina to Portland Street, the alleyway is filled with colorful work from local graffiti writers and gets a constant stream of gawkers and photographers dodging garbage and recycling bins to see the art. It's become such an institution that its former nickname is now its official street name, with a street sign and everything.

You can wander the Stampede Park grounds and visit the free Grain Academy, an interesting small museum in the Roundup Centre that proclaims itself "Canada's only grain interpretive center." There's a model-train display depicting the movement of grain from the prairies through the Rockies to Vancouver. There's also a working model of a grain elevator.

Pioneer and early Victorian artifacts are the basis of a collection that includes memorabilia of Ron Turcotte, the jockey who rode Secretariat to Triple Crown victory in 1973, a wedding cake made in 1940, and the balance beam used by daredevil Van Morrell, who crossed the falls on a tightrope in 1904.

Added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 2012, this site commemorates the expulsion of the Acadians by the British in 1755. The tragic story is retold at the visitor center through artifacts and an innovative multimedia presentation that depicts Le Grand Dérangement from both a civilian and military perspective. The latter is shown in a wraparound theater that's modeled on a ship's interior. A bronze statue of Evangeline, the title character of Longfellow's tear-jerking epic poem, stands outside a memorial stone church that contains Acadian genealogical records. The manicured grounds have a garden, apple orchards, a duck pond, and, appropriately enough, French weeping willows.

The knowledgeable and friendly staff at this site, 13 km (8 miles) northeast of Sulphur Gates, can assist with travel information for the region. Explore the free on-site museum to see casts of dinosaur tracks found in the area as well as fossils, archaeological artifacts, profiles of early settlers, and tools used by early pioneers. You'll also find displays about the plants, animals, and birds found in the Willmore Wilderness Park. The gift shop and art gallery sell the works of locals artists and writers. Outside are some historical buildings that are fun to explore.

One of the city's oldest streets, the Grande Allée was the route people took from outlying areas to come sell their furs in town. In the 19th century, the wealthy built neo-Gothic and Queen Anne–style mansions here, which now house trendy cafés, clubs, and restaurants. The street actually has four names: inside the city walls it's rue St-Louis; outside the walls, Grande Allée Est; farther west, Grande Allée Ouest; then finally, boulevard Laurier.

This small-brewery-gone-big is where the craft beer revolution began. Back in 1984, it was Canada’s first microbrewery. Since then, it has grown rapidly. The bustling Granville Island atmosphere is perfect for a tour and tasting of beer history. Tours, which run daily and are booked on a first-come, first-served basis, last about 30 minutes and include a taste of four brews. 

A 4.3-km (2.7-mile) round-trip trek leads to these two small blue-green lakes, above which is a popular rock-climbing area. You can choose between an easy route through the forest or a more difficult route, which passes a waterfall and has nice views of Canmore and the Bow Valley. The trailhead is about 9 km (5½ miles) southwest of Canmore.

As depicted beautifully in the movie Hold Fast (2013), this spectacular 9-km (5½-mile) round-trip hike starts at Long Pond, on Route 431, 5 km (3 miles) east of Trout River, passes through the Tablelands barrens, and descends sharply to a coastline of eroded cliffs and green meadows. Be prepared to do a bit of climbing on your return journey and be mindful of changing tides. Some parts of the cliff edges are undercut, so stick to the trail. A former extension of the trail, from Steve's Cove to Wallace Brook, is now closed. 

After a remark was made at an 1822 dinner party about the "poor" Presbyterians not having a church of their own, Captain Christopher Scott took exception to the insult and spared no expense on this building. The church is decorated with a carving of a green oak tree in honor of Scott's birthplace, Greenock in Scotland.

A museum and a nearby interpretation center document the life and inspirational work of the English-born doctor Wilfred Grenfell (later Sir Wilfred), who in the early 20th century provided much-needed medical services and transformed the lives of the people of this remote land.

A good launching-off point for your Gros Morne visit. The thoughtful displays and videos about the park make this a good place to familiarize yourself with the park and what it has to offer.

Situated southeast of downtown Canmore, Grotto Canyon is accessible only on foot. A waterfall and ancient pictographs are among the highlights of the popular 4.2-km (2.6-mile) round-trip hike to reach the steep canyon. Wear micro-spikes if you do the hike in winter.

North America's largest aerial tramway, the Skyride is a great way to take in the city, sea, and mountain vistas (be sure to pick a clear day or evening). The Skyride makes the 2-km (1-mile) climb to the peak of Grouse Mountain every 15 minutes. Once at the top, there are plenty of activities included in the ticket price. From spring through fall, you can catch a lumberjack show, a ranger talk, a documentary video, or a falconry demonstration. Go hiking, ride the chairlift, play disc golf, or visit a pair of grizzly bears in the mountain's wildlife refuge. For an extra fee, you can mountain bike, tackle a ropes course, go zip-lining, or take a helicopter flight. You can even pay extra to ride on top of the Skyride car. Popular family extras include a treetop canopy course and a chance to have breakfast with the bears. In the winter, you can ski, snowshoe, snowboard, sled, ice skate on a mountaintop pond, or stroll through the Light Walk, an illuminated pathway around a lake. A stone-and-cedar lodge is home to snack shops, a pub-style bistro, and a high-end restaurant, all with expansive city views. The Grouse Grind—a hiking trail up the face of the mountain—is one of the best workouts on the North Shore. Depending on your fitness level, allow between 40 minutes and two hours to complete it (90 minutes is an average time). Then you can take the Skyride down. The BCMC Trail is a less crowded, slightly longer alternative. From late May through September, you can catch a free shuttle to Grouse Mountain from Canada Place. Bus 236 from Lonsdale Quay stops at the base of Grouse Mountain year-round.

Both North Pender and South Pender host sections of the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve. On South Pender a steep trail leads to the 800-foot summit of Mt. Norman, with its expansive ocean and island views; in the newer Greenburn Lake section of the park, forest trails circle a pretty freshwater lake. On North Pender, a historic cottage resort called Roesland is now part of the park; one of the circa-1908 cottages houses the Pender Island Museum. An easy 15-minute walk leads to a tiny islet.

The interactive exhibits and high-tech learning systems at this center include GroundStation Canada, showcasing Canada's achievements in space, and the Cosmic Courtyard, full of hands-on, space-oriented exhibits including a moon rock and a computer program that shows what you would look like as an alien. You can catch daytime astronomy shows or evening music-and-laser shows at the H.R. MacMillan Planetarium.

This peak was named in honor of a Chinese cook who won a bet that he couldn't hike to the top and make it back to town in under six hours. To this day, some people still run the steep 7.4-km (4.6-mile) trail with 748 meter (2,454-foot) elevation gain. Whether you walk or run, the views from the top are outstanding.

Hainle Vineyards Estate Winery is a hidden gem: British Columbia's first organic winery and the first to make ice wines. It is a small producer open for tastings (though not tours unless you're a Royal Wine Club member), and its award-winning wines are highly coveted.

One of the oldest formal Victorian gardens in North America, this city oasis had its start in 1753 as a private garden. Its layout was completed in 1875 by Richard Power, former gardener to the Duke of Devonshire in Ireland. Gravel paths wind among ponds, trees, and flower beds, revealing an astonishing variety of plants from all over the world. The centerpiece is an ornate gazebo-like bandshell, erected in 1887 for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, where free Sunday afternoon concerts take place at 2 from mid-June through mid-September. Grab a coffee and a treat at Uncommon Grounds Cafe, which is housed in the historic Horticulture Hall. The gardens are open year-round and a pleasure in every season.