8 Best Sights in Canada

Year-round, the park offers the Xplorer Program for kids age 6 to 11. Pick up an Xplorer Booklet at one of the park's visitor centers. Kids who complete at least six of the booklet's 22 activities receive a souvenir.

Being home to direct descendants of the Gaelic pioneers, St. Ann's Bay is a logical site for this college, established in 1938 with a mission to promote and preserve the settlers' heritage. And mission accomplished, because today the campus provides a crash course in Gaelic culture. For instance, after learning about Scottish history in the Great Hall of Clans (particularly the Highland Clearances that sparked a mass exodus of Scots to the New World during the 18th century), you can view a short Gaelic-language film, then discover traditional disciplines like weaving and dancing at interactive stations. Not surprisingly, music at the college is especially noteworthy. Weeklong summer-school courses—as well as occasional weekend workshops—focus on topics such as bagpiping and fiddling. The college hosts lunchtime and Wednesday-evening ceilidhs in summer, and in fall it’s a key site for the Celtic Colours Festival.

Looking for all the world like a setting from one of the Harry Potter novels, this neo-Gothic student center opened its doors in 1919. Originally restricted to male students, Hart House has been open to women since 1972. Revolving selections from Hart House's robust art collection, which includes pieces by the Group of Seven and Emily Carr, hang throughout the building. Each year, new pieces are carefully curated by committee, with a focus on living Canadian artists. The Justina M. Barnicke Gallery comprises two rooms of mixed-media art showcasing contemporary creators from Toronto and beyond. The stained-glass windows and vaulted ceiling in the Great Hall are impressive, but so is the cuisine at the on-site Gallery Grill, which offers a menu of grilled seafood, house-made pastas, and creative veggie options from September through June.

Merchant and fur trader James McGill would probably be horrified to know that the university that he helped found in 1828 has developed an international reputation as one of North America's top party schools. McGill also happens to be one of the two or three best universities in Canada, and certainly one of the prettiest. Its campus is an island of grass and trees in a sea of traffic and skyscrapers. The statue of James McGill himself was removed in Summer 2021 after several bouts of vandalism aimed at the representation of the deceased slave owner. Take the time to stroll up the drive that leads from the Greek Revival Roddick Gates to the austere neoclassical Arts Building and meander over to the splendid Romanesque Redpath Hall building. McGill's first dedicated library is now a grand 300-seat concert hall ( www.mcgill.ca/music/about-us/halls/redpath-hall), though the newer library building next door still bears the generous benefactor's name. If you have an hour or so, drop into the temple-like Redpath Museum of Natural History ( www.mcgill.ca/redpath) to browse its eclectic collection of dinosaur bones, old coins, African art, and shrunken heads.

This station founded in 1979 was first to conduct long-term research on the Gulf of St. Lawrence cetaceans, in particular the endangered blue whales. Get a sense of the animal's grand presence in life-size painting and sculptures at the visitor center, and hear the mammal’s distinctive language in the acoustic room.

Almost a city unto itself, the University of Toronto's student and staff population numbers well over 100,000. The institution dates to 1827, when King George IV signed a charter for a "King's College in the Town of York, Capital of Upper Canada." The Church of England had control then, but by 1850 the college was proclaimed nondenominational, renamed the University of Toronto, and put under the control of the province. Then, in a spirit of Christian competition, the Anglicans started Trinity College, the Methodists began Victoria, and the Roman Catholics began St. Michael's; by the time the Presbyterians founded Knox College, the University was changing at a great rate. Now the 12 schools and faculties are united and accept students from all over the world. The architecture is interesting, if uneven, as one might expect on a campus that's been built in bits and pieces over 150 years.