Machka 

If someone asked you to name some "don't miss" places on a cross-Canada tour, what would you tell them about your province, or provinces you have visited, and why?


My suggestions (and there are probably a lot more lovely, interesting, and intriguing than these):

BC - the Abbotsford area, and the Golden/Field areas - beautiful scenery.

Alberta - anywhere in the mountains, Drumheller and the dinosaurs (check out the museum!), and the Turner Valley/Black Diamond/Okotoks area just south of Calgary - very pretty.

Manitoba - Riding Mountain National Park, Spruce Woods provincial park (just east of Brandon), Gimli and Hecla, the Whiteshell, and Pine Falls/Victoria Beach area - those are some of the most scenic areas of Manitoba, and Gimli has a lot of Icelandic/Viking history.

Ontario - Kenora/Dryden - very scenic, lots of camping, lots of lakes.

Michel Gagnon

I would add:

– Ontario:
Tour of Lake Superior
Prince Edward county (West of Kingston), and many sections of highway 2 between Oshawa and Montréal.

– Québec:
Highway 138: half of it between Montréal and Québec City, the Montmorency Falls (just east of Québec City)
Highways 360, 138 and 362: a ride through the Charlevoix area: Baie Saint-Paul to La Malbaie
The Gaspé peninsula

– Nova Scotia
All 3 roads in the Southern part have nice sections; roads 104 and 223 are the best.
Southern coast of Nova Scotia, especially if you like wind.

– Newfoundland
The West Coast has some wondeful sceneries, as long as you can support the wind and the cold weather.
Highway 470 from Port-aux-Basques to Rose Blanche : a grueling 70 km... that you need to backtrack, but it's gorgeous.
Coastal villages all the way to Stephenville
A 50-km side trip from Corner Brook to Blow Me Down (highway 450): guess why the village has that name...
Gros Morne National Park

!!Comatoa$ted

For Ontario I would suggest anywhere in the Ottawa Valley. The area around Foymount and Cormac is said to have the highest elevation in Ontario, you can hit some crazy speeds around that area.

Golf XRay Tango

In Ontario, don't miss the Thousand Islands Parkway, especially during the fall colour season.

Just use the road, not the crappy bike path. You can't see the river from the bike path.

cooker

I confess I've only driven across most of Canada, not biked it (yet?).

Niagara Falls is still amazing to see in spite of it's tacky, touristy environs.

New Brunswick is surprising in it's rugged beauty...I vastly preferred it to pastoral PEI.

West Hawk Lake, a meteor crater lake on the TransCanada Highway at the Ontario-Manitoba border where I saw a surprise Canadian win in the 1967 Pan Am games road race has a beautiful campground and soul-cleansingly cold water for swimming...I should know - I spent my childhood summers there.

Pancake Bay...a spectacularily beautiful beach on the north shore of Lake Superior just northwest of Sault Ste. Marie. The lake is incredibly cold, which prevents algae build up, but during calm, warm weather, the shallow water at the beach warms to a tolerable temperature for swimming, and it is so clear!

The Byward market district in Ottawa.

The historic old part of Quebec City.

Lake Louise.

Montreal. Vancouver.

NoReg

New Brunswick

Saint John river in New Brunswick, particularly downriver from Fredericton as far as a nice section right by the river is concerned.

Ontario

Good areas in Ontario have already been mentioned, though many are off the trans Canada by a large margin, though well in reach if you plan on cycling through Toronto for some perverse reason. Wave as you continue east, you will be passing my home. I loved the ride from the thousand Island parkway through to Conrwall which is pretty boring on the 401, but was really enjoyable by bike on HWY2. A lot has to do with the weather of course.

Quebec
I really enjoyed the half day into Quebec from the west, on the north shore, and crossing over the river by ferry, and the half day out. A lot of Quebec is just one house on the Saint Lawrence after another, probably better by boat. I also like the half day into Rivierre du Loup on the south side. The petis temis is nice enough in a dodge the bear spoor on a sandy track kind of way.

The worst part was getting into Montreal, though on the plus I did go to some pretty interesting areas I might not have seen otherwise, like Kanasatake. OK I was lost for a minute there, but it didn't seem very bike friendly. Leaving via Sherbrook was easy enough though one of the ugliests sections on the trip.

axolotl

My favorite touring spots in Canada, from west to east:

From the Montana border north to Jasper, in both BC & Alberta
le P'tit Train du Nord rail-trail in Quebec
Cape Breton Island, NS

cooker

Canada has pretty much one "tier" for crossing since most of the population and development is near the southern border. Surprisingly the entire east and west halves of the country are connected by a single two lane highway: the TransCanada at the Ontario/Manitoba border. A couple of years ago when it was washed out for a few days, the country was split in two. Because the area is in the midst of a huge network of lakes, there aren't even any back roads to use as detours.You had to take a huge by-pass south through Minnesota if you wanted to drive from one side of the country to the other.

JimmyCactus

Hi,

I come from Montreal and I have crossed Wetsern Canada last yeard ( by car ). I think people said it all but I have personaly enjoy Saskatchewan. Yes Saskatchewan ! In the south, there is a national park called "Grassland National Park", a very small national park, not frequented by lots of people. The day I went, only four people were there. You can do backcoutry camping. We were alon to sleep in the national park with the animals. One of the best memory I will have from Canada.

Jimmy Cactus

vik 

They have roads in Canada???...whaaaat!....

vik 

Hwy 3 through BC to Alberta is a nice change from the trans canada hwy - lots of small towns to check out and many fun detours if you are not in a hurry.

Ice fields Parkway in Alberta has been rated consistently as one of the world's most scenic roads.

Any and all of the mountain parks in Alberta and BC - spectacular. Particularly in the spring and fall when tourism is low - you have to get lucky with the weather, but recently we had 30 deg C temps in Alberta in May.

acantor

Visitors to the Niagara Falls area should not overlook the many excellent cycling opportunities that are tantalizingly close to the falls.

- Follow the bicycle path along the gorge between the Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake. It's a spectacular drive! Niagara-on-the-Lake may be the prettiest town in these parts. The Shaw Festival is based in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

- Meander through the Niagara Escarpment area. There are hundreds of routes you can take along quiet country roads. You will pass through villages, towns, and farmland. Warning: some north-south roads are steep!

- Do a wine tour. There are 15,000 acres of vineyards in the Niagara area, and perhaps 40 or 50 wineries. Most of the wineries are between Niagara-on-the-Lake (in the east) and Winona (in the west); virtually all offer free or inexpensive tastings; and several have excellent (albeit expensive) restaurants and inns. Some of the restaurants showcase locally-grown, fresh foods.

5 more

Yeh, the dog sled tracks turn into roads when the snow melts . Eh!

Anywhere on Vancouver Island. Victoria to Port Hardy is a sweet ride. Then catch the ferry to Prince Rupert and continue on to the Columbia Ice Fields. Or time it to catch the repositioning cruise to Vancouver in late September. Check out my pics of our '05 ride https://members.shaw.ca/vlcd/index.html. The Sunshine Coast loop offers beautiful scenery for a short tour. BC offers such diverse scenery that I don't think you can go wrong anywhere you go.

I plan on expanding my knowledge on the rest of Canada in the very near future.

5 More

tomg

Bay of Fundy (incredible tides)
NOVA SCOTIA, Canada
Cabot Trail (steep hills for riding loaded bike, but Great views!)

roosmachine

Vancouver Island: Tofino to Parksville. The section from Tofino to Port Alberni was the most remote section on the trip. Surrounded by massive trees, dense forest and road that engineers forgot. The road is quiet and barely cuts a path through the wilderness. Its like riding through a canyon of trees and mountains.

The Crowsnest Highway: Around Osoyoos, and from Fernie to Pincher Creek was amazingly visual, i was stopping ever few minutes to take another picture. The entire Crowsnest Highway is the road less travelled.

Lake Superior: From Nipigon to Sault Ste. Marie, this section gets a bad rap for traffic and trucks, but in 2005 it was not bad at all (Soft lumber dispute?). The views around Nipigon are like the mini-Rockies. The section through Lake Superior Park was probably the prettiest days worth of riding the trip. Don't skip this section by going south into the USA.

Ontario: I'm partial to the section of Hwy 2 from Port Hope though to Brighton, and south from there into Prince Edward County(Hwy 33). Small historic towns that still have their downtown feel, War of 1812 History everywhere.

Quebec: Montreal is a nice city to ride through, but taking Hwy 132 along the south bank of the river all the way up to Riviere du Loop was the highlight of the trip. Every 10kms there is a pretty small town, constant views of the river, and quaint farm lands, no real climbing. Quebec really is a different universe, everyone was polite and friendly despite my lack of French.

The Oceans: For me, it was important to see the oceans at each end of the trip across Canada. I know Vancouver/Victoria are technically on the ocean but I wanted to look out, and only see waves. That’s why I started out at Tofino on the island, and ended at Cape Spear in NFLD.

Hostels/Campgrounds/Other Cyclists: I spent too much time in hotels, the hostels and campgrounds are where you meet people, make friends, and find other riders. Also, don't be afraid to alter plans to ride with people you have met, riding with other cross Canada cyclists is part of the experience.

cooker

They say after getting incredibly fit for hills crossing the mountains, and assuming after that they can handle anything, west-to-east riders lose some of that hill skill crossing the flat prairies and find the hills around Superior, and again in the Maritimes, to be much tougher than they expected.