Discover Canada travel guide

Canada is a beautiful country full of diverse people, food, climates and landscapes.

If you love the great outdoors you will love Canada — from snowboarding and off-road biking in the mountain ranges to surfing along the coastline and rafting down the rivers. There’s also stunning scenery, charming towns and unique wildlife from coast to coast. Canada shares a land border with the USA and a maritime border with Greenland.

Being so large, Canada crosses over 5 different time zones from UTC-3 in St Johns to the East to UTC-8 in Vancouver in the West.

Canada is a culturally diverse country that prides itself on equality, respect and tolerance. They are socially conscious and have strong conventions of social etiquette.  

• Canadians don’t like being seen as an extension of the USA, so try not to blend them into one country when talking to locals.
• It’s best to avoid using the word ‘eskimo’ as it may be offensive to some. The preferred term to describe native people is ‘First Nations’.
• If you are visiting someone’s home be sure to take your shoes off.

• It really depends on what you’re planning to do when you get there! In Winter, Canada becomes a ski resort, while in Summer the sunshine and warm weather thaw the country making it great for other outdoor adventures like climbing and mountain biking.

• Canada has four main seasons throughout the year which offer changing landscapes, temperatures and activities. The weather varies across this country due to its large size. Temperatures below are averages for Toronto:

• Renting a car is one of the best ways to see Canada, but in the big cities you can find plenty of taxis, buses and trains. However, some buses and trains are commuter-focused and may not run late at night or on weekends. Another option for travelling between cities is the extensive network of domestic flights.

• Canadian inventor Catalin Alexandru Duru’s propeller-based hoverboard travelled a total distance of 275.9m in 2015.
• The world’s largest street hockey tournament consisted of 5,360 teams and 35,970 players.

• The national icons are the Maple leaf, Beavers and ‘Mounties’.