Canada on your own
Turquoise lakes beneath glaciers, roads running towards the Arctic and whales off the headlands: Canada is the country where the campervan makes total sense — provided you respect the distances.
When to go
Core season mid-June to mid-September: passes clear of snow, campgrounds open, endless days (18 hours of light in the Yukon in June). July-August concentrate the crowds at Banff and Tofino; September is the golden month — larches turning gold in the Rockies, crowds gone, bears in hyperphagia and highly visible. May and October remain workable in the south (Vancouver Island, the Maritimes), but snow still closes high trails into June and Yukon services fold from Labour Day.
What it costs
Campervan €90-160/day in summer (family RV €130-220), to book 6-9 months ahead for July-August; hefty one-way fees if you don't loop. Fuel consoles you: roughly €1.10-1.25/L. Campgrounds €20-35 (national and provincial parks), motels €90-160, the annual Parks Canada Discovery Pass ~€100 per vehicle, quickly paying for itself. Budget €4,000-5,500 for two over 3 weeks excluding flights, mostly van and campgrounds.
Driving & transport
Right-hand driving, sensible limits (90-110 km/h on highways) and frequent photo radar. The local traps: moose and elk at dusk (collisions kill — slow down from the first yellow sign), fuel stations sometimes 200 km apart up north (half-tank rule), zero cell coverage on entire stretches (download offline maps). Right turn on red is allowed everywhere... except on the island of Montreal. In a van: never leave food, a cooler or even toothpaste outside overnight in bear country — everything goes in the vehicle or the campgrounds' metal lockers.
Canada is measured in days of driving rather than kilometres: you don't "do" the world's second-largest country, you choose from it. In the west, the Rockies line up Banff, the Icefields Parkway and Jasper along North America's finest driving corridor; at the Pacific's edge, Vancouver Island mixes rainforest with the surf of Tofino; up north, the Yukon offers the last true frontier you can reach on wheels; in the east, Gaspésie and the Maritimes unroll their fishing villages between gannet colonies and giant tides.
The campervan or RV is a national way of life here: organised campgrounds even in the wildest parks, dump stations everywhere, cheap fuel. The real constraints lie elsewhere — a short season (mid-June to mid-September for most of it), national park campgrounds that book out from January, and coexistence with bears, which demands absolute food discipline at camp.
The destinations that matter
6No. 013 nightsBanff and the Rockies' lakesLakes of an unreal turquoise beneath limestone walls, elk grazing in town: Banff is the dazzling — and most contested — gateway to the Rockies.
No. 021 night on the road + 2 nights in JasperIcefields Parkway and JasperA road that threads glaciers, milky lakes and walls of ice over 232 km: the Icefields Parkway is North America's finest day of driving — and deserves to last two.No. 033 to 4 nightsVancouver Island and TofinoEight-century-old cedars, mist-wrapped beaches pounded by the Pacific and grey whales on migration: Vancouver Island is the west coast in its raw state, a 90-minute ferry from the mainland.No. 047 to 10 nightsYukon and the Alaska HighwayEmpty roads to the horizon, a sun that never sets and Canada's highest peaks as a backdrop: the Yukon is the road trip in its purest state — the one where you fill up at every pump.No. 055 to 6 nightsGaspésieA road hugging the St. Lawrence until it becomes the sea, a pierced rock set on the horizon and 110,000 clamouring gannets: Gaspésie is the finest driving loop in the East.No. 066 to 7 nightsCabot Trail and the MaritimesA corniche road above the gulf, 16-metre tides you cross on foot then paddle over in a kayak, and lobster on every wharf: the Maritimes are the warm, ocean-going finale of a Canadian journey.
Our flagship guide — €29
Guide available“Canada on Your Own”, the complete edition, is out
10 chapters: day-by-day itineraries, driving and transport, a costed budget and checklists — the same method as our Namibia guide.
The guide is currently written in French — an English edition is in the works.
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