Luxury Canada Voyages

The self-styled City of the 1000 Islands sits where the St Lawrence widens into a maze of granite islets, many holding nothing more than a single boathouse and cottage. The Aquatarium tells the river's ecology and shipwreck history, several 19th-century wrecks lie preserved and diveable in the clear, cold water just offshore. Ospreys and herons nest along the shoreline, and a round at one of the area's riverside golf courses rounds out a quintessentially Canadian summer call. A thousand islands, and barely a crowd among them.

Canada's confederation was effectively born in this small Georgian capital, delegates met here in 1864 to first discuss uniting the colonies, a history the handsomely preserved Province House tells in full. Anne of Green Gables country lies a short drive across the island's red-soil farmland to Cavendish's dunes and beaches, while PEI's mussels and oysters, some of the best shellfish in Canada, anchor a genuinely excellent dining scene. Golf courses take full advantage of the island's rolling coastal terrain, and shorebirds crowd the red sandstone cliffs nearby. A small capital with an outsized role in Canadian history.

Newfoundland's second city sits on the Bay of Islands, a fjord-cut stretch of coast that Captain James Cook himself surveyed and mapped in the 1760s, well before his Pacific voyages made him famous. Marble Mountain rises straight from the water behind town, its slopes better known today for skiing than for the marble that gave it its name. Golf courses take advantage of some of the most dramatic scenery on the island's west coast. A rugged, unpolished introduction to Newfoundland.

A St Lawrence River town shaped as much by the water as by the Akwesasne Mohawk territory that straddles the border just outside it. The Long Sault Parkway threads a chain of small islands and beaches created when the seaway was built in the 1950s, flooding the villages that once stood here, a history the local museum tells with real care. Ospreys and herons work the river's shallows, and a round of golf on the riverside links rounds out an easy, unhurried call. A quieter corner of the seaway, with a genuinely layered history.

At the tip of the Gaspé Peninsula, where the St Lawrence finally gives way to open ocean, Gaspé is best known for what lies just offshore, the towering sea arch of Percé Rock and, beyond it, Bonaventure Island's colony of more than fifty thousand northern gannets, one of the largest and most accessible in the world. Forillon National Park's cliffs and forest trails ring the peninsula's tip, and the region's small fishing ports still turn out some of Quebec's best seafood. A dramatic, birdlife-rich edge of the province.

A tiny fishing village wedged between Georgian Bay and the white quartzite peaks of the La Cloche range, painted repeatedly by Canada's Group of Seven for the improbable turquoise of its lakes. Killarney Provincial Park's granite ridges and clear water draw paddlers and hikers in equal number, while the village's own Herbert Fisheries, a takeout shack on the water, is something of a rite of passage for boaters passing through. A short but memorable stop between two of Ontario's great cruising grounds.

Where Lake Ontario empties into the St Lawrence, Kingston's limestone downtown and star-shaped Fort Henry recall its 19th-century role as a British garrison town and, briefly, the capital of the united Canadas. The Thousand Islands begin just beyond the harbor, a favorite among boaters and golfers alike for the scenery as much as the course itself. A strong university-town dining scene and sandy beaches along the lakefront round out a handsome, history-dense stop.

The gateway to Manitoulin, the largest freshwater island on earth, Little Current's swing bridge is the only road link across the North Channel and a genuine local spectacle when it opens for passing boats. Anishinaabe communities on the island, among them Wikwemikong, keep powwow traditions and craft markets very much alive, while a round of golf or a hike up the Cup and Saucer Trail's cliffs both reward the effort. A relaxed harbor town at the edge of a genuinely singular island.

A UNESCO World Heritage waterfront of saltbox houses painted in improbably bright colors, Lunenburg built and launched the Bluenose here in 1921, the racing schooner still pictured on the Canadian dime. Its shipbuilding heritage lives on in a working boatyard and a strong seafood scene built around the same scallop and haddock fleets that still work these waters. One of the best-preserved historic towns in Atlantic Canada, and one of the prettiest.

Midland sits at the edge of Georgian Bay's Thirty Thousand Islands, but its real draw is inland, Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, a painstaking reconstruction of the Jesuit mission built here in 1639, tells one of the earliest and most consequential chapters of contact between European settlers and the Wendat people. Ospreys and herons nest along the bay's granite islets, while a round at one of the area's golf courses and a swim off one of its sand beaches round out the visit. A history lesson with genuinely beautiful water on either side of it.

North America's great bilingual city layers cobbled Old Montreal, its 17th-century stone buildings now home to some of the country's best restaurants, over a modern downtown built for a genuinely serious food and festival culture. The Lachine Canal's bike path and waterfront parks offer an easy afternoon on the water, while the Eastern Townships' vineyards, a short drive out, have quietly become a real source of Quebec ice wine and hybrid varietals. A round of golf on one of the island's historic courses and a stroll through a beach-lined riverfront park round out a city that rewards a slow wander as much as a fine meal.

The southern terminus of the Welland Canal, the engineering marvel that lets ships bypass Niagara Falls entirely, Port Colborne is also the back door to one of North America's most decorated wine regions. The Niagara Peninsula's escarpment vineyards produce an ice wine now served at tables worldwide, alongside a serious and growing list of chardonnay and pinot noir. Herons and egrets work the canal's marshy edges, and a round of golf or a stretch of Lake Erie beach fill out an easy day before, or after, a wine tour proper. Falls-adjacent, without the crowds.

A limestone-soil peninsula jutting into Lake Ontario that has, in barely two decades, become one of Canada's most talked-about wine regions, more than forty wineries now share the County's back roads. Sandbanks Provincial Park's dunes, among the largest freshwater dune systems on earth, back onto beaches warm enough for a proper summer swim, while the surrounding wetlands are recognized as an internationally important bird area. A farm-to-table dining scene has grown up alongside the vines. Ontario's answer to Prince Edward Island, with rather more wine.

The only walled city north of Mexico still standing in its entirety, Quebec City's Chateau Frontenac towers over a UNESCO old town of cobbled lanes and 17th-century stone houses that could pass, at a glance, for provincial France. Ile d'Orleans, a short drive across the bridge, supplies much of the region's cider, maple and cool-climate wine, while the city's own Nordic-style spas, built around riverside steam and plunge pools, draw on a wellness tradition as old as New France itself. A beach along the St Lawrence and a genuinely serious dining scene round out North America's most European city.

A small Lake Superior town named for the iron-stained cliffs that rise straight from the harbor, laced with shoreline trails that reward the climb with sweeping views over Nipigon Bay. The surrounding boreal forest and wetlands sit squarely within one of the richest birding corridors on the entire Great Lakes, warblers, loons and bald eagles all regular sightings. A rugged, little-visited stretch of Lake Superior's north shore.

A tiny fishing village on Lake Superior's rugged north shore, sheltered by the Nicol Islands archipelago just offshore and long favored by artists for the quality of its light. Boat tours wind through the islands' sea caves and cliffs, while the surrounding waters remain some of the cleanest and clearest on the entire lake. A handful of century-old cottages and a strong small-town fishing tradition round out one of Superior's most laid-back stops.

Where the Saguenay Fjord, one of the longest in the world outside the Arctic, meets the St Lawrence, cold, nutrient-rich water wells up to create one of the richest whale feeding grounds in eastern Canada, belugas resident year-round, minke and even blue whales through the summer. The town's own dining scene draws on the region's wild blueberries and its distinctive tomme cheese, both genuine points of local pride. Fjord walls rise nearly a thousand feet on either side of the water, some of the most dramatic scenery east of the Rockies.

Twin cities straddle the St Marys River here, one Canadian, one American, joined by the Soo Locks that lift Great Lakes freighters between Superior and Huron, still one of the busiest waterways in North America. The Agawa Canyon, reached by a scenic rail line through the surrounding Algoma wilderness, is thick with birdlife and some of the best autumn color anywhere in Ontario. A round of golf on the region's forested courses rounds out a working town with genuine wilderness at its back door.

A North Shore port town named for the seven islands that shelter its harbor, home to a scattered Innu community whose culture and history are shown at the town's small but excellent regional museum. The surrounding archipelago's cliffs and islets hold significant seabird colonies, guillemots and eiders among them, largely undisturbed by the iron-ore shipping that built the modern town. A working port with a genuinely wild edge.

The unofficial capital of Iceberg Alley, where Arctic ice drifting down from Greenland runs aground each spring in scenes that draw photographers from around the world. Sir Wilfred Grenfell's pioneering medical mission, which brought healthcare to this remote coast in the early 1900s, is remembered at a museum and historic house in town, while L'Anse aux Meadows, the only confirmed Norse settlement in North America, lies a scenic drive up the coast. A hearty Newfoundland kitchen, heavy on cod and partridgeberry, rounds out one of the province's most remote and dramatic corners.

Widely considered the whale-watching capital of eastern Canada, Tadoussac sits exactly where the cold, deep Saguenay Fjord meets the St Lawrence, upwelling currents that draw belugas, minke, fin and the occasional blue whale within sight of the shore. The wooden Indian Chapel here, built in 1747, is the oldest wooden church still standing in North America, and the surrounding sand dunes and cliffs hold a genuinely rich variety of boreal birdlife. A round of golf on the town's small course rounds out one of Quebec's most naturally spectacular stops.

Lake Superior's largest Canadian port sits beneath the Sleeping Giant, a peninsula whose silhouette really does resemble a reclining figure from the right angle, and beside the towering grain elevators that once made this one of the busiest ports on the continent. A monument to Terry Fox, whose cross-country run to fight cancer ended nearby in 1980, stands on the lookout above the harbor. Bald eagles and osprey are a common sight along the rugged shoreline. A working Lake Superior city with real natural drama at its edges.

Canada's largest city stacks a genuinely global dining scene, drawn from one of the most diverse populations on the continent, beneath the CN Tower's needle-thin silhouette. The Toronto Islands, a short ferry from the financial district, offer sand beaches and quiet bike paths within full view of the skyline, while the eastern beaches and Rouge National Urban Park shelter a surprising range of migratory birds for a city this size. A round of golf at one of the city's storied courses rounds out a stop that rewards a proper wander through Kensington Market or the distillery district. Big-city energy, with the lake right at its edge.

Directly across the river from Detroit, Windsor anchors Essex County's wine country, Canada's southernmost and warmest wine region, its vineyards benefiting from a growing season more Niagara than northern Ontario. Point Pelee National Park, a short drive south, funnels an extraordinary volume of migratory songbirds each spring, one of the best birding sites in the country. A round of golf on the region's flat, lake-moderated courses rounds out a quietly excellent stop most visitors save for Detroit alone.

Thirty thousand granite islands scatter across Georgian Bay's eastern shore, a landscape the Group of Seven made famous in Canadian painting, before the route narrows into the locks and canals that link the upper Great Lakes to Ontario and Erie below. Ospreys and loons work the bay's quieter channels, while the transition from wilderness to working canal happens within the space of a single day's sailing. A genuinely varied stretch of Canada's inland waters.

A narrow channel separates Cape Breton Island from mainland Nova Scotia here, spanned by a causeway that also, unusually, carries a lock to maintain water levels on either side. Fishing communities line both shores, their fortunes tied for generations to the strait's ice-free, deep-water access to the Atlantic. A short, characterful transit between two of Atlantic Canada's most storied coastlines.

Eight locks lift the ship more than a hundred meters in a single transit, the engineering solution that lets ships bypass Niagara Falls entirely on their way between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. Viewing platforms along the canal draw local spectators who track ship movements the way others might follow sports scores, and passing through at deck level, lock by lock, is a genuinely rare vantage point on the whole operation. One of the great working canals of North America, experienced from the water rather than the road.