Canada
Too big to see in one trip, so don't try. Pick one thread — the Rockies, the Pacific coast, old French Québec — and go deep. Being outdoors alone here reads as completely normal.
Where to stay
Skwachàys Lodge
Vancouver · Gastown Chinatown
Canada's first Indigenous arts hotel — your stay funds the artists living upstairs.
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Eighteen rooms, each designed by a Vancouver hotel designer working in partnership with an Indigenous artist, so no two are remotely alike. It's an Indigenous social enterprise: the same building holds live-work studio space for 24 Indigenous artists, and the lodge exists to keep that space affordable. If the ten per cent you give away matters to you, this is a place where the entire business model does the same thing.
Indigenous-owned social enterprise
18 one-of-a-kind rooms by six designers and six Indigenous artists
Funds on-site housing and studios for 24 Indigenous artists
At the crossroads of Gastown, Chinatown and Railtown
Fairmont Banff Springs
Banff · Banff National Park
They call it the Castle in the Rockies, and for once the nickname earns itself.
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Open since 1888, with 724 rooms, sitting inside a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There's a Stanley Thompson-designed golf course, an award-winning spa, and world-class skiing in winter. It's the splurge, but it's also the one where you can wander the public rooms and the grounds for an entire afternoon without ever feeling like you ought to be somewhere else — which counts for a lot when you're travelling alone.
Welcoming guests since 1888
724 rooms and suites
Inside Banff National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Award-winning spa and championship golf course Luxembourg Gardens
Auberge Saint-Antoine
Québec City · Old Port
They found archaeological artefacts under the building, and set them into the walls.
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A 14th-century cardinal's palace beside the Popes' Palace, with 26 rooms individually dressed in historic French cotton prints. The restaurant holds a Michelin star and a green star for sustainable cooking. But the real reason to come here alone is the cooking school, running since 1994 in the original kitchen — one of the easiest ways to spend a whole day among other people without signing up for a tour.
14th-century cardinal's palace beside the Popes' Palace
26 individually decorated rooms
Michelin star plus a green star for sustainability
Cooking school running since 1994
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Canada has the longest coastline of any country in the world — over 243,000 kilometres of it.
It has more lakes than any other country: over two million, covering roughly eight per cent of its land area.
The name comes from “kanata”, a St Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning village or settlement.
Banff National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it was Canada's first national park.
There are six time zones between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts — worth remembering before you book an internal flight.
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Best time — June to September for hiking and long days. December to March for skiing and northern lights. May and October are shoulder season: cheaper, quieter, and weather you can't plan around.
Getting around — The distances are genuinely enormous. Fly between regions, then hire a car or use VIA Rail locally. Don't try to fit Vancouver and Québec into the same week — people do, and they regret it.
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Canada rates consistently well for women travelling alone. The real risks here are outdoors rather than urban: tell someone your route before you hike, carry more layers than you think you need, and take the bear-safety briefings in the Rockies seriously rather than politely.
