How to Get Around Canada

The shape of the problem

Canada is the second-largest country in the world and almost all of its population lives in a thin band near the southern border, which makes internal travel a series of long hops between widely separated clusters rather than a network. Driving between major cities means full days on the road. Most visitors fly the long legs and drive locally, and the honest planning question is how few regions a trip can commit to.

Getting in

One rule governs arrival and it catches people who have never needed a visa anywhere: visa-exempt foreign nationals need an Electronic Travel Authorization to fly to or transit through a Canadian airport. It costs CAD $7, is valid for up to five years or until the passport expires, and has to exist before you board -- it is an entry requirement for air travel, not something arranged on landing. Arriving by land or sea does not require one.

Flying

Air Canada and WestJet connect the major cities, and for the transcontinental distances flying is usually both faster and cheaper than driving. Regional carriers reach the north, where for many communities there is no road at all and the aircraft is the bus.

Driving

A car is how the good parts are reached once you are in a region -- the Rockies, the Cabot Trail, the Gaspé, the Okanagan. Provinces set their own rules, so speed limits, alcohol law and winter-tyre requirements change at a provincial line; in British Columbia and Quebec winter tyres are a legal requirement on designated routes in the cold months, not a suggestion. Distances between fuel stops in the north and the interior are long enough to plan around.

Trains

VIA Rail's transcontinental service is a journey rather than transport: it runs a few times a week and takes several nights between Toronto and Vancouver. Take it for the ride. The Quebec City-Windsor corridor is the exception, where frequent trains between Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto are genuinely the sensible way to move.

Parks

If a trip takes in several federal sites, the annual Parks Canada Discovery Pass covers admission to more than 80 destinations for 12 months, which on a Rockies itinerary alone is usually the cheaper option.

The eTA is an air rule, and it is the one people miss

Visa-exempt foreign nationals need an Electronic Travel Authorization to fly to or transit through a Canadian airport. It is an entry requirement for air travel, costs CAD $7, and is valid for up to five years or until the passport expires, whichever comes first. Two details matter in practice: it applies to transit as well as arrival, so a connection through Toronto counts; and it does not apply to entry by land or sea, which is why a traveller who drove up from the United States last year may not remember needing one.

Why "Canada" is really three or four trips

The distance between the Atlantic provinces and the Pacific coast is greater than the width of Europe, and the interior between them is mostly not a destination. An itinerary that tries to include the Rockies, Quebec and Newfoundland spends its budget on internal flights and its days in airports. The pattern that works is one region plus the city that serves it.

Provincial rules change at the line

Alcohol sales, speed limits, cannabis rules and tyre requirements are provincial. Winter tyres are mandatory on designated routes in British Columbia and Quebec during the cold months, and a hire car booked elsewhere will not necessarily arrive with them -- ask at the counter rather than assuming. Provincial sales taxes also differ, which is why an advertised price and the price at the till are rarely the same number.

The north is a different transport system

Above the road network, communities are served by air year-round and by winter roads for a few months. Flights are expensive, weather-dependent and cancelled often. Anything planned north of the road network needs spare days built into it rather than a tight connection at the end.