My Favorite Cities in Canada, Part 1
And why I think Canadian cities are some of the best in North America
Not to start anything controversial, but personally I prefer Canadian cities to American ones (there are exceptions to this of course, but in general). The architecture is beautiful and often historic, they have wonderful parks and gardens, and many of the restaurants serve poutine (I’m also less concerned that I’m going to get shot by some crazy person with an AR-15, but I digress…).
I’ve been lucky enough to travel quite extensively in Canada, and I’ve visited almost all of the major cities there. So I thought it would be fun to do a little retrospective on some of my favorites.
Quebec City
I fell in love with Quebec City the moment I saw it across the St Lawrence River. The first time I visited, I was still a teenager, and it was the closest I’d ever come to something resembling Europe.
The first building to get my attention was the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac, a very famous and historic hotel quite a bit larger than the surrounding buildings. Apparently, it’s the most photographed hotel in the world, so perhaps it’s understandable that I felt the need to take dozens of photos of it (don’t worry, I only included a couple of them here)!
However, I soon found that the old city (Vieux-Québec) is filled with many equally stunning, if smaller, buildings aside from the hotel. Many of these buildings were constructed in the 17th or 18th century. It’s also worth noting that the old city is divided into two sections, lower and upper, so be prepared for a lot of stairs.
Aside from simply strolling around and admiring the old section of the city, two things that I’d recommend are visiting parliament (below left photo) and seeing Montmorency Falls (below right).
Although it does take a bit of a bus ride (I think 20–30 minutes) to get from the city to the waterfall, I felt that it was absolutely worth it, because it really is spectacular. It’s actually taller than Niagara Falls, though obviously not as wide.
Victoria
Victoria, located on the southeastern tip of Vancouver Island, is another one of my favorite Canadian cities.
Like Quebec, Victoria is filled with many historic buildings. The one pictured above is the Fairmont Empress. As you can probably guess by the name, it is owned by the same company as the hotel in Quebec. Of course, it’s unlikely that I’ll ever be able to afford to stay in either of them, but they are nice to look at.
Another building that’s hard to miss in Victoria is the parliament building. The grounds are beautiful, and I enjoyed strolling around the flower gardens. Afterward, I went inside and took a guided tour, which was a fun way to learn a little bit more about the Canadian government, as well as see the ornate interior!
Victoria is also famous for Fisherman’s Wharf, a neighborhood of colorful floating restaurants, shops, and homes. I got fish and chips while I was there, and though I’m not sure if it was quite as good as some of the fish and chips I’ve had in England, I did enjoy it.
One of the weirdest — but also best — things that I did there was go to Miniature World, an entire museum dedicated to miniature dioramas (I probably could have included this in my story about the strangest museums I’ve visited around the world, come to think of it). How amazing are these tiny cities, villages, and landscapes?
Stay tuned for part 2…
As always, I’m really enjoying reading stories from the rest of the Globetrotters community…here are a couple of my recent favorites!
Jewel Allen’s story about visiting Trim Castle in Ireland:
I also loved Angela Choi’s article about the ways that living and traveling abroad have changed her perspective on life:
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