Diverse Road Trips through Canada
This car drove me almost 6600 km through Canada starting in Toronto, Ontario, down to the Niagara Falls, over Manitoulin Island, through Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta all the way to Vancouver in British Columbia. Looks kind of fancy for a road trip car, right? I sayed in hostels or Airbnbs for the night and used the car only to get from a to b. I earned some gas money by advertising some trips through rideshare. That was a fun way to get to know people.
Before the road trip by car, I travelled almost 1700 km bus & rideshare from Montreal to Québec to Ottawa to Toronto and the Algonquin Provincial Park.
From Vancouver as a home base and with a similar car shown on the picture above, I had another few road trips up the Sea to Sky Highway and on Vancouver Island. Two Vancouver Island road trips followed afterwards, one by bus and one with a van. The longest road trip on the Island was almost 1300 km.
I then did diverse road trips through the Rocky Mountains and BC with a van which we prepared so we could sleep in it. It was a simple build with just a mattress and some camping equipment by its side, but we loved it. I did only sleep in the car with my boyfriend, but I now multiple female friends who did similar by themselfes and always felt safe. Canada in general is a great and safe place to travel and live. I never had a catchy situation anywhere.
By day the inside of our van looked like the picture on the left. On one side we were sleeping and on the other side we had all our stuff. At night we tried to use hangers and blankets to cover up the windows as best as possible. The windows were black from the outside and therefore not look through, but the light comes through so we needed some shades for sleeping. As it wasn’t our car, we didn’t prepare it further but it was great for our three road trips. Below you can see some of our camping spots where we prepared food or just relaxed with a great view. The first picture is from Jasper on Pyramid Island, the second one in Squamish and the third also near Squamish on a free camping spot. I could have included ton of beautiful camping spots, some are found in the related blogs as well, so go have a look there. Honestly, for me one of the most beautiful ways to travel is via road trips. That way you see so much more of a country and experience quiet spots and nature at its best, especialy in Canada.
We cooked on this cute gas stove each day or heated water for a tea in the morning.
These camping chairs from Canadian Tire where a bless and also the cooling box searved as table and kept our food relatively cold as well. It had no battery, so milk was exchanged for creamer and we precooked a bunch of eggs for our breakfasts. But it kept the vegetalbes, sauce and more good for way more days than I would have expected. Also, always trake your trash with you when camping, we never left anything behind!
By the way, we found most of our camping spots via the app Overlander. Some are official, some cost, some are free and some semi-official but tolerated. We almost always felt safe and just in two circumstances we chose to keep driving to look for a different spot because we had a weird feeling. At some spots we were completely by ourselves in nature but mostly you meet other travellers who camp beside you and even get some nice interactions.
Below you see all the road trip routes marked by google maps. I might not have inclueded every small trip near the route, but that are the general routes as inspiration. If you have any questions or need recommendations, feel free to comment down below.
Wow, I just realized that for now this is almost the last blog about Canada that I’m going to publish. I covered all the areas I have been to with a ton of different blogs and you might have noticed how much I enjoyed my time. If you’re in doubt to visit Canada, either for a short trip, a longer vacation or even for a working holiday gap year like I did, I highly recommend it to anyone! I really hope you enjoy it as much as I did. And if you live in Canada and somehow got a glimpse at my blog, I hope you know how blessed you are to live in such a gorgeous part of the world!
The last two blogs about Vancouver will come out soon.