Calgary in, Calgary out, and rent the car. Calgary is the airport with the flights and the cheaper cars. Banff town is 90 minutes, Lake Louise another 45, Jasper about four hours further on the Icefields Parkway. You can do Banff without a car using the Roam buses, but with kids and car seats a car is worth it.

Moraine Lake is not drive up any more. Personal vehicles have been banned on the Moraine Lake road since 2023. You take a Parks Canada shuttle, a Lake Louise connector or a paid bus, and you book it in advance. This single fact wrecks more Banff itineraries than anything else, because people plan around the photograph and then find there is no parking lot.

Stay in Canmore if Banff is full. Canmore is twenty minutes outside the park gate, has more condo style family rentals, and you skip the park entry fee on the nights you are not going in. Banff town is prettier and more expensive.

Do the easy hikes and skip the epic ones. Johnston Canyon on the catwalks, the lakeshore at Lake Louise, the Bow Valley Parkway with the windows down. Save Plain of Six Glaciers for a trip without a five year old.

Stanley Park is the whole argument for Vancouver. Rent bikes, do the seawall, stop at Second Beach. It is a thousand acres of forest with a paved loop around it and a view of the mountains the entire way.

Victoria is a ferry, not a flight. The BC Ferries crossing from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay is about 95 minutes and the ride through the Gulf Islands is half the point. Victoria itself is small, walkable, very English, and easy with children. The Royal BC Museum is the one indoor thing worth the money.

Whale watching from Victoria is the real thing. Orcas, humpbacks, and a boat that will refund or rebook you if nothing shows. Kids remember this one. Go in July or August for the best odds.

Quebec City is small and that is the point. Old Quebec is walkable in a morning. Petit Champlain, the funicular, the boardwalk under the Chateau Frontenac, the ramparts. Children can run in it. Two full days is honestly enough unless you are skiing or doing the Ile d Orleans.

Montreal is the food city. Bagels from a wood oven at two in the morning, smoked meat piled stupidly high, and a restaurant scene that punches far above the population. Old Montreal for the cobbles, Mile End for the eating, Mount Royal for the view.

They are three hours apart by car or train. Via Rail runs between them several times a day and the train is the civilized way to do it with kids. Doing both in one week is one of the few Canadian pairings that actually works.

Toronto with kids is a three day city. The CN Tower once, Ripley s Aquarium for a rainy morning, the Toronto Islands ferry on a good day, Kensington Market for lunch. St Lawrence Market on a Saturday. That is the trip.

Niagara Falls is better on the Canadian side and everyone knows it. The Horseshoe Falls face Canada. You get the view, they get the parking lots. The falls themselves are worth the drive. The town around them is an arcade strip with a wax museum, and your children will love it and you will not.

Ottawa is worth a day if you are already in Ontario. Parliament Hill, the Rideau Canal, and in February the canal freezes into the longest skating rink in the world. That is a real thing you can do with children and it costs nothing.

Rent a car for the west, skip it in the east cities. Banff, Jasper, Vancouver Island and the Sea to Sky all want a car. Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City do not, and parking in all three is expensive and irritating.

Via Rail is good on the Quebec City to Windsor corridor and slow everywhere else. Toronto to Montreal or Montreal to Quebec City by train is genuinely pleasant. The cross country train is a four night experience, not transport.

Domestic flights are expensive. Air Canada and WestJet, and the fares between provinces surprise Americans used to cheap domestic hops. Flair and Porter are worth checking. Book internal legs early rather than assuming you can add them later.

The land border is easy but it is a real border. Passports for everyone including babies. If one parent is traveling alone with the children, carry a signed consent letter from the other parent, because Canadian officers do ask.

Distances are American distances. Calgary to Vancouver is eleven hours of driving. Toronto to Montreal is five and a half. Look at the map with a ruler before you build the route.

Canadian dollars, and the exchange rate is in your favor. A US dollar has been buying somewhere around 1.35 to 1.40 Canadian for a while. That makes the sticker prices look worse than they are. Pay in Canadian dollars when the card machine asks, never in US dollars.

Tax is added at the till. The price on the shelf is not the price you pay. Depending on the province you are adding 5 to 15 percent at the register, and it catches Americans from no sales tax states every single time.

Tipping is American style. Fifteen to twenty percent in restaurants, a couple of dollars for a driver or a bag. The card machine will suggest numbers and you can override them.

Hotels are not cheap and Banff is the worst of it. I have a whole post comparing what two hundred dollars a night actually buys around the world, and in Quebec City it gets you a good boutique room. In Banff in July it gets you a motel with a parking lot.

Buy the Parks Canada Discovery Pass if you are doing more than a few days. It covers entry to every national park and it pays for itself quickly for a family. Kids under 18 are free either way.

Seattle and Vancouver. Two and a half hours apart by car, or the Amtrak Cascades train. Add Victoria by ferry and you have a ten day trip with almost no flying.

Glacier National Park and Banff. The Rockies do not stop at the border. Kalispell to Banff is a long day of driving through country that is the reason you came.

New England and Quebec. Boston, the White Mountains, then north into Quebec City and Montreal. This is the loop we planned in 2017 and never finished, and I still think it is the best fall trip in North America.

Buffalo or Detroit and Ontario. The cheap way in. Fly into a US airport, cross the bridge, do Niagara and Toronto, come back. It is a long weekend that feels like a real trip.

Plan around one outdoor thing a day, not three. A lake, a trail, a ferry. Canadian days are long in summer and children do better with one big thing and a lot of nothing.

Wildlife is the currency. Bears from the car on the Bow Valley Parkway, elk wandering through Banff town, whales off Victoria, moose in Jasper. Give them a checklist and the driving hours stop being a problem.

Parks Canada runs an Xplorers program for children. Free booklet at the visitor center, activities in the park, a small prize at the end. It is the best thing nobody tells you about.

Book a place with a kitchen. Eating out three times a day in Banff or Vancouver will hurt. A condo with a kitchen and a grocery run changes the budget completely.

It is not cheaper than the United States. The exchange rate helps and then Banff hotel prices take it back. Groceries and restaurants are broadly similar to a US city once you account for the dollar.

How far apart everything is. Canada is the second largest country on earth by area and almost all of its people live in a thin strip near the border. Two cities that look close on the map are frequently a full day apart.

Indigenous history is present, not hidden. Land acknowledgements at the start of events, signage in Indigenous languages, museums and cultural centers that are genuinely worth your time. It is a much more visible part of the national conversation than most Americans expect.

Moraine Lake really is closed to cars. I am saying it twice because it is the single thing that ruins Banff itineraries. Shuttle or bus, booked in advance.