The Empress Hotel looms large over Victoria

Rather unfairly, Victoria is often derided as "home to the newly wed and the nearly dead".

On the piste on Blackcomb Mountain

The largest ski resort in North America, the combined Whistler-Blackcomb mountains offer the best skiing and snowboarding in Canada.

Only two hours' drive north of Vancouver, the international spotlight will be on Whistler in 2010 when it hosts the Winter Olympics.

The rock formations of Hopewell Cape. Photo: Robert D.H. Warren

The spectacular Bay of Fundy is situated on New Brunswick's southern coast.

Twice a day, over a hundred billion tonnes of water surge ashore, creating the world's highest tides and sculpting unique rock formations such as those at Hopewell Cape.

Kayaking the Saint John river in Fredericton

New Brunswick's provincial capital, Fredericton is a pretty city situated on a peninsula that juts out into the Saint John River.

Irish dancers keep old country traditions alive in Miramichi. Photo: Brian Atkinson

Situated in northern New Brunswick, the English-speaking enclave of Miramichi was founded in 1995 when five nearby towns along the salmon-rich Miramachi River decided to merge.

Watching the tide roll in

Lying inland from New Brunswick's Acadian Coast, Moncton has a large French-speaking population.

Certainly the city's oddest attraction is Magnetic Hill where an optical illusion makes it possible for cars to coast uphill.

Braving the reversing falls in a jet boat. Photo: Brian Atkinson

Fog-shrouded Saint John is New Brunswick's largest city and Canada's oldest. It was founded in 1785 by loyalists fleeing the American Revolution.

A working port city, Saint John is located at the mouth of the Saint John River.

Showing some Shediac spirit at the lobster festival.

One of the most charming settlements on New Brunswick's coast, the resort town of Shediac is the proud "lobster capital of the world".

Home of the World's Largest Lobster (a 10.7metres by 5m statue), Shediac also stages the Shediac Lobster Festival every July.

Niagara Falls thunders, froths and sprays for 14 million visitors a year

Niagara Falls is Canada's most visited site. More than 14 million camera-toting tourists and loved-up newlyweds a year come here to gawp at the falls' majestic intensity.

It thunders, froths and sprays as 155 million litres a minute of water crashes over the edge of a cliff the height of 12-storey building.

With its historic buildings and scenic waterways, Canada's laid-back capital certainly knows how to turn on the charm.

Lying at the confluence of the Gatineau, Rideau and Ottawa rivers, most of what Ottawa has to offer can be explored on foot. Dominating the city are the majestic Westminster-esque parliament buildings on Parliament Hill.

Toronto is Canada's commercial hub

Toronto is Canada's big, bustling wannabe New York with a Los Angeles streak that asserts itself around about the time of the annual Toronto International Film Festival.

Anne's fictional Green Gables home.

Photo: Tourism PEI/John Sylvester

The delightful home town of author Lucy Maud Montgomery is the setting for her famed Anne of Green Gables series.

Province House - the "birthplace of Canada".

Photo: Tourism PEI/John Sylvester

Charlottetown is a historic and laid-back affair and Prince Edward Island's provincial capital. It has a lovely waterfront aspect and a compact, tree-lined centre filled with rows of Victorian houses.

The tree-lined back streets of Plateau Mont Royal.

If you're after a great time and a top feed, you've come to the right place.

A vibrant Europe-meets-North America city of two-cheek kisses and 3.4 million people, Montreal is the most diverse, cosmopolitan, gay-friendly and creative city in Canada.

Quebec City is the only walled city in North America

Quebec City is Quebec's provincial capital and also its separatist heart.

The city - with its narrow cobblestone streets and distinctly Parisian flair - is picturesquely perched on cliffs overlooking the St Lawrence River.

Kicking up the dust along Dawson City's unpaved streets

Sure, it's a real effort to get here: from Whitehorse it's a 700km paddle along the Yukon River, a 536km drive along the lonely North Klondike Highway or a one-hour flight in an undersized plane.

The all-gravel Dempster Highway is a lonely 736 kilometre journey

Driving, motorbiking or cycling the gravel, 736 kilometre Dempster Highway is one of the world's loneliest and most adventurous road trips.

Kluane National Park has hundreds of kilometres of hiking trails

The 22,000-square-kilometre Kluane National Park is home to Canada's highest mountain (Mount Logan at 5,950 metres) and the world's second-largest non-polar ice fields.

The annual Yukon Quest dog sled race departs from Whitehorse

The capital of the Yukon Territory and home to two-thirds of its 31,000 population, Whitehorse is a sprawling and desolate city saved aesthetically by its few remaining gold rush-era heritage buildings.