The best ways to plan your summer vacation, according to our experts | Canada Voices

On June 25, travel editor Catherine Dawson March and consumer affairs reporter Mariya Postelnyak answered reader questions on the best places to travel to this summer and how to save money while doing it.

To help jog your vacation ideas, The Globe and Mail published its annual list of 10 hidden travel destinations, from aurora hunting in Yellowknife to settling in to cozy eco-cabins in Mauricie, Quebec.

Readers asked about the hidden gems in each province, how to budget for their vacations and if fuel shortages are still putting flights at risk. Here are some highlights from the Q&A.

Travel ideas

What’s the most underrated region in Canada for travellers? Looking for unexpected ideas.

Catherine Dawson March: I love Northern Ontario – and by this I do not mean Muskoka (just two hours north of Toronto) but much farther – north of Sault St. Marie (an eight-hour drive from Toronto). Lake Superior National Park, Pancake Bay – the rocky coastline is stunning.

The other great area is Lake of the Woods – one of the world’s biggest inland lakes, it puts Muskoka to shame for lake-life vibes. And while it’s in Northern Ontario, it’s only about two hours from Winnipeg.

I live in Toronto and always have trouble finding interesting things to do that are a few hours drive away from the city at most. What’s the must-see destination or vacation spot nearby?

Dawson March: I am going to assume that you’ve been to Niagara Falls.

Have you been to Elora, Ont. and seen that gorgeous gorge, watched the slackliners defy death at the steep sections and enjoyed the riverside area in the conservation area? The town of Elora is built with honey-hued stone – lots of shops and diversions there. Nearby is St. Jacob’s farmers market, that’s a must-see.

Gananoque and the Thousand Island National Park is idyllic – rent a kayak or boat, get out onto the Park’s islands in the St. Lawrence River for a picnic. Boat tours meander islands with grand cottages, including Boldt Castle. This border-crossing region is so interesting – staffer Sarah Efron wrote a great piece about it last year.

Mariya Postelnyak: I can’t profess to have broached this topic in my reporting, but I can speak from personal experience. I’m a big fan of Sibbald Point Provincial Park, early in the morning, before the crowds descend. A specific spot: the chunk of shore tucked away behind St. George’s Anglican Church, a neo-gothic building from the 19th century that’s already stunning to take in on its own. It’s just over an hour’s drive north of Toronto, there are hidden beaches and hiking trails, but my favourite hideout is more serene. Arrive early with a picnic blanket and you won’t find too many people fighting for a barbecue or setting up gear, just the murmur of Lake Simcoe against the shores.

Any hidden travel destinations within a three-hour driving radius of Edmonton? Looking to make the most of our weekends with mini-trips.

Dawson March: Have you been to Elk Island National Park? I hear there’s a cool Bison Backstage tour at the park. Also, Métis Crossing is about 45 minutes north of that park, where visitors can head out in a Voyageur canoe, as well as other Indigenous cultural experiences. There’s even a fancy new spa.

You likely already know all about Drumheller and the very cool Royal Tyrrell Museum, there’s a fun golf course out that way in the hoodoos too. Reporter Carrie Tait covered that in her Hidden Canada piece from 2024, and she has a great tip about the ghost town of Dorothy, Alta.

Canadians abroad

Are Canadians still boycotting travel to the U.S. and have we seen any more impact from that decision?

Postelnyak: The short answer is yes. But there are definitely signs of a turning tide, or at least what seems to be a boycott floor of sorts.

The number of Canadians coming back from trips to the U.S. in April was 30 per cent lower than the same month in 2024. University of Toronto’s School of Cities looked at cellphone activity data and found that Canadian visits to U.S. hubs plummeted by 42 per cent year-over-year.

But here’s the thing. More recent Statistics Canada data showed 1.9 million Canadian return trips from the U.S. in May. That’s a 9.5 per cent bump from the same month last year and the second straight month that the numbers were up. And that’s after 15 months of plummeting Canadian travel to the United States.

This might be boycott fatigue and a return to old patterns. But it also might be the travel dip reaching its limit – a sign that the numbers won’t fall or rise significantly from here. The U.S. Travel Association seems to suggest as much. They said foreign travel spending fell by US$5.7-billion in 2025 (largely driven by Canadians), and don’t foresee visits from Canada to return to 2024 levels for at least another four years.

Are flights still at risk of fuel shortage-related cancellations? I heard a lot about it but haven’t seen it materialize.

Postelnyak: The good news is major airlines seem to have put a pause on route cuts and cancellations that would affect Canadians. They’ve actually been trying to reassure customers that fuel supply is stable this summer.

Air Canada sent an e-mail to customers in early June that there was no fuel shortage affecting their operations through the summer. Lufthansa execs issued a similar notice.

Many of these announcements seem to be in response to the International Energy Agency sounding the alarm back in April that Europe had a shocking six weeks of jet-fuel supply left.

Threat of jet fuel shortage fading as summer travel takes off, airlines say

Oil prices today sit at their lowest since before the start of the Iran war. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that airlines are trying to calm doubts.

Even if the worst-case scenarios haven’t come to pass, the events of recent months have already left their mark on travel for the foreseeable future.

Jet fuel supply is far from stable. And ticket price spikes have lagged the run-up in fuel costs, so there’s a strong reason for airlines to take advantage of the strong demand from Canadians wanting to escape this summer to rebuild their earnings.

Budgeting and planning your trip

My parents still use a travel agent to book their flights. With everything available easily online, are they still useful?

Dawson March: That depends how big or important your trip might be. If this is a bucket list and you are spending lots, you will want to have a travel advisor to help you shape that experience, and importantly, have your back if and when things go awry. For example, when airlines cancel flights, or you miss a connection or whatever comes up, a travel advisor who has planned and booked your trip is still working for you. This service comes at a cost, but sometimes it might just be worth it.

Travel advisors and agents also have relationships with properties – if a place looks booked online it might not actually be full, as not all room availability gets onto the bigger online booking sites. The same goes for flights. Travel agents can be extremely helpful in booking a complicated itinerary and may have access to lower fares. And they can help you with delays or problems if they occur.

But the best things travellers can do for simpler bookings is to book directly with the airline or hotel. It makes your life so much easier to make changes, and they look more kindly upon direct bookings, in my experience.

Is travel insurance worth getting?

Dawson March: Yes! If you don’t have private travel insurance through your employer, always make sure you are covered for health and (gulp!) body repatriation. These days, getting trip cancellation insurance is also a great idea – this will take a lot of stress out of the “should we or shouldn’t we cancel” question if world events suddenly make your destination seem less than desirable. Or at least worth waiting a little longer to visit.

How can I better budget for big trips? What are some unexpected costs I should be aware of?

Postelnyak: There’s a lot we can unpack here, so let’s break this down. Here are just a few tips that stood out to me when working on our bucket list travel guide.

• If you haven’t already, choose a good credit card. And I don’t mean fussing about lounges (it’s just another crowded space these days). Focus on foreign transaction fees, good insurance benefits and maxxing points ahead of a trip. The Scotiabank Gold Amex and Passport Visa Infinite Card are great options to scrap FX fees. The CIBC Aventura has hefty insurance coverage. The Amex Cobalt is great for racking up points before you leave. Check out the other best cards in our travel credit card ranking.
• Get an eSim stat. Rather than a physical sim card, these digital, rewritable chips are probably already embedded into your smartphone and connect you to a local network within any destination you’re visiting. Airalo and Textr are popular options.
• If you’re not committed to five-star suites, try opting for a home on wheels if you’re travelling for an extended period. A couple I spoke with said they saved as much as $2,000 on accommodations by staying at free campsites in their Glam camper-van in New Zealand for a nightly rate of $15 to $25.
• Try using AI (with caution): sponsored content is new to generative AI search engines. The upside is that these search tools can give you something traditional ones often can’t – genuinely useful tips. I spoke to people who saved a lot of money by asking AI for the most cost-effective combinations of transport to get from the airport to their hotel in a time crunch, budget for pre-departure essentials or raise their insurance coverage amount. I go through some of the best ways to ask questions that actually help you save (instead of ones that lead you to non-existent or grizzly-packed hiking trails) in this piece.

And one more thought: most people I spoke with warned against overplanning. The most memorable moments happened in between scheduled programming.

Questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.