Toronto to Vancouver across the Prairies - CanaDream

Twenty nights and 5,860 kilometres from Toronto to Vancouver in a motorhome, right across Canada.

Sudbury and Sault Ste Marie come first, then the north shore of Lake Superior at Marathon, which is the most dramatic stretch of the whole crossing: the road runs along the top of cliffs above a freshwater lake the size of a sea, with granite, pine and almost nothing built for hundreds of kilometres.

Ignace and Kenora follow through the lake country, then Winnipeg, and the prairies proper at Regina and Medicine Hat, where the horizon goes flat and the sky does the work. Calgary comes next, then Banff and Lake Louise in the Rockies, where the Bow Valley and the glacial lakes are the postcard half of the trip, and Kamloops in the dry interior before the Fraser Canyon run down to Vancouver.

The motorhome and the day-by-day plan come from CanaDream, and the hire is priced live per vehicle rather than per person; campsites, fuel, ferries, park fees and activities are all extra, with insurance options priced at booking. Twenty-one days for 5,860 kilometres means steady driving days throughout, so this is a crossing rather than a tour, and the Rockies at the end get rather less time than they deserve. The season runs roughly June to September. This is a one-way hire the width of a country, so a relocation fee is worth checking at booking, and CanaDream run depots at both ends, which is what makes the trip possible at all. Anyone with a month rather than three weeks should give Lake Superior and the Rockies two nights each.