TL;DR: 3 week trip all over Canada without owning or renting a car. Yes it's possible! Visited Toronto, Ottawa, Montréal, Québec, Calgary, Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, Banff, Vancouver, Whistler. Description on how I moved around, including what companies I used (which I think is allowed since I'm not affiliated with any of them), how long various trips took, and what reflections I have upon my experience.

Hello fellow travelers!

I - 30yo, male, European - recently visited Canada, and would like to share my experience. My main driver is the fact that basically every blog and reddit post out there recommends using a car to move around for large trips, something which I passionately wanted to avoid. Coming from Europe, I'm used to not needing a car to move around and do sightseeing, so I really wanted to do the same for my trip to Canada, and at some point, seeing so many people saying it's "absolutely necessary", it became a personal bet to accomplish. I definitely used help from many posts detailing experiences for some parts of my trip, but during my research I didn't come across a post describing a multi-week trip that didn't include owning or renting a car at any point.

With that said, I will not go into too much detail about the places I visited around Canada. The country is vast and magical, and many others have written glorious descriptions appropriate for each place. I will focus on specifically my experience on accessing each place without a car, activities I was able to do, and reflections on how that worked out.

Trip Overview

My trip lasted 3 weeks overall (20 days), and took place late May and early June. I landed into Toronto, moved to Ottawa, Québec City, Montréal, flew to Calgary, saw the city and visited Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, went to Banff, and from there to Vancouver and Whistler, before flying back to Toronto. Besides the 2 internal flights (which I took to save time but could be substituted for trains), I used buses and trains to move between cities, and rented bicycles, or used public transport to move inside cities. In some exceptional cases I also used paid services, such as a taxi or a tour van.

Before arriving in Canada, I had purchased only the flight tickets, plus booked my accommodations (all hostels with free cancellations, in case something went wrong). I stayed in Saintlo Jail Hostel in Ottawa (3 days - very cool experience which included a free tour), Auberge in Québec (3d) and Montréal (2d), HI Hostels in Calgary (2d) and Banff (4d), and Samesun in Vancouver (2.5d) and Toronto (3.5d). As far as hostels go, most were nice, the HI Hostel in Banff was exceptional.

Week 1: Ottawa, Québec City, Montréal

I flew into Toronto International Airport, but I actually immediately left to visit Ottawa and begin my trip there. I did sightseeing around Toronto when I returned at the very end of my trip. To go from YYZ to Ottawa, I used Flixbus (5 hours). It picked me up directly from the airport and took me to the city. It was supposed to have Wi-Fi and charging ports, but they sent a third-party bus instead, which didn't - that was a major negative, as I didn't purchase a SIM card at the airport (thinking I'll do it in the city).

Ottawa is super walkable, and has decent public transport. I wanted to start there, as the Canadian Museum of History was my first stop. As someone coming from Europe, I knew very little about Canadian history, and that museum provided much needed background information for my whole trip. Huge plus that they offer French and English speaking tours for free! Not many people know this, as I was alone on my tour slot, which was exceptional. In terms of moving around, public transport was great, buses will get you everywhere BUT be careful as some of them only accept cash and don't provide change! I had withdrawn cash from an ATM, but only larger notes, and ended up paying CAD 20 to go to the museum, as I risked losing my tour time-slot (not knowing I was the only one attending), so I couldn't get down, change at a store, and get the next bus in 15'.

To leave Ottawa and move to Québec City, I used VIA Rail (6 hours). Very nice trains, purchasing the tickets, boarding and being on the train were all smooth and nice as experiences. They weren't shy about confirming their reputation as being constantly late (1 hour, so 7 total for the trip), although that didn't really affect me personally. They also automatically offered credit which I could use for a future trip, although I didn't travel with them again.

Québec City was the perfect environment to be car-less, and I suspect Québec as a province is the only place in North America that is so bike friendly. I rented an electric bike from Echo Sports Tours (in the Old Town) for 2 days, and was very happy with the service I received and the quality of the bike. The prices aren't as cheap as Europe, but I considered them reasonable. On my first day I took a trip to Wendake (~2 hours on the bike), to visit the Huron-Wendat. It's not really accessible by public means, an issue that the local community attributes to the fact that the Reserve is considered their own territory and therefore not serviced by the city. It was 100% worth visiting, and I'd recommend it to anyone being in Québec City.

The next day I visited the Montmorency Falls (~1h by bike) and Île d'Orléans (~1h to cross the bridge and arrive on the island, 2h spent there). I was the only bike visiting the falls that day. Thankfully, for both days the weather was great, so I really enjoyed driving around the vast bike-road network, and would definitely recommend it as a transportation option (and a fun activity) for Québec. The only part of the road that wasn't really appropriate was the bridge leading to, and all the roads on the island (which were car roads). The bridge felt slightly dangerous to cross on a bike (no matter if I drove on the road or at the side). The island is very quiet after the first few kilometers. I toured the small circle on the southwest, which takes a couple of hours at least (including multiple stops to cute shops). Touring the whole island would need at least 1-2 full days on a bike. I should also mention that despite my best efforts to ration my battery, it died when I was crossing back. It was okay for me to drive back, but I would caution everyone to opt for electric bikes unless really used to driving many kilometers at once on a bicycle already.

On my last day, I returned my bike and toured the Old Town, which was very beautiful, before boarding an Orléans Express bus to Montréal (3h - cheaper than VIA Rail even after using my credit as a discount). The city is pretty and also has bike roads, even though I mostly walked around, including climbing the Royal Mountain, which was fun as an activity. Definitely recommend eating a bagel and visiting the stunning Notre-Dame. There's not much more to do there in terms of tourism, which is why I basically only spent 1.5 days there, before flying to Calgary (YUL to YYC) on Porter (5h). The flight was okay, the aircraft was small but convenient enough.

Week 2: Alberta

Calgary was definitely an experience. It seemed like a generic North American city, but I was negatively impressed by the amount of people being drunk/high on the street at all times. At no point did I ever feel threatened, it was more just a sad picture, and a reflection of society's state in my opinion. In terms of public transport it's pretty well managed, but there's not a lot of things to see around. I only used it as a stepping point, as the closest airport to Banff, but also one of my favourite and most anticipated places to visit in Canada, the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump.

Getting to Head-Smashed-In was a real challenge. The place is kind of in the middle of nowhere, and there's definitely not public transportation options to get there. However I wanted to attempt going there somehow. My solution was to get a Flixbus (2h) to Fort Macleod, the closest town to the point, and figure out what to do from there. The bus this time was equipped with Wi-Fi and charging ports. Arriving to Fort, I had about 6h to spare until the last bus of the day would get me back to Calgary. Given that I couldn't find any accurate options about either getting a taxi or renting a bike online (which makes sense as this is a very small town), I decided to visit the local diner (Digbee's Diner) to ask, hoping I wouldn't have to resort to hitchhiking.

That was an excellent choice in retrospect! I had some amazing breakfast there, and was informed the town has a taxi service, which the kind staff allowed me to call through their phone (as I had bought a data-only package SIM, not anticipating to make calls in Canada). The Taxi Service is called Star's Taxi Service, operates Monday to Saturday 8AM to 8PM (closed Sunday and holidays), and can be reached on >!403-393-1841!<. I'm including the number as even if you look online it's not easy to find. It's ran by a really nice woman, whose name I unfortunately forgot, but she picked me up from the diner, left me at the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump Museum, and came back to pick me up at closing time, leaving me at the bus stop. The taxi trip cost me CAD 100, and was super worth it, as I really enjoyed visiting the museum, seeing the history and talking to the local Blackfoot guides about their experiences.

The next day I took a van from Calgary to Banff. The service I used was Banff Explorer (~2h). There's other services available, pretty much uniform in price, and I opted for that as it stopped directly at my hostel, which I thought was easier. Banff is quite touristic, and has a lot of local buses as a result, which is super helpful to get to almost everywhere that's notable nearby. For most local buses the hostel provided me with a card that allowed me to ride them for free, which I understood is common practice with accommodation at the town. Given the super high prices there, I think it's a nice add-on. I used buses to move around during my stay, which was focused on hiking to see mountains and lakes. I don't have to tell you that the nature is absolutely beautiful all around, but I will say that Lake Moraine is easily one of the most stunning views I've ever set my sights on, literally breathtaking!

Speaking of, accessing Lake Moraine without your own car is a tricky business. The bus from Banff (operated by Roam) leaves you at Lake Louise town or on top of the lake, but another service that picks you up from there to get you to Lake Moraine was sold out for the days I was there. You have an option to rent a bike from the Lake Louise town, but it costs an insane price (something like CAD 150 if I remember correctly). If you do want to rent anyway, or have your own bikes, the road is super picturesque, and before June 1st, it's closed for cars and buses, so you can visit Lake Moraine and be basically alone. The bike takes 45' more or less (from town visitor centre to Lake Moraine) but it's quite uphill most of the time, and walking can take 3-4h one way. I arrived in Banff on May 30, and the day I first attempted to visit it was super foggy and snowing, so it didn't make sense for me to get to Moraine, however if the weather is good, having this marvel of nature basically to myself could be worth it!

So what did I do? Given that the easy way was sold out, on my last day when the weather was nice, I actually arrived to Lake Louise town, walked on the side of the car road for 45' to reach the Lake Louise Ski Resort (Park and Ride), and got a different bus from there (operated by Parks Canada), which had availability still (there's a large parking lot that people with cars use to leave their cars, as actual parking at Lake Moraine is limited, so most people leave their cars at the ski resort and get the bus from there). The ticket I bought allowed me to initially board from the parking, but included not only the return ticket to the parking, but also another bus (Lake Connector Bus) that ran frequently between Moraine and Louise as well, so I used that to return to the Lake Louise town and get my Roam bus back to Banff from there.

Week 3: Vancouver, Whistler, Toronto

Leaving Banff, I got an overnight bus from the town all the way to Vancouver, operated by Rider Express (11h). There's an option for a morning bus as well, but the promise of great views for the first few hours didn't beat out saving time and accommodation costs for one night. Vancouver is the one place in Canada that I visited and thought I should have had more time. I used buses and walked to move around the city, and also to visit Whistler as a day trip (bus by Epic Rides, 2h one way).

In both places I focused on Indigenous Culture, which is super rich in the area, with highlights such as Stanley Park, Museum of Anthropology at UBC, or the Squamish-Lilwat Culture Centre at Whistler. Side recommendation, if you visit the centre, eat at the local cafe (Thunderbird Cafe), the salmon bannock panini was heavenly! Given more time, I'd definitely stay a night or two at Whistler to also go on some hikes around the area, stay more days in Vancouver and also venture to Vancouver island, and probably also visit Victoria by a seaplane (which I considered when planning my trip but it was over my budget and not really worth as a day trip when you only have 3 days there).

Leaving Vancouver, I flew to Toronto on a WestJet flight (4.5h), my last stop for my Canada trip. The flight was okay again, and even though it was delayed, causing me to arrive at the airport at like 2AM, I managed fine using a bus and a tram at night to get to my hostel. Toronto as a large city is interesting, but it doesn't have too much to offer in terms of tourism. As I'm a basketball fan and don't know how hockey is played or care for it really, I attended a WNBA game (Go Tempo!), which was super entertaining! Besides that, I walked around, and booked a transportation service for the next day, to visit the Niagara Falls. In general, you don't have to hire a service to visit the Falls, they're accessible both by bike and city bus. However, I had read on multiple blogs that the nearby town of Niagara-on-the-Lake is really picturesque and worth visiting. Given that city buses don't go there, and the distance would be too much to do on a bicycle in a day, I decided to book a service that visited both the town, and the Falls.

To be honest about my experience, while I can see why some people living in North America would find Niagara-on-the-Lake to be worth visiting, it's barely a cute town. There's a main road, and shops that have some souvenirs of interest, but if you've ever visited ANY town in Europe, from England, to Denmark, to Italy, Greece, or even Moldova, this particular town is quite unimpressive. For Europeans I'd definitely recommend skipping it. I could almost say the same for Niagara Falls btw. The falls themselves are very impressive, and viewed best from the Canadian site. But the environment all around is hideous. It's a super exploitative, ugly mass of ultra touristic restaurants (mostly chains), hotels and casinos. To me it seemed like a third rate Las Vegas, but not as hot. After spending some time at the falls, I really didn't have anything else to do in the area, and had to walk around aimlessly until it was time to return to the city. For this reason I'd definitely recommend visiting with a city bus for 2-3 hours or so, unless you're into this super fake, ultra touristic vibe.

Conclusion

Those were more or less my experiences visiting Canada for 3 weeks. The key takeaway by far is: You can visit Canada and experience most of its main attractions without having to own or rent a car!

Obviously, there are places which need a car to be visited, especially far from the big cities. Wilderness in northern BC, SK or even Alberta (Jasper for example and further north), all the Northern territories, and probably the East coast. Canada is a huge country and so full of beautiful nature and culture, one that you can spend months exploring and not feel finished. But for someone visiting for the first time, coming from Europe and not knowing almost anything beforehand, I feel like my trip gave me so much, and it was extremely satisfying that I managed to spend all this time, visit all these places, and never need to rent a car.

I hope this post helps someone who has the same disposition as me, to feel confident about planning such a trip without a car, and I'm open to any questions you may have! 😄