Fun things to do in your province (road trip Montreal-Rockies)?

[isabellea]

After next weekend camping trip in upstate NY with dear friends from PA, DH doesn't want us to spend our vacation dollars in the USA until at least November 2020. I don't agree 100% but I respect his strong beliefs about that issue so that means I need to find alternatives to our Holiday trip to WDW, next summer FL beach trip and the DCL cruise we promised the kids for Spring break 2020. For the DCL cruise, I won't break my promise so I'm looking at a European cruise from Dover, UK summer 2020. Based on 2019 prices, those cruises are more expensive than a caribbean cruise so I need to save elsewhere. I will have to cancel our Holiday vacation and for next summer, we're thinking of doing a road trip across Canada to Alberta. We will have a total of 3 weeks and we will either do it with our new car (Ford Explorer) or rent a small RV. We are used to long days of driving as we usually drive to WDW straight-thru (no overnight stop) but for our ultimate Canadian road trip, I don't want to do that and ideally I want to enjoy at least one or two things per province. That's why I need your help figuring what we could do in Western Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta on our way to Banff and Jasper. The obvious stops are provincial and national parks but which ones? Any fun (less known) stops we should do? For example, any place we could do some river tubing or zip lining? Any super cool museum we have to visit? My girls will be 7 and almost 10 by then and we are willing to make 1-2h detours from the trans-canadian highway. I am also interested in nice places to stop for the night and good restaurants. Extra points if they are local and feature local specialties.

MERCI!

P.S. I know I am early in my planning but I really enjoy planning our future vacations and I need something to plan asap! lol.

 

[efrant]

If you can swing it, I'd seriously consider extending your road trip to Vancouver/Victoria. I've done cross-Canada road trips a few times in my younger years and, without a doubt, for me, the trip from Banff to Victoria is by far the most interesting/spectacular part of traveling across Canada. (Relatively speaking, there was much more to see/do between, say the SK/AB border and Victoria, than from between Ottawa to the SK/AB border, at least for me.) The drive to Vancouver from Banff straight is 9-13 hours depending on which route you take, so if you can add a few extra days to your trip, it would be well worth it. (For comparison purposes, the drive from Winnipeg to Calgary is about 13 hours, and the drive from Ottawa to Winnipeg is about a full 24 hours.) And the ferry ride from Vancouver to Victoria is worth it as well.

Here are some places/things I would suggest to visit/do in AB and BC:

• Visit Dinosaur Provincial Park (AB)
• Visit Lake Louise and Banff (AB)
• Visit Jasper National Park (AB)
• Spend the day in the Okanagan (Kelowna, Penticton, Peachland, etc.) (BC)
• Drive the Sea-to-Sky highway from Vancouver to Whistler (BC)
• Take the ferry from Vancouver to Victoria (BC)
• Drive from Victoria to Tofino (BC)
• Spend the day walking around downtown Victoria and its waterfront (BC)

I will add to the list if I think of suggestions from ON to SK.

 

[pigletto]

We are taking three weeks to drive out to Banff/Jasper/Yoho National Parks from southern Ontario. We've been planning for the last year, and we leave in 15 days!
Once I broke from my Disney rut (15 trips in 10 years) I became super excited to see so many new places! With all the driving and only three weeks we are not doing BC, but choosing to save that for it's own trip in the future. We will only cross into B.C. for Yoho National Park, to hike Lake O'hara.
Trip Advisor forums will be your best friend when planning this trip. Banff/Jasper reservations of any kind fill up incredibly fast, and you need to be prepared to book them early. We are using hotels for the drive out, but camping in the Rockies. Those reservations opened on January 10th this year and I watched entire campgrounds fill up for my dates as I booked. Know what you want, and be ready to book on opening day if you want camping or RV spots. You will have more flexibility with hotels, but not much and you need to book those early if travelling in the summer months.

It's an incredibly fun trip to plan but very detailed, so I would suggest picking dates, deciding how many hours you are willing to drive in a day, and start mapping your route. From there, you can begin to narrow down activities on the way out. The Parks Canada Pass that you will require to visit Banff and Jasper will give you entrance to a number of Historical sites. For example one is Fort William Historical Park in Thunder Bay ( http://fwhp.ca/) We plan to check it out during our Thunder Bay stop and it will already be paid for with pass. There are stops all along the TransCanada Highway included in the pass.In North Western Ontario there will be many places to pull off with beautiful scenery, overlooks, beaches, etc for a picnic. That loop of the drive is a destination all by itself and is gorgeous! One museum to look into is Science North in Sudbury. We aren't stopping on this trip, but its near our family cottage and my kids LOVED it when we went. http://sciencenorth.ca/

You can check out the Canada Parks Discovery Pass here..
http://www.commandesparcs-parksorders.ca/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/en/parksb2c/discovery-pass.

We plan to spend a night in Dinosaur Provincial Park and then drive up to the Royal Tyrell Museum when in Alberta. If your family is even a little bit interested in dinosaurs, this is the gold standard of all dinosaur museums and areas. http://www.tyrrellmuseum.com/index.htm

There's just too much information to list in this post, but I researched for a year and we leave soon, so I will be happy to answer any questions you have as you plan your trip.

 

[Pumpkin1172]

In Alberta, there are many things to see. As stated above, the Royal Tyrell Museum is a must. Also a stop In Calgary, which has the Calgary Zoo which is home to the Pandas right now ( which imho is better than the Toronto Zoo ) is amazing to see see, as well as Calaway Park and a few other sites they have around there. Remember going through the parks, the speed limit is only 80 km/hr. And people are constantly stopping to see wildlife and small water falls along the way. It moves extremely slow. If your finding the parks are booked up, you can look at different little towns outside of the parks to stay such as Canmore by Banff and Hinton by Jasper. Both those towns are a stones throw away and your able to get into the parks within 30 minutes. Also a visit to the Columbia Ice Fields is a super cool excursion. There are many many many hiking trails, white water rafting excursions, or just paddle board/kayak outfitters as well.
Have fun planning your trip.
I wish I could think of some super cool things to see in Sasaktchewan ( being born and raised there ) But there is not really anything super exciting to see there. Saskatoon is one of the most beautiful cities to see I think. I know this will sound weird...but Moose Jaw has some awesome things to do. There is a natural mineral pool /spa which draws lots of people to visit there. They also have some underground tours which are very cool. Those have ties to Al Capone and some other historic underground travels as well. It has some awesome ghost haunting places to visit as well. It is a very unique little town that has really embraced it's history and makes for a good stop on a road trip. Batoche is also a great historic place to visit as well.

 

[bankr63]

Just wondering, do you plan on driving it both ways, or only on the way out, dropping the RV (or shipping the car) and flying back home?

I think I would rather only do the one way trip if faced with limited time so that I could take a lot more time exploring.

 

[isabellea]

If you can swing it, I'd seriously consider extending your road trip to Vancouver/Victoria. I've done cross-Canada road trips a few times in my younger years and, without a doubt, for me, the trip from Banff to Victoria is by far the most interesting/spectacular part of traveling across Canada. (Relatively speaking, there was much more to see/do between, say the SK/AB border and Victoria, than from between Ottawa to the SK/AB border, at least for me.) The drive to Vancouver from Banff straight is 9-13 hours depending on which route you take, so if you can add a few extra days to your trip, it would be well worth it. (For comparison purposes, the drive from Winnipeg to Calgary is about 13 hours, and the drive from Ottawa to Winnipeg is about a full 24 hours.) And the ferry ride from Vancouver to Victoria is worth it as well.

Here are some places/things I would suggest to visit/do in AB and BC:

• Visit Dinosaur Provincial Park (AB)
• Visit Lake Louise and Banff (AB)
• Visit Jasper National Park (AB)
• Spend the day in the Okanagan (Kelowna, Penticton, Peachland, etc.) (BC)
• Drive the Sea-to-Sky highway from Vancouver to Whistler (BC)
• Take the ferry from Vancouver to Victoria (BC)
• Drive from Victoria to Tofino (BC)
• Spend the day walking around downtown Victoria and its waterfront (BC)

I will add to the list if I think of suggestions from ON to SK.

DH and I already visited Vancouver, Whistler, Victoria and Tofino si I would love to go back with our girls but I think this trip would need at least 2 weeks. That's why this time we would like to concentrate on the prairies and Alberta. In fact, I have a Vancouver - San Diego road trip in my bucket list! One thing I might consider adding is going to Okanagan valley depending on how long it will add to the trip.

We are taking three weeks to drive out to Banff/Jasper/Yoho National Parks from southern Ontario. We've been planning for the last year, and we leave in 15 days!
Once I broke from my Disney rut (15 trips in 10 years) I became super excited to see so many new places! With all the driving and only three weeks we are not doing BC, but choosing to save that for it's own trip in the future. We will only cross into B.C. for Yoho National Park, to hike Lake O'hara.
Trip Advisor forums will be your best friend when planning this trip. Banff/Jasper reservations of any kind fill up incredibly fast, and you need to be prepared to book them early. We are using hotels for the drive out, but camping in the Rockies. Those reservations opened on January 10th this year and I watched entire campgrounds fill up for my dates as I booked. Know what you want, and be ready to book on opening day if you want camping or RV spots. You will have more flexibility with hotels, but not much and you need to book those early if travelling in the summer months.

It's an incredibly fun trip to plan but very detailed, so I would suggest picking dates, deciding how many hours you are willing to drive in a day, and start mapping your route. From there, you can begin to narrow down activities on the way out. The Parks Canada Pass that you will require to visit Banff and Jasper will give you entrance to a number of Historical sites. For example one is Fort William Historical Park in Thunder Bay ( http://fwhp.ca/) We plan to check it out during our Thunder Bay stop and it will already be paid for with pass. There are stops all along the TransCanada Highway included in the pass.In North Western Ontario there will be many places to pull off with beautiful scenery, overlooks, beaches, etc for a picnic. That loop of the drive is a destination all by itself and is gorgeous! One museum to look into is Science North in Sudbury. We aren't stopping on this trip, but its near our family cottage and my kids LOVED it when we went. http://sciencenorth.ca/

You can check out the Canada Parks Discovery Pass here..
http://www.commandesparcs-parksorders.ca/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/en/parksb2c/discovery-pass.

We plan to spend a night in Dinosaur Provincial Park and then drive up to the Royal Tyrell Museum when in Alberta. If your family is even a little bit interested in dinosaurs, this is the gold standard of all dinosaur museums and areas. http://www.tyrrellmuseum.com/index.htm

There's just too much information to list in this post, but I researched for a year and we leave soon, so I will be happy to answer any questions you have as you plan your trip.

I never heard of Yoho National Park but will check it our for sure and thank you for all the links of places to visit in Thunder Bay, Sudbury and AB! I will definitely check them out and will make sure I am ready to make reservations when they open in 2019. Your trip sounds very similar to what we want to do. Will you write a trip report somewhere or post photos on social media? I would love to follow you if you do.

 

[mort1331]

Used to live in Lake Louise so....Tea lake above lake Louise, moraine lake(back of the old $20), hike to the ink pots on the 1a between Banff and Lake Louise. Emerald lake just on the inside boarder of BC. You can also take the gondola ride up to the saddle of Skiing Louise, or the top of the mountain in Banff.
I have driven back an forth a few times, I know your avoiding US. But I would strongly suggest going one way and coming home another. The drive thru Wyoming and North Dakota is stunning, and lots of places to stop and admire. Use it as an educational experience.

 

[isabellea]

In Alberta, there are many things to see. As stated above, the Royal Tyrell Museum is a must. Also a stop In Calgary, which has the Calgary Zoo which is home to the Pandas right now ( which imho is better than the Toronto Zoo ) is amazing to see see, as well as Calaway Park and a few other sites they have around there. Remember going through the parks, the speed limit is only 80 km/hr. And people are constantly stopping to see wildlife and small water falls along the way. It moves extremely slow. If your finding the parks are booked up, you can look at different little towns outside of the parks to stay such as Canmore by Banff and Hinton by Jasper. Both those towns are a stones throw away and your able to get into the parks within 30 minutes. Also a visit to the Columbia Ice Fields is a super cool excursion. There are many many many hiking trails, white water rafting excursions, or just paddle board/kayak outfitters as well.
Have fun planning your trip.
I wish I could think of some super cool things to see in Sasaktchewan ( being born and raised there ) But there is not really anything super exciting to see there. Saskatoon is one of the most beautiful cities to see I think. I know this will sound weird...but Moose Jaw has some awesome things to do. There is a natural mineral pool /spa which draws lots of people to visit there. They also have some underground tours which are very cool. Those have ties to Al Capone and some other historic underground travels as well. It has some awesome ghost haunting places to visit as well. It is a very unique little town that has really embraced it's history and makes for a good stop on a road trip. Batoche is also a great historic place to visit as well.

We really liked the Toronto zoo and the pandas in 2016 so I will add the Calgary zoo to our list of places not to miss. I never hear of the Royal Tyrell museum before but I will check it out for sure! As for accommodations, we don't mind staying a little outside the parks so I will compare prices. We haven't decided yet if we are staying at hotels or camping if we decide to do the drive the car.

Moose Jaw sounds fun from what you're describing so I will research this town further. Thank you for the info. Any food that is typical of SK?

Just wondering, do you plan on driving it both ways, or only on the way out, dropping the RV (or shipping the car) and flying back home?

I think I would rather only do the one way trip if faced with limited time so that I could take a lot more time exploring.

If we rent the RV we will probably do a one-way reservation but I never thought of shipping the car. I will have to research this option as driving one-way only would be ideal. And then I could use my AM to fly back home.

 

[mort1331]

Just saw about Yoho, that is the park that is on the border of AB and BC and right next to the western edge of Banff NP. Also if you are heading up to Jasper, try and get on the glaciers while they are still here. I still remember going on a special vehicle on the Athabasca Glacier. Travel time between Banff and Jasper is about 4 hours

 

[mort1331]

Canmore is just outside of Banff on the east side, lots of BB and ABNB

 

[mort1331]

Sorry for all those from Sask and MB, not much I can contribute to those 2 provinces, we just tried to drive straight thru.
Forgot to mention that they do have rafting down the Bow river between the mountains, never did but on the list.
Hot springs and many locations, big one in Banff.
Stop by Olympic hill in Calgary, lots of activities.

 

[ebharris]

Western Ontario...

If you’re renting an RV then just east of Kenora is Rushing River Provincial Park. It’s a nice place to camp. In Kenora, go to the Lake of the Woods Brewery for lunch or dinner.

Between Kenora and Winnipeg detour from the Trans Canada and drive through Whiteshell Provincial Park. Lots of places to camp, but only 2 hours west of Rushing River.

Once in Winnipeg, things to do...

Visit the Forks - always lots going on

Trolley tour of Winnipeg

Visit the Zoo (polar bears!) and Assiniboine Park

Visit the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (so beautiful)

Go to a Goldeyes baseball game-try for a night with fireworks, fun atmosphere.

I don’t really know where you could camp. Birds Hill Park is 20 min north of Winnipeg. Fun Mountain is a mediocre water park but I think there’s camping? Or there’s always Walmart lots. Pretty sure you can park overnight in them for free?

Where to eat...local restaurants...

Half Moon in Lockport (20 min North) for a hot dog
Clementine for brunch
The Commons at the Forks for any meal
Stella’s (any location) for breakfast or brunch
Gondola pizza (it’s a Winnipeg thing)
Mitzi’s for the best chicken fingers
VJs drive in for milkshakes and burgers

Once you finalize plans if you have specific questions let me know!

 

[Sue M]

DH and I already visited Vancouver, Whistler, Victoria and Tofino si I would love to go back with our girls but I think this trip would need at least 2 weeks. That's why this time we would like to concentrate on the prairies and Alberta. In fact, I have a Vancouver - San Diego road trip in my bucket list! One thing I might consider adding is going to Okanagan valley depending on how long it will add to the trip.

Love the Okanagan. Penticton, Kelowna & Oosoyos are my favs. Although not in the Okanagan, Harrison Hot Springs is great. Stay at “The” Harrison Hot Springs Hotel. It’s beautiful, reminds me of WL a bit! Has 5 Hot Springs pools, 3 outside, 2 inside. On huge lake, quaint town.

 

[Aladora]

After next weekend camping trip in upstate NY with dear friends from PA, DH doesn't want us to spend our vacation dollars in the USA until at least November 2020. I don't agree 100% but I respect his strong beliefs about that issue so that means I need to find alternatives to our Holiday trip to WDW, next summer FL beach trip and the DCL cruise we promised the kids for Spring break 2020. For the DCL cruise, I won't break my promise so I'm looking at a European cruise from Dover, UK summer 2020. Based on 2019 prices, those cruises are more expensive than a caribbean cruise so I need to save elsewhere. I will have to cancel our Holiday vacation and for next summer, we're thinking of doing a road trip across Canada to Alberta. We will have a total of 3 weeks and we will either do it with our new car (Ford Explorer) or rent a small RV. We are used to long days of driving as we usually drive to WDW straight-thru (no overnight stop) but for our ultimate Canadian road trip, I don't want to do that and ideally I want to enjoy at least one or two things per province. That's why I need your help figuring what we could do in Western Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta on our way to Banff and Jasper. The obvious stops are provincial and national parks but which ones? Any fun (less known) stops we should do? For example, any place we could do some river tubing or zip lining? Any super cool museum we have to visit? My girls will be 7 and almost 10 by then and we are willing to make 1-2h detours from the trans-canadian highway. I am also interested in nice places to stop for the night and good restaurants. Extra points if they are local and feature local specialties.

MERCI!

P.S. I know I am early in my planning but I really enjoy planning our future vacations and I need something to plan asap! lol.

Are you planning on hitting Ottawa on your way from Montreal? If so then I would definitely check out the following:

Diefenbunker I grew up in Ottawa until I was 20 and never heard of the Deifenbunker until long after it was decommissioned in 1994. I found out a few years ago that my father, who was the Queen's Printer of Canada in the 80's, actually had an office assigned there. DH, DS and I went on a tour of the Diefenbunker last summer and we were allowed into some off-limits areas to hunt for the office which we eventually found! Very cool place to tour!

Canadian Science and Technology Museum Definitely don't miss the Crazy Kitchen!

Canadian Museum of Nature Dinosaurs in a Castle!

Canadian Museum of History Formerly the Canadian Museum of Civilizations, this is a wonderful museum on the Quebec side of the river.

There are a ton of other great places to see in Ottawa, a tour of Parliament Hill is cool if you have never been!

 

[isabellea]

Just saw about Yoho, that is the park that is on the border of AB and BC and right next to the western edge of Banff NP. Also if you are heading up to Jasper, try and get on the glaciers while they are still here. I still remember going on a special vehicle on the Athabasca Glacier. Travel time between Banff and Jasper is about 4 hours

Seeing some glaciers are definitely on the list since I know they are disappearing pretty fast with climate change!

Canmore is just outside of Banff on the east side, lots of BB and ABNB

Sorry for all those from Sask and MB, not much I can contribute to those 2 provinces, we just tried to drive straight thru.
Forgot to mention that they do have rafting down the Bow river between the mountains, never did but on the list.
Hot springs and many locations, big one in Banff.
Stop by Olympic hill in Calgary, lots of activities.

I will check if my kids will be old enough to do some rafting. We did a very mild rafting run at Ausable Chasms last fall and they loved it! I will also have to check what kind of activities we can do at Olympic Hill in Calgary. Since I hope to be there during the Stampede (always wanted to see that event and I have an old colleague who is a vet for the events).

 

[isabellea]

Western Ontario...

If you’re renting an RV then just east of Kenora is Rushing River Provincial Park. It’s a nice place to camp. In Kenora, go to the Lake of the Woods Brewery for lunch or dinner.

Between Kenora and Winnipeg detour from the Trans Canada and drive through Whiteshell Provincial Park. Lots of places to camp, but only 2 hours west of Rushing River.

Once in Winnipeg, things to do...

Visit the Forks - always lots going on

Trolley tour of Winnipeg

Visit the Zoo (polar bears!) and Assiniboine Park

Visit the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (so beautiful)

Go to a Goldeyes baseball game-try for a night with fireworks, fun atmosphere.

I don’t really know where you could camp. Birds Hill Park is 20 min north of Winnipeg. Fun Mountain is a mediocre water park but I think there’s camping? Or there’s always Walmart lots. Pretty sure you can park overnight in them for free?

Where to eat...local restaurants...

Half Moon in Lockport (20 min North) for a hot dog
Clementine for brunch
The Commons at the Forks for any meal
Stella’s (any location) for breakfast or brunch
Gondola pizza (it’s a Winnipeg thing)
Mitzi’s for the best chicken fingers
VJs drive in for milkshakes and burgers

Once you finalize plans if you have specific questions let me know!

Great suggestions! Thank you! I know Manitoba is usually a province most want to drive thru it as fast as possible but since I'm not expecting going there again, I want to say I visited the province a little. I also want my kids to have memories of each province we visited, just not images of corn fields!

Love the Okanagan. Penticton, Kelowna & Oosoyos are my favs. Although not in the Okanagan, Harrison Hot Springs is great. Stay at “The” Harrison Hot Springs Hotel. It’s beautiful, reminds me of WL a bit! Has 5 Hot Springs pools, 3 outside, 2 inside. On huge lake, quaint town.

I'll check this hotel and town out as I don't have any knowledge of that part of the country.

Are you planning on hitting Ottawa on your way from Montreal? If so then I would definitely check out the following:

Diefenbunker I grew up in Ottawa until I was 20 and never heard of the Deifenbunker until long after it was decommissioned in 1994. I found out a few years ago that my father, who was the Queen's Printer of Canada in the 80's, actually had an office assigned there. DH, DS and I went on a tour of the Diefenbunker last summer and we were allowed into some off-limits areas to hunt for the office which we eventually found! Very cool place to tour!

Canadian Science and Technology Museum Definitely don't miss the Crazy Kitchen!

Canadian Museum of Nature Dinosaurs in a Castle!

Canadian Museum of History Formerly the Canadian Museum of Civilizations, this is a wonderful museum on the Quebec side of the river.

There are a ton of other great places to see in Ottawa, a tour of Parliament Hill is cool if you have never been!

We visit Ottawa at least 2-3 times a year since it's only 1h50 from our house so we don't plan to stop and visit during that trip but I agree with you that Ottawa has really great museums. My favourite is the war museum (I have a minor in European history and my grand-father is a WWII vet). I'm only waiting for my kids to be a little older to bring them to that one. Last time we visited Ottawa in March we did the Canadian Museum of Nature. I have to say that I have no clue what is Diefenbunker so I will have to check it out on our next day trip to Ottawa! Thank you for the link!

 

[Magrathea]

I have not read the other responses, so some might be repeats. We did a Kingston, Ontario to Vancouver, BC road trip last summer. We took about 3.5 weeks, there and back. We have three girls (ages 4, 6 and 7 at the time of travel). Here were some of our absolute favourite destinations:

- Enchanted Forrest in Revelstoke, BC was an absolute fluke of a find and SO MAGICAL!!! All 5 of us loved this and we made sure to go again on our way home https://www.enchantedforestbc.com/

- Lynn Canyon Park in Vancouver. https://lynncanyon.ca/ This is the 'other' suspension bridge (instead of Capilano), it is in the same area and FREE! Having been to both, Lynn Canyon is fantastic, it is gorgeous, the trails are beautiful, it even had a nice cafe. It is much less "touristy" than Capilano, just as beautiful and you don't have to pay an arm and a leg to get in!

- Skyline Luge in Calgary https://www.skylineluge.com/en/calgary/luge/about/ Another favourite that we did on the way back. Your kids are older, so they will enjoy this even more than ours did! This was fantastic fun!

- Grasslands National Park in Saskatchewan was beautiful. We did the drive through park tour (self guided), saw so many prairie dogs, buffalo, wild horses, and cows. It was neat!

- We went to the Manitoba Museum in Winnipeg https://manitobamuseum.ca/main/ and had a blast. They even have a planetarium and interactive science area for kids.

- Speaking of interactive science museums, the Telus Spark centre in Calgary was another hit http://www.sparkscience.ca/, I think we did part of the day here and the other part doing the Skyline Louge

We ended up doing a lot of camping along the way, as well as staying with family. The campsites in Alberta and BC were our favourite and better priced than the Ontario sites.

I made activity binders for each of our girls, with crosswords, journal pages, math sheets, spelling sheets- they enjoyed the binders on our trip. I also purchased a book pack from Scholastic that had books about each province. They were nice to read as a group for adults and kids.

I hope you have an amazing trip!! If I think of anything else, I will post it!

 

[Magrathea]

I also thought of Harrison Hot Springs, we went there and it was sooooooooo relaxing! Check it out!

 

[prairiesarah]

There have been some great suggestions so far - will add my two cents in : )

We live just outside of Regina and honestly hard to think of things to see and do in our province.

If you are camping, I'd suggest Cypress Hills near the Alberta border between Regina and Calgary.

Watrous (Manitou Beach) - salt water lake that is great for swimming (I've only been once but thought it was really cool). Its a bit off the main highways though if you are going the northern route via Saskatoon.

Western Development Museum in Moose Jaw is supposed to be great.

RCMP Depot in Regina has a Heritage Centre/Museum that is very family friendly that shares the history of the RCMP.

We went to Winnipeg in December and my 12 year old and I both loved the tour of the Royal Canadian Mint - it was inexpensive (I think $6 for me and less for him?). Anyway, it was super interesting and well worth the time and $. I would go again. I would pass on the Human Rights Museum with the ages of your kids. The building is absolutely spectacular, but I found that the content was a bit beyond my DS even at 12. They had lots of school groups in while we were there and I am guessing maybe 14/15 a better age to take him again.

We go to Calgary at least once a year and LOVE Skyline Luge. We go every trip (sometimes twice!).

We are likely doing a road trip out to BC this summer to see my parents. I'm excited for it as I have actually never done the whole drive - when we moved to SK 11 years ago, DS and I flew and DH drove out with the dog.

 

[Intr3pid]

Done the TransCanadian roadtrip twice before! Try this website for ideas for stops:
https://www.roadsideattractions.ca/roadside/