Canada

Canada is the second-largest country on earth and the one most travellers underplan — Vancouver to St John's is a longer flight than London to Cairo, and a single trip that wants both coasts is, honestly, two trips. The first useful question is which Canada you are after.

The Rockies do the heavy postcard work: Banff and Jasper, the turquoise of Lake Louise and Moraine, the Icefields Parkway running between them. The Pacific side is gentler and greener — Vancouver, the ferry-stitched Gulf Islands, the storm-watching coast at Tofino. East, French-speaking Québec gives the country its most distinct city pair in Montréal and Québec City, and the Maritimes their long lobster-and-lighthouse shoreline. The far north — the Yukon, Churchill's polar bears on Hudson Bay — is the trip for travellers who want the wilderness without the metaphor.

Summer is short and worth respecting. June through September is the broad window: the mountain trails clear of snow, the coastal towns awake, the long northern daylight stretching the days. Autumn brings the Québec and Maritime colour; winter belongs to the ski resorts and the aurora.