For years, the U.S. topped the list of travel destinations for Canadians looking to treat themselves to a holiday. But a brewing trade war with our southern neighbours has convinced more Canadians to ditch their plans to head south and look closer to home to cure the travel bug – ditching the New England coast for the jagged shores of Gabriola Island in British Columbia or the hillsides of La Malbaie in Quebec.
This sudden aversion led to a 40-per-cent drop in airline and travel bookings to the U.S. in February compared with the same month last year, according to Flight Centre Canada. That downward trend isn’t reversing any time soon. Travel agents are fielding requests to cancel U.S. travel bookings planned months in advance, often at a loss of thousands of dollars. Customers are also asking to cancel international trips that have layovers there.
“If you’re doing a Caribbean cruise … so typically they would embark in Miami and then cruise all along. … A lot of Canadians are cancelling those,” said Flight Centre Travel Group Canada spokesperson Amra Durakovic.
The spike in patriotism, fuelled by trade tensions, has made staycations – once a fallback for last-minute planners and low-key travellers – more appealing. Domestic flight bookings have surged 9 per cent in the period between January till mid-February compared with the same time last year, according to data from the International Air Transport Association. Meanwhile, Destination Canada data from December, 2024, show that the number of Canadians planning travel to another province within the country increased by 11 per cent.
Renee de Ronde, 39, from Burlington, Ont., said she plans to travel “exclusively within Canada” this year, not only to support the country, but also for the simple reason that there’s no shortage of things to see by car – one of her preferred modes of travel.
“You could spend a lifetime exploring Canada and barely scratch the surface,” said de Ronde. Her travels gear toward scenic drives that often end in “glamping” – a term best exemplified by her stay at Repère Boréal (starting at $159 a night), a series of Nordic microcabins – including a soaring chalet on stilts – tucked in the dense boreal forest of Quebec’s Charlevoix region.
Illustration by Drew Shannon
Online searches for domestic stays by Canadians on Airbnb’s platform climbed nearly 20 per cent year-over-year for 2025 so far. Among those topping the list were Comox-Strathcona, B.C., as well as Quebec City, Waterton Park, Alta., and Moose Jaw.
Airlines are trying to meet the increased demand for domestic travel. In January, WestJet announced plans to increase its domestic flights by 10 per cent this summer, launching 11 new routes and bumping up the frequency of existing ones. Porter Airlines has tripled its share of the domestic flight market over the past few months, launching routes connecting travellers from Hamilton to Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Halifax.
Meanwhile, Air Canada announced in February that it would reduce the number of flights for popular spring-break vacation spots in the U.S. such as Florida, Las Vegas and Arizona by 10 per cent starting in March.
There’s no doubt there is plenty to see and do in Canada with its stunning landscapes, vibrant cities, beautiful coastlines and cultural experiences. But how much would staycations cost Canadians?
Domestic flight fares remain expensive. Data provided by Kayak, a travel search engine, show that the average round-trip cost to Halifax hovered at $421 while flights to Victoria averaged just above $400.
Exploring Canada isn’t cheap either – a night at a hotel in Tofino, B.C., averages $477, for example. Factoring in high accommodation costs and seasonal surges might mean rethinking itineraries to get more value for your dollar.
Data analyzed by The Globe and Mail from analytics firms AirDNA and CoStar showed that short-term rental costs across British Columbia were almost 35 per cent higher than Nova Scotia in 2024. In Vancouver, the average per-night cost for a short-term rental peaked at $335 in July. The average hotel stay year-round hovered at $285, compared with $197 in Halifax.
Banff was the most expensive place to stay in Canada in 2024. To spend the night in proximity to its glacial lakes and snow-capped mountains, travellers spent $543 a night for a short-term rental on average – $750 and $733 in the months of July and August – and the average cost for a hotel room per night was $407.
“Beyond Banff” has become industry shorthand among some travellers and hospitality experts, capturing the growing desire to dodge the crowds and surge pricing around Canada’s most iconic national park – even if it means missing some of its surreal views. In 2023-24, Banff saw a record-setting 4.28 million visits, according to Statistics Canada.
“Yoho National Park is often overlooked for Banff but it’s right next door,” said Shawna Reeve, a 39-year-old resident of Fergus, Ont., who recently travelled through B.C.’s Sunshine Coast. “Since it’s ferry locked, it takes more effort to get to but it’s worth it.”
For those who have more time on their hands, Reeve said Yoho boasts similar views of turquoise waters and snow-flanked mountains as Banff with less crowds.
It’s also lined with tiny communities to explore, including Field – a village of less than 200 people that sprung up out of the Rocky Mountains in the 1880s for employees of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Staycationers looking for an affordable retreat can drive an hour and a half from Yoho to Nipika Mountain Resort – a pet-friendly ecoresort in the Rockies, bordering Kootenay National Park.
The series of cabins at the resort is situated near Radium Hot Springs on a meadow, said Cari Gray, chief executive officer of boutique travel firm Gray & Co. Visitors can ski and skate into spring and raft in between warming up in the log-laden sauna.
For those seeking the West Coast’s warmer shores, prices will generally stay high. Tofino is second among the country’s most expensive stays. Those eager to surf along its coastline should expect to shell out about $433 a night on average for a hotel or short-term rental.
A slightly cheaper alternative is Gabriola Island – one of hundreds of floating land masses dotting the Salish Sea between Vancouver Island and the mainland. Photographer Trevor Broad from Vancouver remembers the night he was awakened by the splash of whales on the beach while camping out on the Island’s shore. “That was the highlight of any of my travels was just seeing, hearing all of these different whales kind of speaking to each other,” he said.
Illustration by Drew Shannon
For the price of $25 to $80 a night, multiple campsites on the Southern Gulf Islands have bookings that let you wake up oceanside or lakeside, such as Montague Harbour Marine Provincial Park or Dionisio Point Provincial Park on Galiano Island.
Adventurers on a budget will find some of the most affordable escapes in Manitoba, at an average rate of $163 a night for hotels. While tourists often head north toward Churchill for its polar bear and beluga whale sightings and ecolodges such as Churchill Wild, a cost-friendly alternative (with different wildlife) is Turtle Village in Wasagaming.
The Indigenous-owned and operated hideout within Riding Mountain National Park lets travellers experience off-the-grid living from the comfort of cozy cabins.
Visitors can spend the day ice-fishing or trekking on guided nature walks led by the Anishinaabe of Riding Mountain. Evenings are for devouring fire-roasted bannock and listening to stories on the precontact history of nearby Clearwater Lake in the 1700s.
But for many, the best staycations are closest to home. For Reeve, that’s in Ontario. “People need to head outside of the GTA – there’s so many coastal towns to explore, it’s not just Tobermory!”
Alongside the small idyllic towns of Wiarton and Southampton in Bruce County, she gravitates toward Northern and Eastern Ontario hiking trails – Sleeping Giant National Park, Ouimet Canyon and the Ottawa Valley – a sea of dense woods broken up by dramatic escarpments looking out above a sea of pine.
After a day of trekking, visitors can nestle inside Somewhere Inn, Calabogie (starting at $190 a night). The boutique motel was brought back to life from its original build in the 1970s and is surrounded by forests and crystal lakes. A tree-canopied enclosure lets you alternately brace high heat in a cedar sauna and cold immersion in a cold plunge pool.
Just west of Thunder Bay, Kakabeka Falls is a quieter – but no less majestic – alternative to busy Niagara Falls.
In Quebec, travellers can skip the crowds (and the high prices) of Quebec City for a Scandinavian lodge in Lac-Beauport.
Keily Guillen from Toronto stayed in one of the cabins (around $150 a night), just north of Quebec City this winter. “A one-side glass view of the forest covered in snow was facing our bed – it was one of the most natural and scenic views to wake up to,” she said.
Less than two hours away from Lac-Beauport, the municipality of La Malbaie is a lesser-known gem to many Canadians.
Set against a backdrop of rolling hills, rivers and waterfalls, as well as one of the oldest golf courses in North America, La Malbaie has been popular for vacationers and golfers since the 1800s. It became a favourite summer retreat for 27th U.S. president William Howard Taft, with high-ranking officials and business owners following his lead.
Ironically, more than a century later, another U.S. president has nudged Canadians outside the province to rediscover it.
