The Best Motels to Book in Canada

This family-friendly motel has all the elements required to make the perfect Prince Edward Island getaway – we’re talking a pool, air conditioning and kitchenettes, although it’s the location that makes this one truly special. Exactly a mile down the road is Green Gables, the real home where everyone’s favorite red-headed orphan came to life. It’s also walking distance from the Lake of Shining Waters, made infamous by Anne Shirley’s antics. Walk a little further and you’ll find Cavendish Beach, a 5mi (8km) sandy stretch with red sandstone cliffs at the east end.

Which holidaymaker in Canada doesn’t want to explore Nova Scotia’s famed Cape Breton? We certainly do – and the Harbourview Motel & Café is a favoured travel base. It places you perfectly for day-tripping across Eastern Nova Scotia. Rooms are compact and simple – dashes of white bedlinen and pine headboards – but the motel is known for its exceptionally welcoming service, not to mention the great fare and all-day breakfast in the seaside cafe. It’s in Port Hawkesbury, in a residential area by a working port, so you’ll get a real feel for fishing towns in Nova Scotia.

If Cape Breton isn’t rugged enough, a trip to the northern coast of Newfoundland and Labrador will fix it. Raleigh Rooms is a small motel with five rooms, recently updated, ergo comfortable, and popular. This isolated stretch of coast is home to the Burnt Cape Ecological Reserve, with species of flora and fauna that live nowhere else. See the unique terrain along a 40-minute drive to L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site, where Vikings landed 1,000 years ago, nearly five centuries ahead of Columbus. Their settlement remains for today’s explorers to admire.

The Timberland is halfway between Moncton and Saint John, New Brunswick. A variety of room sizes suit any traveler’s needs, including cabins and family rooms, with decent rates that include a “country breakfast”. People stay here for ease of visiting the Fundy National Park of Canada – here you’ll find the highest-rising tide in the world: 52ft (16m), twice daily. The park’s unforgettable landscape of rugged rocky coasts and dramatic sea will thrill any nature-lover, and it’s just 30 scenic minutes from the Timberland.

Gatineau, Quebec, is a short bridge away from Canada’s capital, Toronto, across the Ottawa River. It’s so close that people walk to work between the two cities – this is a great base for urban exploration. With 125 rooms, Adam Motel means business, with an array of executive suites and – if you’re feeling romantic – jacuzzi-tub accommodations. Even though Ottawa has family-friendly activities year-round, Gatineau is where Ottawans head to play outdoors. The Gatineau Hills are magnificent for fall foliage and for snowshoeing in winter, as well as hiking and biking year-round. And when you’re peckish, fantastic French food abounds.

Just across Rainy River from International Falls, Minnesota, you find quaint Fort Frances, Ontario, home to the Bayview Motel. These comfortable, recently updated rooms are right beside Rainy Lake, where the fishing’s mighty good. You’ll need an angling license here, but get one – not to mention a room with a kitchenette. That way you’ll be all set up to fry yourself that lake perch, bass or walleye you managed to hook earlier. And if you need to fire up the laptop to contact the office for any reason, it won’t be a headache – this is the rare motel with gigabyte fiber-optic wifi in every room.

Sault Ste. Marie is that rare place in Canada, across from a city of the same name in the United States. The Pine Grove Motel sits just beyond town, right off the Trans-Canada Highway. It’s a pet-friendly, family-run motel that attracts steady business among through-travelers. Lake country is all around here – the Pine Grove is right between Lake Huron and Lake Superior. After a long day behind the wheel, you’ll need your shut-eye, so every room is soundproof, and has been fitted with blackout blinds.

Just west of Grand Forks on the Crowsnest Highway, the Evening Star is an affordable option an hour from Osoyoos and Okanagan Wine Country. It’s the perfect place to lay your hat if you’re not the sort for more touristy regions. Staying here, you’re 45 minutes’ drive from Baldy Mountain Ski Resort, BC’s third-highest ski hill. You’re also just a few minutes’ ride from the Kettle Valley Railway Trail, a 404mi (650km) former train track through Kootenay and Okanagan country, subsequently repurposed for cycling and hiking adventures. For overnight digs on a grand tour, you’ll be pushed to beat The Evening Star.