Trans-Canada Highway from Halifax to Vancouver - CanaDream

Nineteen nights and 5,860 kilometres from Halifax to Vancouver in a motorhome, the Atlantic to the Pacific across eight provinces.

Fredericton comes first in New Brunswick, then Quebec City, which is the only walled city north of Mexico and whose old town sits above the St Lawrence behind its ramparts, and Montreal and Ottawa down the river and the valley.

Mattawa and Sault Ste Marie follow, then Marathon and Ignace on the north shore of Lake Superior, the most dramatic stretch of the crossing, where the road runs above cliffs over a freshwater lake the size of a sea. Kenora and Winnipeg come next, then the prairies at Regina and Medicine Hat, Calgary, and Banff and Lake Louise in the Rockies, with Kamloops and the Fraser Canyon before Vancouver.

The motorhome and the day-by-day plan come from CanaDream, and the hire is priced live per vehicle rather than per person; campsites, fuel, ferries, park fees and activities are all extra, with insurance options priced at booking. Twenty days for 5,860 kilometres and eight provinces means long driving days throughout, so this is a crossing rather than a tour: Quebec City and the Rockies both get rather less than they deserve. The season runs roughly June to September. This is a one-way hire the width of a country, so a relocation fee is worth checking at booking. The Trans-Canada is the longest national highway in the world, and driving the whole of it is the point of a trip like this rather than any one stop on it.