All Your Canada Motorhome Questions Answered

READ TIME: 10 minutes

Motorhome holidays are now a hugely popular type of holiday in Canada and you can understand why. Instead of staying in the same hotel for the whole of your trip, you can enjoy a different setting every night and you have the freedom to travel where you want.

You can see a lot in a short space of time whilst enjoying the great comfort a modern motorhome offers or you can take a leisurely drive to see some of the main attractions on your bucket list, it is completely up to you.

Phoebe Lee, a travel presenter and writer for the Little Grey Box, told us about why she loved driving around Canada: “Canada offers an abundance of incredible scenery and jaw-droppingly beautiful spots to visit! Rather than just visiting one destination, our road trip allowed us to cover more ground, stopping wherever we liked along the way and giving us the freedom to take our time. Driving, rather than flying between spots, meant we were constantly soaking in the scenery and enjoying a sense of wild adventure every single day!”

Campervan hire in Canada is easy and the country is really geared up for this type of holiday with its wide roads and a plethora of excellent campsites. If you have never been on a motorhome holiday or it will be your first trip to Canada, our starter pack will give you a great insight into what you can expect as we’ll share tips on what to pack, things you can cook and even suggest road trip and campfire games.

READ MORE: The best campsites in Canada for motorhomes

What to pack for a motorhome holiday in Canada?

One of the first things you need to consider before embarking on your trip is the things you will need to pack. What you pack will ultimately depend on the type of holiday you have planned and the time of the year you are visiting. There are some things that are essential you do pack on a motorhome holiday in Canada and these are:

•Passports, travel documents and ESTA visa

•Raincoat and waterproofs

•Underwear

•T-shirts

•Hiking boots or comfortable shoes to walk in

•Warm jumpers

•Smart casual clothing for the cities

•Gloves and warm hats (winter months)

•Ski jackets or warm coats (winter months)

•Board games or a pack of cards

•Camera

•Toiletries

There will be a fridge in your motorhome and storage cupboards so it might be worth bringing some food products with you for your Canada holiday so you won’t have to immediately dash off to the supermarket. You can bring foods such as baked goods, sweets and cheese to Canada, but there are some food products that you will not be allowed to bring into the country such as milk and fresh meat. To find out what you can bring in and the foods that you are not allowed to bring in, click here.

READ MORE: Four seasons in one suitcase

Things to cook on a motorhome holiday

Just because you are living life on the road doesn’t mean you can’t eat your favourite meals! In fact, travelling in a motorhome will offer you more time to try new recipes as you will have a kitchen with you everywhere you go. There aren’t many better ways to eat your breakfast or dinner than with a view of a snow-capped mountain or lake.

Denise Browning, a professional chef and the writer behind the food blog Easy and Delish, told us about some of the tips she follows when cooking in a motorhome.

“Plan ahead, be organised, and clean as you cook. Make sure to choose simple meals that require minimal prep and ingredients.”

Here are a couple of ideas that you can cook during your motorhome holiday.

Pot Pasta Bolognese

This pasta Bolognese recipe is an Italian classic which is easy to make, filling and doesn’t take very long to cook.

Denise Browning told us why she’d recommend making this dish on your motorhome holiday: “Cooking in a small space can be a real challenge. But it is achievable if you cook quick and easy meals that require minimal prep and few ingredients as well as those that are less messy. This one pot pasta bolognese is a great meal to camp cook in a motorhome.

“The pasta is a complete meal that takes only five ingredients to make and can be cooked within 15 minutes either on the stovetop or in the Instant Pot, winding up with one pot to clean.”

Ingredients:

•1 lb ground beef

•6 garlic cloves minced

•120ml of wine (white or red) or chicken/beef broth

•795g tomato sauce

•370ml of water

•325g penne or any other pasta

S’mores dip

This is a sized-up, super chocolatey twist on the classic American campfire treat and it is so delicious that it will be gone before you can say ‘mini marshmallow’.

Denise Browning tells us a bit about this dish: “The S’mores dip is a summer dessert made with only three simple ingredients in 10 minutes and can be baked in a small oven, requiring one single skillet.”

Ingredients:

•12 squares of dark baking chocolate chopped

•400g of miniature marshmallows

•Crackers to scoop the S’mores filling with

Other quick and easy meals to make in your campervan

•Coconut veggie curry

•Chilli con carne

•Mushroom and bacon risotto

•Full English Breakfast

Road trip and campfire games to try

We know that for some people a long road trip to your next campsite after your flight to Canada or following a day trip can have many of you dreading the journey.

A road trip game or games around the campfire are things that can make your holiday even more fun and will have you yearning for a few more miles!

Charles and Micki Kosman, who are the founders of The Barefoot Nomad, told us about some of the games they used to play with their children on the road and when they arrived at the campsites.

“When our children were little, some of the more memorable road trip games we played included I Spy, 20 Questions and I’m Going on a Picnic. As our kids got older and their knowledge of cartoons and video game characters dwarfed ours, we had to start limiting our categories to common knowledge areas. Nowadays, we’d all rather relax and listen to a shared audiobook while on the road and, more than once, by unanimous decision no less, we continued listening together long after we reached our destination.

“When we get to our campsite, we often pull out our favourite camping games like Ladderball, bean bag throw or washer toss. We also have a set of giant dice we use to play a game of Yardzee (like Yahtzee but on a much larger scale) with.”

There are lots of road trip and campfire games you can play during your holiday and here are some others which you should consider playing:

•Camping Road Trip Scavenger Hunt Game – Create a list of camping items you might see while driving in your motorhome and cross off the items when you see them. For example, you may have a sign for a campsite as one item on the list.

•Camping Words Road Trip Game – One person starts the game by saying a word related to camping and has to come up with a camping-related word that is related to the first word (e.g. Campfire, Kindling, Matches etc.). This can be altered so it is Canada-themed or a sports-based game.

•Charades – A classic campfire game to play! There a charades cards you can buy before your holiday so you can concentrate on acting out the word or phrase.

Popular drives for Canada motorhome holidays

Campervan rental is one of the most enjoyable ways to explore Canada and depending on which place tugs on your heartstrings the most you can stay in one place for as long or as little time as you want.

In fact, one of the most difficult decisions you will need to make is where you want to go as there are so many incredible places to visit. Being such a vast and varied country means Canada is a great destination for a motorhome holiday.

Charles and Micki Kosman from The Barefoot Nomad travel blog told us about just some of the stunning locations they love: “From BC’s wild coast and the Rocky Mountains to Alberta and Saskatchewan’s rolling prairie roads you then get into Manitoba and Ontario’s amazing Canadian Shield. Soon you encounter the great lakes, Quebec’s historic villages and then the beauty of the Maritimes. Never mind the rugged beauty that is the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. No matter what you want to drive over, drive under, around or near, Canada as a country can provide. Not only are there many beautiful roads to enjoy, there are so many beautiful parks and campgrounds for people to explore as well.”

To help you we have revealed some of the most popular drives to visit on a motorhome holiday.

Icefields Parkways

Icefields Parkway is one of the most iconic and stunning driving routes in the world and the 181-mile stretch of road, officially called Highway 93, links Banff with Jasper in Alberta.

Along the route, which goes through the Canadian Rocky Mountains, you can see mountains, icefields and glaciers, rivers and waterfalls as well as lots of wildlife.

Phoebe Lee from the Little Grey Box told us about their Canadian holiday to Icefields Parkway and why they loved it: “Our 14-day itinerary took us through the Canadian Rockies from Vancouver to Calgary and back. Along the way, we visited Whistler, Clearwater and Wells Gray, Jasper, journeyed along the Icefields Parkway, Banff and Canmore. We loved our itinerary as it took us to some absolutely spectacular spots where we could immerse ourselves in Canada’s natural beauty.

“If you’ve ever dreamt of doing a trip like this, just GO FOR IT! We had been dreaming of it for years and kept putting it off. When we finally got to do it, we wished we had made the effort sooner. We had so many amazing moments with friendly locals, ate loads of great food (and way too many Timbits!) and got to see some awesome animals too. It was so much fun and a trip we’ll be looking back on for years to come.”

READ MORE: A Guide to the Icefields Parkway’s Top Stops

The Cabot Trail

The Cabot Trail is on the picturesque island of Cape Breton in Nova Scotia and with its beautiful highlands and coastline, it is the islands’ most popular attraction.

The 185-mile loop of the island is the best way to see its highlights such as Ingonish Beach, the Skyline Trail, Pleasant Bay and Margaree Harbour.

If you love the great outdoors then you can try activities like hiking, cycling and whale watching as well as explore iconic seaside communities and taste the delicious local cuisine.

READ MORE: What are the top stops along the Cabot Trail?

Other popular routes you can drive include:

•Sea-to-Sky Highway

•The Dempster Highway

•Algonquin Park Corridor

If you have been inspired by reading this guide and want to find out more about the types of trips you can go on, then take a look at the different campervan hire holidays in Canada that we offer.