Canada

The Ritz-Carlton, Montreal — Canada's original Ritz, open since 1912 on Sherbrooke Street. The Beaux-Arts landmark pairs restored heritage with Daniel Boulud's Maison Boulud restaurant, and its Golden Square Mile address puts boutiques, museums and Old Montreal within easy reach.

June through September, with June the standout — the jazz festival, comedy festival and Formula One Grand Prix stack into a single electric month. Hotels sell out well ahead for Grand Prix weekend. Autumn colours and December's festive season are the other two windows worth planning around.

For character, food and walkability, Montreal — its old town, bilingual culture and restaurant scene feel closer to Europe than anywhere else on the continent. Toronto is the business and events hub. For a leisure traveller's first Canadian city, Montreal is our recommendation.

By air, and with more nights than people expect. Montreal to Calgary is close to five hours in the air with a two-hour time change, so treat it as a proper leg rather than a hop. Ten to fourteen nights is the honest minimum for both halves: four or five in Montreal or Quebec City, a travel day, then a week around Banff and Lake Louise with a car. Anything shorter and you spend the holiday in transit. If you only have a week, pick one side and do it properly.

Whistler if you are flying into Vancouver and want a mountain village at the end of a short transfer — about two and a half hours from the airport, two from downtown, up the Sea-to-Sky Highway. The climate is milder and wetter, which can mean rain low down in December and March. Banff if you want the scenery that sells Canada: roughly ninety minutes from Calgary airport, colder, drier, with Lake Louise and the Icefields Parkway on the doorstep. For the skiing alone, Whistler. For a trip where the views matter as much as the runs, Banff.

This one catches people out. Quebec law requires winter tyres on vehicles registered in the province from 1 December to 15 March, so a hire car collected in Montreal or Quebec City comes fitted with them. Collect the same car in Ontario and it may well be on all-seasons — legal enough to drive in, but not what you want on a Laurentians road after fresh snow. Ask at the time of booking rather than at the desk. And if your itinerary is city-based, skip the car; both cities are better walked.