Best canada travel guides according to redditors

There's really nothing too complicated about it. I assume you'll just be day-hiking, so just do some reading on bear safety, put some food, warmer clothes, and bear spray in your backpack, and start walking! Most official trails are well marked and difficult to get lost on. Hiking boots are nice, but absolutely not necessary.

These books are excellent resources and will tell you the basics, as well as the goods on all the trails:

Classic Hikes in the Canadian Rockies - Graeme Pole

Canadian Rockies Trail Guide - Brian Patton & Bart Robinson

You could also join the Alpine Club of Canada. They do a lot of organized trips, with a focus on mountaineering and climbing. There is also an Edmonton Hiking group on meetup.com that does lots of walks in the River Valley with the occasional planned trip to the mountains.

Note that most trails will be snow covered until later than you might think (late June/early July) - check here for trail reports for the mountain parks.

If you need anything else, please feel free to PM me.

Found some links for it. A guy from work just bought it, definitely going to check it out. :)

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?kn=charles+wilkins&sortby=17&tn=the+winnipeg+book

https://www.amazon.ca/Winnipeg-Book-Charles-Wilkins/dp/0919493297

This is a book about 36 hour intineraries for 125 cities in Europe. I have the U.S. one and it's awesome.

https://www.amazon.com/New-York-Times-Hours-Europe/dp/3836540487/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_img_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=VM583Z63K6QQHHTDW1F5

Mon préféré qui m'a présenté le Québec comme société quand j'habite en C.B. c'était Sacre Blues: An Unsentimental Journey Through Quebec

A copy of Souvenir of Canada, by Douglas Coupland. It is a bit like a coffee table book of odd things that define Canadian identity. The photographs are very interesting, like careful, sculptural assemblages of the iconic and quotidian.

www.amazon.com/Souvenir-Canada-Douglas-Coupland/dp/1550549170

Send along a nice gold maple leaf necklace, too.

www.etsy.com/ca/listing/206888008/gold-dipped-maple-leaf-necklace-on-long?utm_source=google&utm_medium=product_listing_promoted_en_ca&utm_campaign=jewellery-low&gclid=CL20ou3BmMICFS-CMgod1zYA1g

This: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1892154285/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1878425293&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1G7JNECABVV49A6B7854 The Milepost, mile by mile description of what's here and on AK highway through Canada. Worth every penny.

Consider going to Bellingham, WA and taking the Alaska State Ferry ( http://www.dot.state.ak.us/amhs/index.shtml) very much a great deal and excellent way to see some more of Alaska. You'll still have a drive from Haines or Skagway up to Whitehorse and then connect with the Alaska Highway.

There are books, tripadvisor.ca, collections for each region, Airbnb and all the individual sites.

Buy a milepost

If you come to Banff National Park I would recommend grabbing this book. https://www.amazon.ca/Canadian-Rockies-Trail-Guide-Patton/dp/0981149189

Lot's of amazing day and multi-day. Their are so many hiking trails in the area, but most people will stick to the major ones.

Some details on your routing might help, are you driving, flying into Calgary etc? People rarely just visit Banff, they will typically visit at minimum Banff and Lake Louise, and likely also take the Icefield Parkway up to Jasper which I would highly recommend.
Banff/Jasper/Lake Louise can be done in a busy week, if you really like hiking or taking it easy you could easily extend it. I would recommend this book for the actual driving, gives a good overview of what you are seeing with viewpoint information, some hikes etc.

https://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Canadian-Rockies-Ben-Gadd/dp/0969263112 A monster of a book, but it's an amazing resource. At the end of June, you will still run into snow at higher elevations, like passes. I'm not sure how backcounty you are planning on going, but unbridged rivers can also be a major issue at this point in the season. Lots of melting snow means fast, cold, deep, murky water.
When it comes to booking backcountry sites, the good ones tend to book up quickly. They key is to look for the "undesirable" ones. These are the ones that are not on a well-known loop and are a LONG day's hike to get to. For example, Flint's Park. If you go even further, random camping is permitted.
Buy bear spray, know how to use it. Learn how to look for signs of bears. Digs, poop, prints, etc. Announce your presence, especially one moving from one area to another. Crossing water, moving from forest to meadow or vice versa. Cook and store food/smelly things in an area separate from where you camp.

My favorite is https://www.amazon.ca/Handbook-Canadian-Rockies-Ben-Gadd/dp/0969263112

It has very detailed writing of the geological history, ecology and zoology of the Canadian rockies.

Get yourself a copy of this:

Handbook of the Canadian Rockies

Though this one does cover a lot more than just the geology..

Day trips from Halifax http://www.amazon.ca/Day-Trips-Halifax-Jon-Tattrie/dp/1927097444

it's a weekly NYT column.

http://www.amazon.com/The-New-York-Times-Weekends/dp/3836526395

From Sea to Sea begins in Vancouver where the author finds his feet and becomes a hockey fan in a backpackers hostel before moving to the suburbs and making friends for life. But life is expensive and the author is obliged to work interesting jobs to pay the rent before embarking on the adventure of a lifetime!

Encounter bears in Whistler and elks in Jasper. Hike in the national parks of the snow covered Canadian Rockies. Visit Edmonton, the heart of the Canadian oil industry. Look down on Toronto, Canada's largest city from one of the worlds tallest buildings. Get wet at Niagara Falls. Immerse yourself in French-Canadian culture in Montreal. Watch rivers flow backwards in New Brunswick and then end your trip in the port city of Halifax where thousands of European immigrants became Canadian.

From Sea to Sea: A Year of Work and Travel in Canada is a travelogue of a year spent living. An informative guide to the history of some of Canada's major cities and tourist attractions.....and also Moncton, New Brunswick.

From Sea to Sea: A Year of Work and Travel in Canada is not the typical sex, drugs and backpacking book. Join the author as he takes you inside his Canadian adventure. Beginning in Vancouver where he found his feet and became a hockey fan in a backpackers hostel before moving to the suburbs and making friends for life. But life is expensive and the author is obliged to work interesting jobs to pay the rent before embarking on the adventure of a lifetime!

Encounter bears in Whistler and elks in Jasper. Hike in the national parks of the snow covered Canadian Rockies. Visit Edmonton, the heart of the Canadian oil industry. Look down on Toronto, Canada's largest city from one of the worlds tallest buildings. Get wet at Niagara Falls. Immerse yourself in French-Canadian culture in Montreal. Watch rivers flow backwards in New Brunswick and then end your trip in the port city of Halifax where thousands of European immigrants became Canadian.

From Sea to Sea: A Year of Work and Travel in Canada is a travelogue of a year spent living. An informative guide to the history of some of Canada's major cities and tourist attractions.....and also Moncton, New Brunswick.

A story of bears, beers, hockey, hard work, love, friendship, maple syrup and what can happen when you take a chance on an adventure. If you've ever thought about visiting Canada then this is a book for you.

Amazon.co.uk link Amazon.de link

They still do. I took a 2 month cross Canada road trip and used their North American Atlas. Great place to start. Other than that, most GPS work decently as long as you use your common sense. Took me down some really terrible logging roads because it would go by shortest distance, which isn’t always the best route.

Edit: This is the one I used https://www.amazon.ca/Canada-USA-Mexico-Road-Atlas/dp/1553682270

Yeah, you should not be walking into the backcountry randomly - those are the people who get carried out - sometimes alive, sometimes not.

Grab a trail guide (I've used Brian Patton's guide for decades), and plan a modest overnighter. Aim for 10-12km each way, and figure out what you need to take. Expect that you'll get terrible weather, understand that carrying 50lb on your back is going to crush you when climbing hills, and imagine cooking over a tiny burner with half-numb hands. I'd say get a book on hiking as well - The Complete Walker used to be fantastic, but I'm sure there are others out there.

Maybe as a run-up, do a few day trips. Head up to a pass and back down, something under 20km round trip. With a day-pack, you'll get an appreciation for how long that is, at least. And you'll also get to see just how gorgeous the high country is.

Pick up a copy of Canadian Rockies Trail Guide by Brian Patton and Bart Robinson http://www.amazon.ca/Canadian-Rockies-Trail-Guide-Akamina-Kishinena/dp/0919934900
or Don't Waste Your Time in the Rockies by Kathy and Craig Copeland http://www.amazon.ca/Dont-Waste-Your-Canadian-Rockies/dp/0968941974

Both list and describe day and multiple overnight hikes, what makes them interesting etc etc and give plenty of suggestions for outside of Banff and Jasper.

There are zero natural hot spring locations that you can comfortably day-trip from Calgary.

Alberta does not have much in the way of hot springs. There are the couple around Banff, none of which have much water, and none in which you can soak, and there's the Mist Mountain warm spring, which has a wee tiny pool-ish.

The Rocky Mountain geology is simply not conducive to the formation of hot springs. You need to go further, into the Columbia, Kootenay, and Purcell for that.
Cross into BC, and it's hotsprings everywhere. You have your classic Radium, Ainsworth and such pool facilities, a few middle-ground like Lussier Hot Springs which are semi-built, but not turned into a swimming pool, and piles of even more obscure ones with varying amounts of build-up, some of which you must hike to.
Pick up Hot Springs of Western Canada from MEC or the public library for a solid overview.

I don't know the ones up north well I am just speaking about ones I have visited personally. I have this book and it does list quite a few up north.

There are a few in and around Nakusp. It's worth picking up this book for some hidden gems!
I found a 1976 version at a book store in Kelowna a decade or so ago, and spent a couple summers hunting them down. It's a great book, and there are some wicked spots around!
Good luck.