Cold-weather enthusiasts can catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights at Wood Buffalo National Park, which spans the Alberta-Northwest Territories border.Supplied/Parks Canada
While tropical locales are still high on most travellers’ lists, a new type of vacation is trending: coolcations, where tourists head north for cold-weather escapes.
According to data from the European Travel Commission (ETC), 28 percent of European travellers are now actively seeking out cooler-climate destinations as a way to avoid extreme heat during the summer months.
Scandinavian countries like Sweden and Norway are seeing a boost in popularity, but tourists are also taking coolcations in Canada, with more and more people eyeing our country as a destination. In 2024, nearly 20 million international travellers visited Canada, an 8.4 percent increase from the year prior. The country also saw record-breaking tourist revenue between May and August 2025, with travellers increasingly avoiding major cities in favour of off-the-beaten-path destinations.
The motivation for seeking out cold climate adventures is a desire for unique and authentic experiences, says Sonya Graci, a professor at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Ted Rogers School of Hospitality and Tourism Management.
“People are looking for something different. Ever since COVID, they’ve been looking for their bucket-list items and are more adventure-focused,” says Graci, who is an expert in sustainable and Indigenous tourism.
However, the most popular locales for cold weather vacations are often fragile ecosystems that are home to tight-knit communities of mostly Indigenous people, so visiting requires thoughtful planning to avoid environmental destruction and gentrification from over-tourism.
Graci recommends travelling with an experienced tour company that takes tourism’s impact on the place and its people seriously. She also recommends looking for companies that are B-corp certified and relying on groups like the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada when researching.
“These are fragile areas, so it’s of the utmost importance that any business operat[ing] within these areas really maintains the environment – or goes above and beyond,” Graci says. “We want to ensure that local communities are supported. They want a sustainable livelihood and want to ensure that they’re able to maintain an economy that will sustain them for years to come.”
Here are three Canadian coolcation experiences to try:
Kraus Hot Springs in Nahanni National Park
Located 500 km west of Yellowknife, unwind after a day of hiking in these naturally-occurring hot springs. These springs are only accessible by paddle and offer stunning mountain views.
Visit the fjords on Baffin Island
Located in the Canadian Arctic, these massive fjords are a sight to behold with their steep rock walls and rare wildlife to spot.
Stargaze at Wood Buffalo National Park
The darkest of Dark Sky Preserves, Wood Buffalo National Park is the perfect place to look up and see the spectacular northern lights and some of the brightest constellations in the world.