Vancouver Island itinerary suggestions

MY HUSBAND AND I ARE VISITING OUR SON AND DAUGHTER IN WHISTLER, CANADA, NEXT MAY. WE'D ALSO LIKE TO VISIT VANCOUVER ISLAND, MONTREAL AND QUEBEC CITY AND OTHER PLACES. HOW LONG DO YOU SUGGEST FOR EACH, AND WHAT ARE THE MUST-DO THINGS FOR OUR FOUR TO SIX WEEKS AWAY?

Y. SCHNELLE, ALBURY

Vancouver Island is no small wonder. If you want to get your teeth into it five days is an absolute minimum. At its heart is Strathcona Provincial Park and Forbidden Plateau, 250 square kilometres of alpine lakes, mountains, forests and Della Falls, the highest waterfall in Canada. The east coast has prime salmon fishing and along the west coast is the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, a wilderness of cedar and fir forests. The wildlife is abundant and intimidating. As well as black bears, Vancouver Island has North America's highest concentration of cougars. At the island's pointy southern end, Victoria is Canada's warmest city, the one place where you can find palm trees growing outdoors, although I prefer Nanaimo, "The Harbour City", 100 kilometres north. Built around a pretty harbour protected by a necklace of islands, one of Nanaimo's essential experiences is the ferry trip across the harbour to the Dinghy Dock Floating Marine Pub on Protection Island for a dinner of grilled salmon. The Stubbs Island Whale Watching tour from Telegraph Cove is an absolute must and there are bear watching trips from here as well as fishing, well worth a couple of nights at the cove.

Montreal and Quebec City are worth three full days at least, and you could include Ottawa on your list. These are all lovely cities but the best reason to go to Canada is the great outdoors, and in particular the Rocky Mountains. I'd highly recommend a flight into Calgary, pick up a hire car and drive from there to Jasper. Take at least four days with overnight stops in Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper.