What a visitor's money does in Canada: every guide rated from very cheap to very expensive, cheapest first, then the things that cost travellers money without buying anything — the ATM, the taxi, the SIM.
Canadian Dollar (CAD) · 1 EUR = 1.61 CAD · 1 USD = 1.40 CAD
Cards work everywhere and there is little reason to carry cash. Sales tax is added at the till rather than shown on the price, and tipping at 15-20% is expected in restaurants.
Avoid: private machines in convenience stores and bars
Use: RBC, TD, Scotiabank, BMO
Canada is close to cashless. Note that sales tax is added at the till rather than shown on the price.
Bagels — wood-fired, sweeter and better than New York’s, from St-Viateur or Fairmount at any hour — smoked meat at Schwartz’s, and poutine, which is a late-night food and not a lunch. The Jean-Talon and Atwater markets are worth a morning each, and the restaurant scene punches far above the city’s size.
Quebec country cooking in the city: tourtière, pea soup, maple everything, and cheese from the island farms. Go to a cabane à sucre in March if the timing works. The old town restaurants are priced for tourists — walk out to Saint-Roch or Saint-Jean-Baptiste for what locals eat.
Eat by neighbourhood rather than by restaurant: Chinatown, Little Italy, Greektown on the Danforth, Little India on Gerrard, Roncesvalles for Polish. Peameal bacon at St Lawrence Market is the local sandwich. The city has more good cheap food than any list can hold.
Banff eats like a resort town and is priced like one. Canmore, 20 minutes away, is noticeably better value and where people who live here actually eat.
The best Asian food in North America outside of maybe LA — Cantonese in Richmond, Japanese everywhere, and a sushi standard that spoils you for elsewhere. Also salmon, spot prawns in May, and a coffee scene that takes itself seriously. Granville Island is touristy and still worth a morning.
The cost rating is this site's own, for a visitor, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in. The general rules — the conversion prompt, shoulder season, the airport taxi — are in budget travel tips.
Banff & the RockiesCanadaTurquoise lakes under peaks that go straight up
VancouverCanadaA glass city between the mountains and the sea, and it rains
TorontoCanadaHalf the city was born somewhere else, and you can eat your way through the proof
MontrealCanadaA French city with North American winters and a festival for everything
Quebec CityCanadaThe only walled city north of Mexico, and it takes winter seriously