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Things to Do in Canada 274
Wake up somewhere you'll never forget — for basically free
Good morning!
Did you know? There are over 9,500 Harvest Hosts locations across Canada and the United States — including wineries, breweries, farms, and one-of-a-kind attractions — where travellers can spend the night with no camping fees.
What if your overnight stop wasn't just a place to sleep — but one of the best parts of the trip? That's the idea behind Harvest Hosts, and once you discover it, it genuinely changes the way you think about road travel. This week, we're handing the newsletter over to them — because after seeing what their Canadian hosts have to offer, we think you should know about this. From a winery tucked into Quebec's Eastern Townships to a craft brewery inside an old Alberta schoolhouse, these are the kinds of places you stumble upon and talk about for years.
Welcome to a different kind of overnight stay.

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Stay Somewhere You'll Never Forget (For Basically Free)

There's a version of road travel that most people never discover. Not the highway hotels. Not the crowded campgrounds where you're six feet from a stranger's generator. Something else entirely — waking up in a vineyard as the morning mist lifts off the mountains, or stepping outside your van to watch the sun rise over a working Alberta farm, coffee in hand, not another soul in sight.
That's the world Harvest Hosts has built. The membership gives RVers and vanlifers unlimited access to stay overnight at thousands of wineries, breweries, farms, and unique attractions across Canada and the United States, with no nightly camping fees. In exchange, guests are encouraged to support their hosts through purchases, such as a bottle of wine, a flight of craft beer, a farm-made soap, or a bag of fresh produce. Your money goes directly to a small Canadian business. Your night becomes part of the adventure.
Whether you're travelling in an RV, a camper van, or anything in between, the concept is the same: one annual membership, thousands of extraordinary places to stop. Here are five Canadian hosts that stopped us in our tracks.

Quebec's Eastern Townships are a great place to spend the night.
Vignoble Domaine Bresee — Sutton, Quebec
Imagine pulling off the road into Quebec's Eastern Townships and waking up the next morning with the Sutton Mountains framing your view through the window. Vignoble Domaine Bresee is a family vineyard where the art of winemaking merges with conviviality, a sanctuary inviting you to explore, learn, and connect with nature. Walk through the vineyards, relax at one of the ponds, or settle in at the picnic area while taking in the views. Their boutique carries award-winning wines alongside pasture-raised Charolais beef raised right on the property. It's the kind of place that makes you slow down — and then wonder why you were ever in a hurry.
Make friends with alpacas at Pootcorners.
Pootcorners Alpaca Farm & Fibre Studio — Palmerston, Ontario
Since 2003, Pootcorners has been a cherished alpaca farm and fibre studio in rural Ontario, and it is exactly as delightful as it sounds. Wake up to a herd of alpacas grazing peacefully through the day, with baby crias pronking and playing near their mothers. The hosts offer farm tours, alpaca walks, and a genuine warmth that guests consistently rave about. If you visit in May, you might even catch the annual shearing — one of those only-on-a-farm experiences that you simply can't manufacture. This is the kind of overnight stop that your kids — or your inner kid — will never forget.

Look for the little piggie at Caberneigh Farm.
Caberneigh Farm — Uxbridge, Ontario
Caberneigh is a 50-acre farm between Uxbridge and Port Perry, home to horses, dogs, cats, goats, laying chickens, a pot-bellied pig, and bees. The owners describe it with an endearing self-awareness — "a farm-slash-vanity-project" — but don't let that fool you. This is a place overflowing with personality, animals, and the kind of quiet that people drive hours to find. It sits in a beautiful stretch of Ontario countryside, close enough to the GTA to feel accessible, far enough away to feel like a genuine escape. Spend the evening listening to nothing but crickets and the occasional goat. You'll sleep better than you have in months.

Stay the night, buy some soap!
Olivier Soapery — Sainte-Anne-de-Kent, New Brunswick
Not every Harvest Hosts stop is a farm or winery, and the Olivier Soapery is proof that the most memorable nights can happen in the most unexpected places. Established in 1996 in the quaint village of Sainte-Anne-de-Kent, Olivier Soaps taps into the rich cultural heritage of Acadia, blending age-old recipes from France, Italy, and Spain with community spirit. Inside the Soapery, visitors discover how beauty products are created from natural ingredients using time-honoured techniques, with guided tours and live soap-making demonstrations that have made it a beloved stop on New Brunswick's Cultural Coast for decades. Pick up a year's worth of handmade soaps, spend the night, and wake up on the shores of one of the most underrated provinces in the country.

This looks like the coolest brewery ever!
Detention Brewing Co. — Rosalind, Alberta
The name alone earns a visit. Detention Brewing opened in 2022 inside a former schoolhouse and celebrates that history throughout, from beer names like Summer School Cerveza and No Running in the Halls Red Ale, to a brewhouse set up inside the old gymnasium. Nestled in this historic building, the brewery pays homage to the generations of students who once walked these halls, a place to unwind with a cold beer and reminisce about good friends and unforgettable memories. It's located in the village of Rosalind (population: 188), deep in Alberta barley country, which means the ingredients are about as local as it gets. Spend the night outside a converted schoolhouse under an enormous prairie sky, and tell us that isn't a story worth telling.

Sleep next to a pond at Vignoble Domaine Bresee in Sutton, Quebec.
Why This Changes How You Travel
This isn’t just about where you stay—it’s about how you experience Canada.
Instead of rushing from destination to destination, you discover places you’d never normally find, meet local business owners, and turn every stop into part of the story
These five hosts are just a glimpse. Harvest Hosts has locations from the Okanagan Valley wineries of BC to Nova Scotia's wine country, from Prince Edward County in Ontario to the ranches and scenic stays near the Rockies in Alberta. The idea that your overnight stop could double as the highlight of your trip — that's not a marketing pitch. It's what happens when you hand the keys to the people who actually live in these places.
As one member put it: "Instead of boring overnight stops, we're staying at wineries, breweries, farms, and unique small businesses all over the country. Every stop feels like part of the trip — not just a place to sleep."
Another: "Meeting locals and supporting their business is much better than spending $50–$75 at a campground. We tell anyone we can about Harvest Hosts."
One annual membership. No nightly camping fees. 9,500+ locations, hundreds of them right here in Canada.
Right now, Harvest Hosts is offering Must Do Canada readers 25% off membership — but only until May 10. If a Canadian road trip is anywhere on your radar this year, this is the moment to pull the trigger.

From Our Shop
The Perfect Road Trip Companion (Special 30% Off Promotion)
If Harvest Hosts is where you stay…
This is what you do.
Our Canadian Bucket List scratch cards are designed for this exact kind of travel—helping you discover unique experiences across your province, one surprise at a time.
Scratch it. Go do it. Repeat.
Pair it with unique overnight stays like this, and suddenly your road trip isn’t just planned… It’s full of unexpected adventures.
Special Offer: Buy a Harvest Host membership for 25% off and get an additional 30% off any box of Bucket List scratch cards! Just email your HH receipt to [email protected], and we’ll send you a special code.

International Departures
Take This to the UK
If this idea feels like your kind of travel… it doesn’t stop in Canada.
There’s a UK version too—through Brit Stops.
Same concept. Same sense of adventure. Just a different setting.
Think charming farm shops, local vineyards, historic pubs, and countryside spots you’d never discover otherwise.
It’s the same idea—just with a little extra British charm.
Imagine ending your day with a pint at a centuries-old pub… or waking up beside a quiet countryside farm shop.
Not bad, right?

Watch
Here’s a quick video explaining how Harvest Hosts works…

Beaver Bites
Canadians are staying home — in record numbers. Fresh data from Leger confirms 67% of Canadian travellers plan to travel within Canada this spring, up from 49% last year. That's not just a trend — that's a movement. In fact, Domestic travel spending hit $30 billion. And honestly, road trips are the best way to see the country, which makes Harvest Hosts an exciting membership to join.
Airfares are rising — except in one surprising city. Domestic airfares across Canada have jumped roughly 26% compared to last April — but Halifax is bucking the trend, with fares actually dropping about 10% year-over-year. If an East Coast trip is on your radar, now's a good time to look at flights.
Speaking of flights, book your summer flights sooner rather than later. WestJet has reduced capacity by about one per cent in April, three per cent in May, and nearly six per cent in June, citing soaring jet fuel costs tied to the war in Iran. Air Canada has also suspended six routes, including Toronto and Montreal to JFK, effective June 1. Summer travel is still very much happening, but the window to lock in good options is narrowing fast.
Ontario just created a new kind of provincial park. Charleston Lake Provincial Park has become Ontario's first "adventure class" provincial park, a new designation that opens certain park lands to ATVs and snowmobiles, activities that have generally been off-limits in protected areas. The park saw a record 143,000 visitors last year, up 14% over 2024, generating an estimated $13.7 million in tourism dollars. Conservationists have concerns, but for outdoor recreation lovers, this is a new kind of Ontario adventure worth watching.
Alberta just put $8 million into new tourism experiences. Travel Alberta announced over $8M in funding commitments to develop new tourism experiences across the province, including Alberta's first glass dome glamping units near Jasper, a new whisky distillery experience in the Badlands, and a Nordic spa destination in Barrhead. The province is clearly betting big on getting travellers to stay longer and go further off the beaten path.
Edmonton's coffee scene just got a global nod. The Colombian Coffee & Roastery in Edmonton was named 15th on the Top 100 Best Coffee Shops in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean, making it the only Edmonton shop on the list. Founded by co-owners Santiago and Kristin, the shop sources beans from their family coffee farm in Colombia and now has six Edmonton locations plus one in Saskatoon.

💡 WORK WITH US
We’re starting to feature more destinations, attractions, and travel experiences like these across our newsletter, website, and social channels.
If you’re part of a tourism board, hotel, or experience and want to be featured in front of 60,000+ Canadian travellers each week, feel free to reply or reach out—we’d love to collaborate.

