Travel + Leisure Readers’ 3 Favorite Islands in Canada of 2024

Canada’s favorite islands in the “World’s Best Awards” survey for 2024, as voted by T+L readers, are places where wild coastal scenery and small-town charm reign supreme.

By

Lila Harron Battis

Updated on July 9, 2024

Not every island getaway brings palm trees and crisping in the sun — with more than 52,000 islands and more coastline than any other nation, our neighbor to the north has plentiful options for travelers seeking a more rugged seaside experience. Canada’s islands offer wild, windswept beauty and lush pine forests, quaint seaport towns, and cultural capitals that thrum with energy year round. The three on this year’s list of the World’s Best Islands in Canada are longtime favorites among the readers of Travel + Leisure.

How Voting Works

Every year for our World's Best Awards survey, T+L asks readers to weigh in on travel experiences around the globe — to share their opinions on the top hotels, resorts, cities, islands, cruise ships, spas, airlines, and more. Over 186,000 T+L readers completed the 2024 survey. A total of more than 700,000 votes were cast across over 8,700 properties (hotels, cities, cruise lines, etc.).

Islands were specifically rated on the criteria below:

Natural attractions/beaches
Activities/sights
Restaurants/food
People/friendliness
Value

For each characteristic, respondents could choose a rating of excellent, above average, average, below average, or poor. The final scores are averages of these responses.

Vancouver Island Harbor — Rory Fuller/Travel + Leisure

What Readers Loved

The readers of Travel + Leisure are committed in their travel fandom: The winners on this year’s list have swept the Best Islands in Canada rankings since 2018 (excluding 2023 when this category was not included in the World’s Best Awards). All three are repeatedly recognized for their striking natural beauty and abundance of nature-centric activities.

This year’s third-place finisher, Prince Edward Island (PEI), got hat-tips from readers who admired its “sheer beauty and lovely people,” as well as “some of the best [beaches] in North America.” This postage-stamp isle, with its scenic coastal routes and quaint fishing villages, is best known as the dreamy setting of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables series. And Anne Shirley-related tourism is still booming 116 years after the first book’s debut. But not everyone PEI-bound is there to seek out the Lake of Shining Waters: For T+L readers, Prince Edward Island is just as well-known as a great family-friendly destination, and of course, for “seafood, seafood, seafood!”

Neighboring Cape Breton Island (No. 2), meanwhile, is a fascinating cultural melange where Scottish, Acadian, and Mi’kmaw influences intermingle against a backdrop of picturesque coastal landscapes. T+L readers called it a “beautiful place to get away and enjoy a simpler lifestyle.” Cape Breton Island offers numerous ways to do just that, be it driving the Cabot Trail, which hugs the island’s northern shore, paddling the UNESCO-designated Bras d’Or, Cape Breton’s tidal lake, or hiking the trails of Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Soaking up the local culture is a must (“if you get invited to a kitchen party by the locals, you’re in for a musical treat,” explains one voter), but in a place this lovely, it’s impossible to go wrong. “Stunning sights in every direction,” wrote one reader, “I can’t wait to go back!”

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The World's Best Awards

See All Winners

The Winner

Vancouver Island

This year, T+L readers are appreciating Vancouver Island anew — so much so that it nabbed the top spot from Cape Breton Island after the latter’s six-year run in first place. Situated on Canada’s Pacific Coast just off mainland British Columbia, Vancouver Island is a microcosm of all that Canada has to offer. Its northern and westernmost reaches are untrammeled wilderness, with Douglas firs towering above the mossy forest floor, bears and Roosevelt elk roaming the grounds, and pods of orcas hunting in the waters off the coast. Head to the southern tip and you’ll get a slice of Canadian history and culture in Victoria, the provincial capital and the most populous city on the island. But for T+L readers, the island’s wild places made it stand out. It’s no wonder one reader called this remarkable place “Canada’s hidden gem.”