Canada's not all sub-zero climes, 'maple syrup with everything' and hockey sticks at dawn. The country is as naturally and culturally diverse as it is wide, with plenty to rival its big, blowhard neighbour down south. Here are just a few reasons to go north. Soak up the Franco-Anglo culture mash of Montreal during the summer when the city comes alive for festival season. There's a continually rolling programme of arts festivals, from comedy and jazz to pimped-up cars and Caribbean carnival.

If Canada features in your RTW trip plans, mind you don't miss it in the blink of a flight. Of course you can zip from Toronto to Vancouver in an afternoon, but why not give yourself a break from endless, grey airport corridors and cattle queues? Stop and smell the pine trees with a Trans Canadian rail adventure instead.

With one eye on the heavens, David Whitley hires a bike and goes exploring Vancouver’s urban treasure – Stanley Park

If you can’t beat them, join them. Aside from the addiction to wolfing down an enormous bucket of coffee every half hour, Vancouverites are generally an irritatingly healthy bunch. Despite the city getting the sort of weather that would keep the rest of us indoors, watching DVDs and wolfing down pizza after pizza, the good folk of Vancouver can normally be found out walking, kayaking, skiing or cycling. You can either seethe and want to punch them, or you can have a go yourself.

David Whitley takes a walk around the parts of Vancouver that have a dodgy past – and learns an awful lot about Canada’s present in the process.

Vancouver, it seems has a bit of a reputation. And it’s not an entirely unjustified one. The general stereotype of an average Vancouverite is someone who is sickeningly sporty, yet suspiciously relaxed. It’s generally a happy, smiley place that regularly tops lists of cities with the best living standards. It’s pleasing to know, therefore, that Vancouver has its faults and problems. The Vancouver Police Museum is, you’d think, the place to find out about them. There are plenty of displays of guns, banned weapons and illegal drugs, while the mock-up crime scenes and the mortuary room add an unexpected element. But there’s very little about crime in the city itself, and the rest is an excruciatingly tedious trawl through the history of police officers in Vancouver and their various sports days.