It’s officially summer now, and soon classes will be letting out. Here are 150 ideas to add to your summer bucket list. There is a wide variety of ideas for all age and ability levels, and many of these are appropriate whether you’re making a summer bucket list for your family, or on your own. How many of these fantastic summer adventures will you check off your own Canadian summer bucket list?
Make sure to slap on some sunscreen for all your water sport fun, to keep from getting uncomfortable and dangerous burns from the suns rays. Here are my favourite natural sunscreens.
You can find the Canada Trails website here, and check out a list of 60 awesome hikes in Canada here.
Read more about these real-life treasure hunts here.
Want to add one of your own to the list of registered caches? Find instructions here.
Head to one of our oceans and get yourself on a whale watching tour.
This is a fantastic app for finding all the playgrounds near you when you’re out of your element anywhere in the world.
Are there any playing in a city or town park near you?
Here’s a master list made in 2016 of all the drive-in movie theatres in Canada.
Hesitant to camp with a toddler? Here are some tips from our personal experience.
Canada’s Rocky Mountains make for a breathtaking summer road trip I remember dearly from my own childhood.
Here are Canada’s 10 best water parks to get you started.
These neat parks where you can spray water and splash through sprinklers, wading pools, and other shallow water features are also called spray pads, splash pads, and spray parks. Search for one near you.
Check out Canada’s top 10 amusement parks here.
Whether you have acres, a small garden bed, a few planters on the patio, or some small pots on your window sill, you can grow something pretty or tasty (or both).
Raspberries, blueberries, huckleberries, mountain huckleberries, strawberries, blackberries, salmon berries, thimble berries, saskatoon berries… Canada is ripe with berries in the summer time.
Here is the most simple way to make blackberry jam, that doesn’t require special canning equipment.
Save yourself the hassle and buy a quick-mix pack for the crust, but invest the extra time on a lattice top. You’ll feel pretty proud of the pretty pie.
You can make lots of different types of forts using blankets, tarps, lumber, sticks, and whatever else you can find. Here are some useful instructions for building a stick fort in the woods, if you want to get more technical than leaning up some sticks against a tree.
Have a summer picnic or BBQ celebration in your yard or a park, and invite everyone to bring a dish to contribute.
Bring the magic of Salt Spring Island’s Mt Erskine and Fairy Landing to your own backyard.
Whether you’re at the beach or around a campfire, sing-alongs make my heart feel happy. If you or someone with you plays guitar, ukulele, or another instrument, great. But sing-alongs are still fun a cappella. (Read this for an easy way to teach yourself to play guitar or ukulele.)
Play tourist in your own town and see what your part of the world has to offer.
Here is a list of all the gondolas in Canada here and aerial tramways in Canada here.
What’s more Canadian than a good ol’ hockey game?
East Coast or West Coast, island life is a little bit slower. Here are some fun things for families to do when visiting Salt Spring Island in the Gulf Islands.
The most simple way is to tie a string tight to both ends of a straight, bendy stick, and use pine cones or twigs as arrows.
Find some rocks and paint them. To create little treasures for others to find, hide them along a trail or in an outdoor play space.
Keep an eye out while on road trips, hikes, and camping adventures for some of Canada’s plentiful wildlife, like bears, beavers, deer, eagles, moose, rabbits, mountain goats, and so much more.
One you actually want to read for fun.
Check if your local library puts on any of these neat literature walks that motivate your children along a trail. If not, here is how to get one in your community.
Or if you want to do yoga on your own with your little ones, read this post on yoga tips and tools for kids.
There’s not a group with your interests that gets together in your community? Start one!
Find some advice on this and other outdoor learning here.
Find out more about the different Canadian train trips here.
Not wanting to make one up yourself with what you have around? Order this splash obstacle course on Amazon here (Affiliate link).
Get instructions to make up your own nature scavenger hunt here.
What’s important to you? Contribute to your passions or your community and see what volunteer options are out there.
Find free disc golf courses in Canada here.
Make sure they are bee-friendly plants, grown without dangerous neonicotinoids that do more harm than good.
Here is a list of the waterfalls in Canada.
Read my experience and what I learned on my first winery tour here.
Check out this recipe for healthy protein popsicles.
Here is a list of caves in Canada.
Baseball? Soccer? Lacross? Even if you don’t follow a sport, it can be fun to go out and cheer for your local team.
Get a giant bubble recipe here.
Order one on Amazon here. (Affiliate link)
Be careful about where and what you pick. Don’t pick endangered species or anything out of park lands.
Personalize your garden or make a gift for someone special. If you line the concrete with heavy-duty plastic wrap, little hand and foot prints could be made for each year. DIY instructions for stepping stones here.
Head up to the family cottage on a lake, make friends with someone who has a cabin along the coast, or rent one for yourself.
Find more details in this post on Autumn fun activities.
You can usually find fireworks on Canada Day, or at these other popular fireworks festivals in Canada.
Get to know the plants in your ecosystems and create a journal to keep notes and examples of local flora.
Climb a mountain or take a drive, and find a beautiful view. Find some of Canada’s most scenic drives and viewpoints here.
Wander outside and collect natural materials for loose parts play and transient art.
Learn some simple mapping skills and map a route you travel.
Use a kiddie pool or a small tent for an easy version.
Here is a list of hot air balloon operators in Canada.
Buy, rent, or borrow for adventures on the water, fishing, swimming and taking in the views.
Canada is known for it’s beer, so we couldn’t leave this off the Canadian Summer Bucket List. Hang out on an outdoor patio at one of the many entertaining Canadian breweries.
Here’s a list of hot springs in Canada.
There are many locations to pan for gold across Canada. Here are some instructions on gold panning.
If you own a bit of property, take some snippers and make a new trail to walk.
Otherwise known as a sweat lodge or steam tent. DIY instructions here.
Pick dandelions (which are often considered weeds) and rub them on paper, cardboard, or even your own skin.
Make temporary art with rocks placed just ever so.
It’s a task of patience, steadiness, and physics.
All you need is a bowl with water and marbles. Watch this easy DIY that helps the bees here.
An old sheet or some large paper, and a spray bottle with water colour paints (or even water with food dye) makes for some interesting art experiences.
You can hang your own zip line in your back yard with this kit from Amazon (affiliate link).
Extra bucket list points if it’s creatively done, so you look like a mermaid or something else neat.
Check out this information on rock climbing and bouldering in Canada.
Don’t feed ducks bread crumbs, though, as it actually hurts their stomachs. Learn more and find some duck-friendly nibbles here.
When it’s dry and sunny out, you can “paint” with just water and paint brushes, watching it disappear as it dries.
If you have a little one who likes to collect rocks wherever they go, this is not only easy but a useful way of displaying the kept rocks.
Get certified and see some amazing underwater sights. Check out the best dive sites in Canada here.
If you hit the coastal waters in the right place at the right time, you can experience stunning bioluminescence when plankton in the dark waters are agitated.
Take this Canadian summer bucket list idea and make a real summer bucket. Roses and lavender work especially well and have beautiful fragrances to enjoy, as well.
Remember Pooh’s thoughtful spot? Find a quiet place of your own to go sit, reflect, and just be. This is a great practice for children.
Be careful and make sure you know for sure what you’re harvesting as there are poisonous plants out there that can make you very sick or worse. That being said, here is a list of 15 edible plants in Canada. Look around for a foraging class near you to learn proper identification of local species.
What did I miss? I know I left plenty out of this Canadian summer bucket list. Leave me a comment below or on social media to let me know what you would add to your own summer bucket list, whether or not your in Canada.
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3 thoughts on “150 Canadian Summer Bucket List Ideas”
Ooh! Yes! A zip-line would be perfect here!
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