Budget

Simple stays in Canada mostly mean highway motels and small-town inns. This page lists 75 of them in 33 places: 32 carry the word motel in their name, including 11 Motel 6 locations, with an average guest rating of 8.0 and 18 stays at 8.5 or more. Apart from M Montreal (9.2, 3,342 reviews), a hostel with dorms and private rooms on rue Saint-André in downtown Montreal, the list is made of highway towns and suburbs; none is in central Vancouver, Toronto, Banff or Quebec City. The eight Residence & Conference Centre stays are college residences, and that changes everything. In Oakville (Sheridan College), Kitchener-Waterloo (Conestoga) and London (Fanshawe), overnight rooms are only open from May to August, while students are away. The Oakville building has more than a hundred two-bedroom suites, which is useful for two couples or friends sharing. Outside summer, do not count on them: book a motel in the same town instead. In the West, the stays follow the highways. In British Columbia, the Super 8 sits in Abbotsford in the Fraser Valley, and two Kamloops stays, Travelodge Mountview and Rodeway Inn, are where Highway 1 meets Highway 5. Medicine Hat has 5 stays on the Trans-Canada, led by Prairie Crest (8.7, 627 reviews), and Strathcona County 8 around Sherwood Park and Fort Saskatchewan, east of Edmonton. In winter, check 511 Alberta before leaving, and plug in the block heater: the Alberta Motor Association advises at least four hours before driving below minus 15 °C. In Ontario, Chatham-Kent has 9 of the 75 and Sault Ste. Marie 8 (best rated: Ambassador Motel, 8.8, 133 reviews), the last big town on Highway 17 before the north shore of Lake Superior, and the gateway to Michigan by the International Bridge. The most reviewed motel, Motel 6 Kingston (2,485 reviews), sits roughly halfway between Toronto and Montreal on Highway 401. Whitby and Oshawa have three stays east of Toronto. In Quebec, Laval, Terrebonne and the South Shore give Montreal-area options, and Hôtel-Motel Coconut is in Trois-Rivières. Elsewhere, the list fills the gaps along the main routes. Alberta adds Lethbridge (3), Red Deer (2), Grande Prairie (2), Airdrie and Fort McMurray, where the Super 8 scores 8.8 from 195 reviews; in Saskatchewan, Regina has a Motel 6 and a Days Inn, Saskatoon a Motel 6; in Winnipeg, Queen Bee Hotel (8.7, 537 reviews) is the best rated, and Motel 6 Headingley sits at the city's western edge. Ontario also adds Sudbury, Windsor, Sarnia, Hamilton, Newmarket, Brampton and Kawartha Lakes. Among them, the Four Points by Sheraton in Stoney Creek, Hamilton (8.2, 548 reviews), and Newmarket Inn (8.1, 699 reviews) score well, and the SureStay Plus in Windsor has 1,013 reviews. In the Maritimes, Motel 6 Moncton has 2,170 reviews, and Traveller's Inn in Summerside is the Prince Edward Island stop. Taken together, I would use these 75 for nights between long drives, not as a base for a week of sightseeing. Three stays stand out for their setting. Shallow Bay Motel & Cabins (8.8, 337 reviews) is in Cow Head, a village surrounded by Gros Morne National Park, steps from the Gros Morne Theatre Festival stage, with a pool, hot tub and sauna. Erie-O Motel and Marina in Erieau (9.6, 105 reviews) faces Rondeau Bay on Lake Erie, with docks for fishing and kayaks and bicycles for guests. In Quebec's Eastern Townships, Auberge La Table d'Hôte in Abercorn (9.2, 39 reviews), by the Vermont border, is the small-inn exception.