Saskatchewan travel guide

Known affectionately as the Land of the Living Skies, Saskatchewan offers abundant wildlife, crowd-free national parks and some of the most impressive heavens you’re likely to encounter – the shape-shifting Northern Lights are one of its biggest lures.

Although vast swathes of farmland and prairie cover a significant proportion of this province, head north and these give way to rippling hills, boreal forest and an aquatic bonanza of around 100,000 lakes and rivers.

Saskatchewan isn’t a place for rushing around. It’s a place for lying outstretched in a field and gazing at a flock of geese piercing the endless blue sky or escaping city crowds and hunkering down for a peaceful retreat on a sprawling farm.

If you’re itching to get active though, there’s plenty of space to move. Saddle up and ride towards the sunset in the Cypress Hills or experience life as a cowboy on a cattle drive. Swim, boat or hook giant trout on the humongous Lake Diefenbaker. Hike, canoe or kayak through the thick boreal forest of Prince Albert National Park, where you can spy moose, elk and bears.

And if you do need an urban hit, Saskatoon reels you in with its attractive river trails, cosmopolitan eateries and eclectic festival line-up. And then there’s Regina, where you can catch sight of Mounties-in-training at the country’s only Royal Canadian Mounted Police training academy and learn about the force’s history at the slick Arthur Erickson-designed RCMP Heritage Centre.

Before you go, kit yourself out in green and white and join the rambunctious Saskatchewan Roughriders fans in roaring on the side at a high-energy Canadian Football game.