In a winter nation that loves this icy season, you gotta know there are plenty of places where Canadians routinely shovel off snow, smooth out ice and go at it full-out, happily stroking along, fuelled by hot chocolate (or in Quebec, “caribou,” a potent mulled wine). Just to clarify: they’re skating. And so can you.

The world’s two longest outdoor skating venues are Canadian: Ottawa, ON’s famed Rideau Canal (longest manmade) and Winnipeg, MB’s Assiniboine Credit Union River Trail (longest au naturel).

In the Old Port of Montréal, QC, a skating trail winds around the Quays that’s a park in summer—with soaring architecture on one side, a partly frozen St. Lawrence River on the other.

At Place d’Youville in old Québec City, QC, in front of the historic Palais Montcalm, the plaza’s flooded in winter and twinkly lights festoon surrounding 17th- and 18th-century buildings while skaters play.

Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories, smooths out a piece of frozen Frame Lake, right in town, for winter skating—best enjoyed in late March, when the Caribou Carnival celebrates all things Far North on adjacent solid ground.

At Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, AB, visitors skate where Olympic athletes did, and at Lake Louise in Banff National Park west of Calgary, they take time from skiing to skate the lake itself—right outside the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. 

Regina, SK , floods its signature downtown Victoria Park, turning it into a massive rink with lights, Christmas decorations and music, right across the street from historic Hotel Saskatchewan.

Even cosmopolitan downtown Toronto, ON’s got a rink, on Nathan Phillips Square, squarely in front of city hall.

Canadian kids usually get their first skates pretty much as soon as they can walk. And of course, dads all over the country ruin summer backyard lawns by flooding them in winter so the kids can skate right at home. Hey, we’re winter people. We love it. You can, too.