We’ve all got that ever-growing Canadian travel bucket list – the curse of living in such a beautiful country, sigh! But the sad truth is that with booking flights, requesting time off, and coordinating cross-country road trips, seeing everything from coast to coast is a pretty tall order. In the meantime, did you know you can skip the airport lines and see the roar of Niagara Falls, the rugged East Coast, and the historic cobblestones of Québec all in one afternoon?
Hidden in a massive 45,000-square-foot space right across from Sankofa Square, is your answer. Pocket Planet is an incredible, immersive Miniverse that depicts the country’s most iconic landscapes, shrunk down to scale. Formerly known as Little Canada, the space has been voted Toronto’s #1 indoor attraction for four years running. It’s insanely detailed, fully animated, and chock full of familiar sights, cute stories and fun Easter eggs all waiting to be discovered.
Here are 3 of our favorite Canadian destinations you can visit in just a few hours and some tiny hidden details to look out for during your visit.
1. Earth’s wildest tides: The Bay of Fundy
Tucked between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the Bay of Fundy experiences the biggest tidal swings on the planet, up to 53 feet high! Every single day, 160 billion tonnes of seawater rushes in and out, more than the combined flow of all the world’s freshwater rivers.
In the Little East Coast pavilion in Pocket Planet, the crafty team built an astonishing, fully working 400-litre mechanical basin. You can stand there and watch actual water rise and fall, exposing muddy ocean floors and tilting tiny lobster boats on their sides – just like in real life!
2. A chilly legend with a ghostly twist: Fairmont Château Laurier
Ottawa’s gorgeous Gothic Revival landmark has a tragic story: the visionary who built it, Charles Melville Hays, famously went down with the Titanic in 1912, a mere 12 days before the hotel’s planned grand opening. Hays commissioned the $2-million luxury hotel (about $50 million today) to attract wealthy travelers, but he perished on his return voyage from Europe before he could ever see the doors open. Since then, the hotel has seen hundreds of thousands of guests per year including politicians, heads of state and celebrities.
Instead of just admiring its amazing limestone turrets from the outside, Little Ottawa’s castle features a dollhouse-style cutaway along the back wall. You can peer directly into tiny, illuminated suites and banquet halls, and watch animated horse-drawn carriages clattering through the ByWard Market.
3. The rugged West Coast rainforests: Tofino & Vancouver Island
Canada’s surf capital isn’t just famous for swelling waves, it sits on the edge of prehistoric temperate rainforests where ancient western red cedars reach heights of 200 feet. Some of these giants, like the famous Hanging Garden Tree on nearby Meares Island, are estimated to be over 1,500 years old, meaning they were already growing when the Roman Empire fell!
In the Little West Coast zone of Pocket Planet, the lush greenery has been painstakingly hand-textured leaf by leaf. You can spot miniature wetsuit-clad surfers catching rolling breaks alongside tiny campfire smoke rising quietly between ancient canopy trees.
Beyond the big landmarks, the expansive space is like a giant interactive playground for adults and kids alike—packed with secret celebrity cameos, seasonal scavenger hunts, and miniature works of art around every corner. You can even Littleize yourself and take mini-you home with you or leave them vacationing in your favorite scene in the Miniverse!
Pocket Planet invites you to wander at ease and get lost in some truly beautiful artistry. You can explore all corners of Canada and watch the tiny skylines twinkle as day turns to night in a single afternoon and still make it home in time for dinner!
Plan your visit to Pocket Planet, 10 Dundas St E, Basement Level B1 (directly across from Sankofa Square), there’s so much to discover!
