Fall colour trips are liveSee the dates →

Since 2010

We started with one bus and a simple idea

Getting to Canada’s best places should not depend on owning a car. That was true in 2010 when the first Parkbus left Toronto for Algonquin, and it is why we are still here 16 years later.

What we do

Bringing nature within reach

Parkbus runs buses from city centres to provincial and national parks across Canada. You do not need a car, a licence, or a friend with either. You need a daypack and a seat.

What began as a grassroots idea is now the country’s best known way to get outside without driving. We run trips you take on your own and trips with a guide, so a first timer and somebody who hikes every weekend can both find a day that suits them.

We work with park agencies, city governments, transit operators and community groups to keep taking down the things that stand between people and a day outdoors. Cost is one of them. So is the car.

Parkbus passengers walking a boardwalk trail through the woods
16years running, since 2010
300,000+people carried to the outdoors
4.6out of five on Google
96%recommend us on Facebook

In the media

In the national news since the first bus

The Toronto Star wrote about Parkbus in 2010, the summer the first bus went to Algonquin. The country’s biggest newsrooms have kept writing about us ever since.

“Factor in the cost of gas, parking and renting a car, it's a lot cheaper than taking a personal vehicle.”
Toronto Star
“Parkbus is a great option for nature lovers, whether it's a day trip or overnight camping getaway.”
The Globe and Mail

Awards and recognition

Recognised at home and around the world

Our partners

We do not do this on our own

Park agencies, governments and community organisations help us keep car-free trips to the outdoors running and affordable.

VIA Rail and Parks Canada

Signed with Canada’s railway and its national parks

In 2026 Parkbus signed memorandums of understanding with VIA Rail Canada and Parks Canada. They put all three of us on the same job: making Canada’s national parks easier to reach for everyone, car or no car.

Parks Canada looks after the places. VIA Rail carries people across the country. Parkbus covers the last stretch, from the city to the trailhead, which is where most car-free trips used to stop.

  • Ten Parks Canada places, from Halifax to Calgary. Bruce Peninsula, Georgian Bay Islands, Point Pelee and Rouge in Ontario. Kejimkujik, Kejimkujik Seaside, Port-Royal and Fort Anne in Nova Scotia. Elk Island and Waterton Lakes in Alberta.
  • Off the train and onto the bus. In Halifax, our buses leave from the VIA Rail station on Hollis Street, so a trip to Kejimkujik can start on a train from anywhere in the country.
  • Part of Canada Strong. From June 19 to September 7, 2026, the Canada Strong Pass made Parks Canada entry free and let kids 17 and under ride VIA Rail free. Free entry doesn’t help much if you can’t get there, so we put on the buses.
VIA Rail CanadaParks Canada
See the national park trips
Hikers on the coastal trail at Kejimkujik Seaside, Nova Scotia
TICO, Travel Industry Council of Ontario

Registered with TICO

Travel Industry Council of Ontario

Registration #5003628

Planned properly

Held to the highest standard

Parkbus is registered with the Travel Industry Council of Ontario, the regulator for travel businesses in the province. We answer to somebody other than ourselves, and that is the standard every trip is planned and run to: the route, the timing, the guides, and the people waiting for you at the other end.

We started in 2010 by getting people to a park and home again the same day. Since then we have added overnight trips: camping weekends at Killarney and on Lake Huron, and glamping at Four Corners in Algonquin, where some trips come with meals and guided stargazing. Over the next few years we are building out many more, and every one is held to that same standard.

A word about Transportation Options

We work alongside Transportation Options, a non-profit that has been making travel in Canada greener and better joined up since 1992. They are the backbone behind a lot of what we do, and the reason we can offer free and accessible trips through programmes like TD NatureLink.

Parkbus could not have got here alone. Dozens of organisations have helped with money, buses, permits and getting the word out, at every level of government and well outside it.

A Parkbus group setting off together from the drop-off point

Work with us

Always open to a new route

If you run a park, a town, a transit service or a community group and there is somewhere people cannot get to without a car, we would like to hear about it. New routes usually start with somebody sending us an email. So do most of our partnerships.

Email help@parkbus.ca

Tell us where you are and where people are trying to get to. That is enough to start.

Parkbus staff, volunteers and passengers together in front of the TD Rouge Express bus

The people behind the bus

A crew of outdoor people, guides, planners and problem solvers, trying to make it easier for everybody else to get out there.

Matthew Hardy Thomas outdoors, with mountains and water behind him

Matthew Hardy Thomas

Chief Executive Officer

Matthew has spent his career in tourism turning ideas into things that actually happen. Alongside Parkbus he helps destinations across North America, including Destination Ontario, Indigenous Tourism Ontario and Prince Edward County. He co-founded Whereabouts, tourism software that won Innovator of the Year at the Ontario Tourism Summit. He holds a master’s in Strategic Foresight and Innovation from OCAD University and a certificate in Cultural Planning from UBC. Favourite park: Bruce Peninsula.

Rebecca Koroll standing beside a large tree in the woods

Rebecca Koroll, MA, PhD(c)

Chief Operating Officer

Rebecca runs Parkbus’ operations, people and administration across Canada. Her background is in environmental studies and recreation and leisure studies, with more than ten years of work and research in outdoor and municipal recreation, tourism and conservation. She brings a researcher’s eye from higher education, and has held leadership roles on the boards of conservation organisations.

A canoe on a misty river at dawn, from Boris Issaev's own photograph

Boris Issaev

Co-founder

Boris co-founded Parkbus in 2010 with a pilot route from Toronto to Algonquin. His favourite Parkbus route is Killarney in the fall, and his best day outdoors was watching the northern lights in Lake Superior Provincial Park.

Alex Z. Berlyand on a mountain ridge in a red jacket

Alex Z. Berlyand

Co-founder

Alex co-founded Parkbus in 2010. Now based in Squamish, BC, he is most at home trail running and scrambling in the mountains. His favourite route is still Algonquin: the first Canadian wilderness he explored as a new Canadian, and where the first Parkbus went.

What passengers are saying

★★★★★  4.6/5.0 on Google

★★★★★
“This is the 1st time I used Parkbus but it won’t be the last.”
Brenda H. · Google
★★★★★
Took a day trip to Algonquin Park with Parkbus. They pick up on Asquith Ave. in the Bloor/Yonge area and have a quick break stop at the Onroute Barrie. All stops enable guests ample time to explore the destination. This is a highly a good idea trip for those that appreciate spending time in nature minus distractions.
OnAir48444 · Tripadvisor · Oct 2025
★★★★★
Booked in minutes, had an unreal day in Algonquin, and was home by dinner.
Cameron · Happy Parkbus customer
★★★★★
Highly recommend them for Joffre’s Lake or even Golden Ears/Garibaldi trip. The bus service is so useful for people who doesn’t want to drive and gives return facility. They were on time and bus facility was good too. Total worth the cost if you want to avoid hassle driving/parking.
Sidhant Duggal · Facebook · Aug 2022
★★★★★
This is a great service if you don't have a vehicle or just don't want to drive. I'm so happy to have discovered this. There will definitely be more Parkbus trips in my future!
James Taylor Wilson · Happy Parkbus customer
★★★★★
Speaking from someone who doesn't drive. This is a must!! I highly recommend this!
Linda Ann · Facebook · Jun 2024
96%
recommend Parkbus on Facebook
4.6 ★ on Google · 300,000+ riders since 2010

No Car? No Problem

Pick a date, pick a park, and let someone else drive.

See the calendar