Touring Across Canada....

rdizzle

rdizzle

rdizzle

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I'm making plans this summer to travel across Canada (probably starting in Toronto and ending up in Vancouver, or vice-versa). I'm just wondering if anybody on here has done anything similar and would have any advice or tips. Also what the best method (and cost efficient!) of transport would be (I'm thinking train).

Flights over to Canada seem to vary from around £400-£600 return but if anybody knows of cheaper ones please let me know...

Cheers guys :)
 
Not toured, but been to Vancouver for skiing in the rockies. Great place, I'd start there with a bit skiing! As for the travel, can't help i'm afraid! :( My uncle paid for the lot, and the only transport we had was between the airport and hotels.
 
Yeah never thought of that, if you can't afford to fly between cities over there I'd assume it'd take a hell of a long time on conventional ground transport!
 
been to toronto. wicked place, cn tower is breath taking. used the coach and busses a lot, went to niagra on coach, there fairly cheap and didnt take to long either.
 
I'm not sure if you can actually get a train for that kind of journey, I live in Alberta and I've never heard of a long distance passenger train.

I'd think either renting a car or buying one for the journey would be the best bet. You could also take the greyhound but you see some scary people on those!!!

EDIT
Awesome stuff, I've just had a google and it seems there is a rail service by VIA, and it even runs through the city I live in!!!! I can't believe this is the first i've heard of it!!!

http://www.viarail.ca/trains/en_trai_onta_tova.html
 
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I took the Amtrak rail from San Francisco to New York with a friend recently, including a short detour to Toronto. Met loads of great people and saw some amazing places/scenery. I believe VIA rail is very similar to Amtrak though probably with nicer food.

My advice would be:
It's not worth paying for sleeper cabins. They cost a lot of money and the economy seating is far more spacious than one is used to in the UK.

Don't expect trains to run on time. I was fairly lucky and the biggest delay I had was a couple of hours. I've heard lots of horror stories about trains hitting heards of cow/buffalo/moose and being delayed for the best part of a day.

Don't expect them to be frequent. You may well find there is only one train a day (if that), and it may well run at the same time every day. If this is the case it means that you may well be waiting to board trains at 3am.

Take booze and a pack of cards with you. It'll help pass the time on the train and is a sure fire way to meet people and make friends.

I got a 30 day unlimited rail pass which worked out very well. In the US at least these are massively discounted for non-US citizens in order to encourage tourism. Not sure if this is the case in Canada but definitely worth checking.

Finally, flights to the US are often cheaper than those to Canada. You may well find it's cheaper to fly to and from somewhere in the US near the Canadian border. Seattle to New York, for example.

Travel as light as possible. Do not be tempted to take anything more than one good-sized rucksack - you can get rucksacks with removable daysacks which are very useful.
 
endeavour said:
I took the Amtrak rail from San Francisco to New York with a friend recently, including a short detour to Toronto. Met loads of great people and saw some amazing places/scenery. I believe VIA rail is very similar to Amtrak though probably with nicer food.

I got a 30 day unlimited rail pass which worked out very well. In the US at least these are massively discounted for non-US citizens in order to encourage tourism. Not sure if this is the case in Canada but definitely worth checking.

Finally, flights to the US are often cheaper than those to Canada. You may well find it's cheaper to fly to and from somewhere in the US near the Canadian border. Seattle to New York, for example.

Travel as light as possible. Do not be tempted to take anything more than one good-sized rucksack - you can get rucksacks with removable daysacks which are very useful.
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I arrive in Toronto on the 1st of April and leave LA on the 28th June, i am definitely thinking of getting this pass and leaving Canada's east coast over to Vancouver then down Americas west coast to LA, with this ticket can i take all the trains to these destinations? Also failing doing this, travel down east cost of America instead and cheap flight from NY to LA, around 70-90pounds.
 
Almost exactly a year ago I was planning the same trip as you, went from April to June as well in the States, had an amazing time. I really miss the experience, would love to go back. :)
 
Macca said:
I arrive in Toronto on the 1st of April and leave LA on the 28th June, i am definitely thinking of getting this pass and leaving Canada's east coast over to Vancouver then down Americas west coast to LA, with this ticket can i take all the trains to these destinations? Also failing doing this, travel down east cost of America instead and cheap flight from NY to LA, around 70-90pounds.
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If you go on there website it shows you the routes that all the different passes cover. If you opt for the national region pass then it appears to cover the vast majority of the countries main rail routes.

Are you over there on work or for leisure? What are you doing in terms of accommodation?
 
Stiff_Cookie said:
What is there in Canada to see?
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:rolleyes: I have already been to Vancouver briefly and thought it was gorgeous and I have been told great things about Toronto and Calgary.

This thread is for info and advice and about traveling across Northern America for me and hopefully for others to read. If you don't have anything constructive to say then why bother? :)
 
FFS, man sit down amd breath. Your going to be OK. Are you sitting? Are you feeling better? Heart rate down? Breathing back to normal? Are you no longer red in the face? If so than read on, otherwise cry a little bit more.



I was just curious as to what there is to see in Canada. I dont know much about it and my short visit to Canada was when I was young.

You said you wanted to go from Toronto to Vancouver. I would like to know what you plan to do there.
 
Stiff_Cookie said:
FFS, man sit down amd breath. Your going to be OK. Are you sitting? Are you feeling better? Heart rate down? Breathing back to normal? Are you no longer red in the face? If so than read on, otherwise cry a little bit more.



I was just curious as to what there is to see in Canada. I dont know much about it and my short visit to Canada was when I was young.

You said you wanted to go from Toronto to Vancouver. I would like to know what you plan to do there.
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Your post seemed very sarcastic and I noticed that you were from the U.S. and therefore I concluded that you were not a fan of Canada and were slagging it off...I apologize then for me previous post if your question was genuine.

I'm not totally sure what you mean by your question. I plan to go traveling, I'm away for quite a few weeks so I aren't exactly going to have everything planned out. I would like to visit Vancouver Island, also of course see the Niagara Falls and would quite like to visit Toronto (CN Tower etc). Its all about seeing new places and maybe even meeting new people. Its the experience of something new. For me it's not all about what exactly I plan to do.
 
rdizzle said:
Your post seemed very sarcastic and I noticed that you were from the U.S. and therefore I concluded that you were not a fan of Canada and were slagging it off...I apologize then for me previous post if your question was genuine.

I'm not totally sure what you mean by your question. I plan to go traveling, I'm away for quite a few weeks so I aren't exactly going to have everything planned out. I would like to visit Vancouver Island, also of course see the Niagara Falls and would quite like to visit Toronto (CN Tower etc). Its all about seeing new places and maybe even meeting new people. Its the experience of something new. For me it's not all about what exactly I plan to do.
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Thank you. What I was trying to find out is what made you interested in Canada as I dont hear of people taking weeks off to visit Canada.
 
Stiff_Cookie said:
Thank you. What I was trying to find out is what made you interested in Canada as I dont hear of people taking weeks off to visit Canada.
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Maybe it is different for you as you live in America. Maybe not. I'm Scottish and don't really understand the attraction to the UK for tourists but every year thousands spend their summers across the pond.
 
rdizzle said:
If you go on there website it shows you the routes that all the different passes cover. If you opt for the national region pass then it appears to cover the vast majority of the countries main rail routes.

Are you over there on work or for leisure? What are you doing in terms of accommodation?
Click to expand...
I'll be using Hostels, and it's leisure, i'm off traveling for 12months and this being the first leg of my trip.
 
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