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 Myself and a friend are looking at doing a long trip across Canada from Toronto to Vancouver on the train, with stops in Winnipeg and Jasper. While we've budgeted what I think is quite a bit of time for it (3 to 4 weeks) this is obviously not that long when you're crossing practically the entire continent. So - a few questions: Is this a sensible itinerary? We would ideally I think spend 3-5 nights in Toronto, 2-4 in Winnipeg, 3-5 in Jasper for the national park and 3-5 in Vancouver with the rest spent on the train getting cross country. Is this the right sort of time to spend in each place or should we cut a bit of time in Winnipeg for example and spend more time in Toronto etc? I'm not the most outdoorsy person but my friend is, so was planning on trying to keep both of us happy with plenty of drinking in bars and watching bands in the cities and then plenty of walking and looking at the scenery. Anything you'd recommend / must sees / don't bothers in the places mentioned? My itinerary for Toronto at the moment seems to solely consist of places featured in Scott Pilgrim to be honest: Casa Loma, Honest Ed's, Sneaky Dee's, Lee's Palace and Cameron House. I'd quite like to watch hockey, but I suspect Spring/Summer means it's the off season? Accomodation wise, we're both comfortable in hostels and slumming it. We'd be aiming to go probably around May or June next year, so got plenty of time to think it through fairly thoroughly, with the only real restrictions being the two flights either side and the timings of the trains in between as they only run 3 times a week I think. We're coming from the UK if that makes the slightest bit of difference. Thanks in advance fellow followers of 'er Maj 
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May 28, 2014 13:22
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 13:06 |
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I would move your starting point a little further east to Montreal. Spend a few days there and don't worry if you don't know any french, it's a pretty bilingual city. Keep the gently caress away from Winnipeg. Having driven across Canada, I can tell you with 100% certainty that there's absolutely nothing worth seeing between Toronto and Calgary. You'll most likely be out of luck for any hockey. By this time next year there'll be either 2 or 4 teams left in the playoffs. The chance that any of them would be Canadian is pretty low and the chance that you'd be able to get tickets for a game without spending a few hundred dollars would be almost nil. You can still just hit up pretty much any bar in the country during a playoff game and they'll be guaranteed to be showing it. As for stuff to do, party for a couple of days non-stop in Montreal. eat at Schwartz's and Au Pied du Cochon (expensive, but probably one of the top 3 restaurants in the country) hit up some strip clubs if that's your thing, hang out in Old Montreal and St. Catherine street. Stagger on to the train and sleep until Toronto or stop by Ottawa, which is like a 2 hour train ride from Montreal for a day and see Parliament and a couple of museums. That's totally optional though, you can see everything that Ottawa has to offer in a day. After Toronto, you'll probably be on the train for about 2 days (seriously, gently caress Winnipeg. There's no reason to go unless you have family there or like getting stabbed) In Vancouver, there's a pretty good HI hostel on Granville st. that puts you a few minutes away from piles of bars, music venues, the Seawall, Granville Island, the Art Gallery, Chinatown and just about anything else you could imagine. You could get a shuttle up to Whistler for a day trip or do the Grouse Grind, Capilano suspension bridge or visit the UBC botanical gardens for outdoor stuff that's closer to the city. Rockzilla fucked around with this message at 20:11 on May 30, 2014 |
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May 30, 2014 03:47
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Does it have to be the train? Got to agree that most of Canada is just big emptiness. I would do whatever you're interested in out east (Toronto and Montreal?), then fly to Calgary. From Calgary drive to Vancouver - it's about 12 hours so you'd want to do it over a few days, but the drive is beautiful and there's lots of great nature stuff on the way, as well as fun towns and culture. Somewhere like Banff could be a great mix of nightlife/partying with being in nature. Depending on your preferences you have a few different options for the drive - could go via Banff, Lake Louise, Kamloops and on to Vancouver, or south via Nelson and Kelowna. BC has some nice historic towns with lots of culture, wineries, mountains, hot springs, it's really something to see. I've been to Jasper quite a few times, and if you go the train route then it's a nice 'nature' stop on the way, but I think there are many better places to go. It's a bit of a weird place...
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May 31, 2014 02:29
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For hockey, May/June is playoffs in every league, so it's impossible to plan ahead, with the exception of the Memorial Cup, which is in Quebec City May 21 to 31. If you're dubious about non pro sports, know that "junior" hockey is way more serious than any development league in any sport in Europe. The teams who make it to the Memorial Cup have generally sacrificed the next 5 years to load up on 18/19 year olds who will be moving on to the NHL the following year. The Memorial Cup is awesome, actually affordable, and is a week long party attended mostly by hockey fans (not fans of particular teams as generally found in NHL cities, just general die hard hockey fans) from all over the country. Seriously, try and make it there at that time, that works out just so perfectly. Trains. When I was living in the north east of England, I would regularly spend weekends sitting on Northern/Scot Rail trains just reading and watching the countryside go by. I also flew over to Norway to take the Bergen-Oslo train. What I'm trying to say is that I "get" the whole riding trains thing, though I know from the Trainchat thread I'm not as invested in the industry as you are! While I've never done it, Toronto to Jasper by train just sounds so boring. I don't think you could find a 45 minute train journey in the UK that had scenery that varies less than what you'll see out the window between Kenora and Edmonton. And that's 48 hours. And you just spent 24 hours just getting to Kenora from Toronto, seeing only trees, so you're already bored as poo poo. Northern Ontario is beautiful, but the railway is cut through forest and doesn't offer much in the way of views. Maybe if you were super outdoorsy it could be interesting to take advantage of the hop off/on wherever service I believe the train provides, but N. Ontario is incredibly remote, and I'd want someone with me who knew exactly what we were doing. I realize the Toronto - Vancouver route is a pretty classic itinerary for train people to check off the list, and I'm sure it would be a decent enough time with a good friend, but I personally would prefer to do the Halifax-Quebec-Montreal-Toronto route by train, which is way more interesting to look at out the window in my opinion, is broken up by 2 awesome cities (seriously, Montreal is amazing) and has 2 awesome cities as termini. Then get to Alberta somehow and take either the VIA or the Rocky Mountaineer to Vancouver depending on whether the better view or vintage carriages have more appeal. It really is a spectacular trip, even for someone like me who grew up in the mountains. As for getting to Alberta from Toronto, I can't recommend driving enough. With a car you can make short stops wherever you want, whether at a small town bar, a quick swim in a remote lake in northern Ontario. And you can camp instead of sleeping in some lovely hostel or cramped train sleeper berth! I don't think you could pay me to take the train from Toronto to Edmonton, but that drive in the summer is one of my favourite trips I've ever done (I've also done it in the winter). All my friends from the UK who have moved to Canada all have become obsessed with Canadian road trips due to decades of nothing but short car trips on crowded roads through suburbs and farmland, perhaps you're the same? The fact that you've penciled in possibly 5 days in Jasper makes me think that you'd have way more fun armed with a rental car and 10 days to get from Toronto to Edmonton. Jasper is nice but without a car you're kind of restricted to crowded day hikes and the tacky tourist town I think. If you're set on doing the classic route my advice would be to cut Winnipeg completely, and maybe shift some of the Jasper days to Vancouver, rent a car in Vancouver and use it to do 1-2 hour drives into the mountains for some hiking and sightseeing (though you'll be restricted in what you can do in June, most of the high altitude stuff is still covered in snow and requires mountaineering equipment and skill). For city recommendations, make threads sooner to your trip, all the big cities in Canada are undergoing a major shift in bar culture right now, mostly due to the craft beer and classic cocktail craze, combined with backlash against chains. Newer, more unique, better places opening every month it seems. The same could be said for food. At least this is true in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. Kreez fucked around with this message at 20:00 on May 31, 2014 |
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May 31, 2014 19:51
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Rockzilla posted:(seriously, gently caress Winnipeg. There's no reason to go unless you have family there or like getting stabbed) He probably won't get stabbed. But I agree, there is nothing that I can see as worth stopping here for if you're going across Canada. I guess we got some rivers and some bars and stuff, but I wouldn't bother stopping. You could spend a couple nights going to all the bars in Osborne Village I guess. Depending on what time you come, there might be some music festivals going on though.
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Jun 1, 2014 00:35
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kidhash posted:I would do whatever you're interested in out east (Toronto and Montreal?), then fly to Calgary. From Calgary drive to Vancouver Listen to this man. I'd do something like Halifax-Montreal-Toronto by rail then Calgary-Vancouver by car. Train travel on the east coast is going to be more flexible too.
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Jun 1, 2014 01:10
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Winnipeg is a perfectly nice city but it's not really a travel destination by any means. Osborne Village is a fun area with lots of cool, trendy bars and restaurants; so if you visit the city, that would be the place to hang out at. The Exchange District downtown has lots of potential to be a great place and there's a few nice spots to hang out there as well. Really, there isn't anything resembling a travel destination between the Rockies and Toronto, so to me at least, it seems like a colossal waste of time travelling by train. Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver are really the only big cities worth visiting; the only interesting thing about Calgary is its proximity to the Rockies; unless you like endless suburban sprawl I guess. I would just hang out in the eastern part of the country personally. St-John's, Halifax, Quebec City (language could be an issue there), Montreal and Toronto would be a nice trip and, outside of St-John's, you could travel by rail to all these places. If you have your heart set on Jasper/Vancouver, just fly from Toronto to Calgary/Edmonton and rent a car/take the train from there.
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Jun 1, 2014 04:01
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If you've got the time, you could hop off in Winnipeg and take the train North to Churchill. There's probably a couple of day's worth of stuff to see up there, depending on the season. That's a lot of time spent riding trains though. Keep in mind that trains in Canada aren't really people's go-to mean of transportation, so they don't go nearly as often as you think they would, outside of the "corridor". Heck outside of that zone it's mostly a tourist thing anyway; flying's a heck of a lot faster and buses are way more common.
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Jun 2, 2014 19:45
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Just popping in to note that you should ask about what to do in Toronto in Toronto's LAN thread - you'll get a million varied and fantastic responses on what to eat, drink and visit. Stop by the thread and tell us a bit about your particular interests. I also agree with the Halifax - Toronto suggestion for your initial train route. Halifax is awesome and I am in love with Montreal.
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Jun 4, 2014 21:30
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 13:06 |
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In my personal opinion, flying over the prairies is a much better idea. They're more interesting to look at from the air because instead of an endless flat sea of wheat, you see a patchwork quilt of a massive expanse of land littered with small ponds and lakes left over from the ice age. I think it's a much better way of experiencing that part of the country. I think you'd also be best to drive from Calgary to Jasper via Icefields Parkway, especially if your friend is outdoorsy and you want to take in scenery. There's way too many places where you really ought to stop and appreciate what is really there before you, rather than just letting it fly by. Granted there is a lot to see in the Jasper area, but the landscape is crazy diverse all the way from Canmore to Jasper and you shouldn't miss any opportunities to just pull over and pause for a moment in that spot, letting it truly seep in.
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Jun 12, 2014 03:16
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