Hi Im thinking of going over to Canada next year with my husband to see my friend who lives in Torronto. As we want to do our own thing we are hoping to stay with my friend for a couple of days and then move on to stay somewhere in Canada and maybe travel over to the usa. As we need to keep a couple of days free to stay with my friend were unable to book a package holiday to fit this in. Any ideas as to where to stay or where to start as we have never been to either Canada or USA (other than Florida). Were hoping to holiday for around 2 weeks. Not sure of distances from Canada to USA or if its possible to drive to different states as we dont want to be driving hundreds of miles for the full 2 weeks but dont know of other travel options availible on a limited budget?? Any suggestions would be very much appreciated. : )
With only two weeks, it will be tough to fit a lot in.
To give you an idea on some distances, it's about a two hour drive from Toronto to Niagara Falls, 4-5 hours to drive from Toronto to Ottawa, and about 7 hours to drive from Toronto to Montreal.
Crossing into the US, you're looking at about 2.5 hours from Toronto to Buffalo, New York. From Toronto to Lake Placid, New York is about 7-8 hours depending on the route you take. If you head for Michigan, it's about 4 hours from Toronto to Detroit. Those are just drive times and don't include the time spent at the border crossing.
Border wait times are a bit of a crapshoot. Many times there's no delay at all, but other times you can be in the queue for up to an hour.
Thanks so much for the info. At least now I have an idea of how long to get to a few places, which isn't as bad as I was expecting so thats good. Im thinking maybe we could drive and stop over a few days at each stop so hubby gets a bit of a rest from driving assuming theres enough to do at each stop off which I can look at on the internet now. Maybe I can even talk him into expanding the 2 weeks by an extra few days so we can fit a bit more in.
If you're interested in big cities, you could cover Toronto, Montreal, Boston and New York City, comfortably in 2 weeks... Assuming you will be travelling during the summer. You could travel by train between these cities which would avoid lots of costs in car rental, gas, and parking fees.
ViaRail is the passenger train company in Canada.
http://www.viarail.ca/en/main
Fly into Toronto and visit that area with your friends then take the train to Montreal from downtown Toronto. Cost is about $200 each, or 1/2 price on sale, and it takes about 5 1/2 hours.
Airfare and trains are expensive here...
If your looking for more variety then just cities, you will need to rent a car. Choose somewhere like Boston and rent a car for 3-4 days and travel up to Maine along the coast.
If you do rent a car in Canada, be sure to check with the rental company re. crossing into the US with your rental.
Re. Driving times, you can usually cover about 600 miles/ 1000 km per day. That will be about 10-12 hours driving... I know, that sounds crazy but it is surprisingly common in North America when you are in "Road Trip" mode.
Thanks Snowdogs1 it will be during the summer and travelling by train between cities may be a good idea. My husband can sit back and relax rather than drive everywhere then. I like the idea of doing the big cities and I assume the train will be cheaper than the costs of car insurance and hire. Lots to think about but at least I have time to work out a travel route to see as much as possible.
No prob... Do a bit more research and if you need more advice, start a new post on the North America thread => you will probably get more responses than posting in the Intro section.
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