Where would you go in Canada? 4 weeks with DH & DD16 July 2018

[loveyouradvice]

Hi ... trip of a lifetime to Canada for a month (mid July - mid August) celebrating DD GCSEs hard work... our usual hols are camping, UK seaside cottages and occasional French villa.

So have saved up and will be renting out London house so hopefully will get together a decent budget -

Where would you go?
What would you do?
How much do you think it would cost?
Best things to spend money on - best ones to save on?

She's incredibly keen to go to Montreal - we all love wild walks and open spaces - so mix of culture and nature would suit us down to the ground.

Looking forward to hearing your ideas! And enjoying fantasising (planning!) it for the next six months....

We are off to Canada next summer for 2.5 weeks and are doing: 3 nights Vancouver, 4 nights in Tofino in Vancouver Island, 3 nights in Whistler, 1 night Kamloops, 4 nights in Jasper and 4 nights in Canmore before flying home from Calgary. We found that booking suite hotels/ lodges worked out fairly reasonably and then we at least have the choice to cook for ourselves which should save some cash. It’s costing us £7.5k for 5 of us for 2.5 weeks (flights and accomodation) which is waaaaaaay cheaper than a European holiday for us. We are asking family for Canadian dollars for Christmas and birthdays to put towards things like a sea plane trip, whale watching and zip lining whilst we are there.

We got a pretty good deal on Air Canada but otherwise would have been happy flying Air Transat.
We are so excited but I would say if you want to go get flights and accomodation booked early as things were already filling up when we booked particularly in popular places like Tofino, Jasper and Banff which I didn’t expect. Good luck.

Ps - your trip could be a lot more reasonable as we are having to budget for 3 kids not one!

oh wow... booking already? Heavens.... it's going to be my Christmas/New year break project.... researching and booking.... and yours sounds amazing!!! When are you going?

Hi I live here, it’s a huge country, so I would go west coast, east coast or central. West coast itinerary chimper set out is fantastic. If you wanted to fly to Montreal, you could also rent a car and go to Quebec City, 4 weeks would also get you around bay of fundy, pei, Nova Scotia. Heading west from Montreal I would head to Algonquin (lots of wildlife, beaver dams, walks, wolf howls, bears). And then on to Toronto and Niagara Falls. You could also consider going into the states, ny finger lakes or Chicago 7-8 hours. I was amazed by Newfoundland, but it’s a huge way away.. you would probably need to incorporate it as a stopover which I believe transat are doing from lgw. I’d you do enjoy camping the campsites here are
aMazing. You could consider candreams.com and renting an rv it would be cheaper for accommodation and travel.. especially for Algonquin. Ontario and Canada parks open for bookings and get filled by the end of Jan. They also do cabin rentals and Mec (Mec.ca ) do camping equipment rentals they can get
You all set up .

We went to Nova Scotia and PEI this summer and loved it - very outdoorsey, and the Anne of Green Gables house was lovely (if anyone is a fan). I think I'd do the east coast tour set out by snowman above.

Name says it....we have travelled with 15 and 17 year olds. Newfoundland...amazing whales, wildlife etc...Toronto fab both girls love it. Great shopping, jays gameetc..go to The Falls ...up into Mennonite country...Milverton, Ontario...we recommend Anna Maes...Ottawa the capital, quiet..but interesting. Montreal great bagels and culture. We took the train from Ottawa to TO...just to show how big the country is. We did Airbnb in St John’s, Ottawa and TO....great.

Canadians are lovely!

PS..we travelled WestJet..they were great and cheaper than AC!!!!

Agree Canadians are lovely. Our dds were same age as yours roughly OP and they loved it.

Also dh discovered his six favourite words in the language "Do you want gravy with that?"

oh wow! the more I think about it the more Im looking forward to it... was hoping to do both chimper style west coast and snowman's east coast - maybe a bit less in each and hoping can fly in to one, do a flight in the middle and out of the other? Or is that unrealistic in 4 weeks...especially as we don't want to feel rushed anywhere and love meandering...

Vancouver and Vancouver island, tofino is magical. Probably my favourite place in the world.

I did a tour of West Canada a few years ago. Vancouver is beautiful, with a trip to Vancouver Island for the whale watching. Follow it up with a road trip or train trip to Jasper, Banff, Kelowna. You get to see some amazing scenery of the Rockies and lots of wildlife. If your dd likes her sports, there's lots of rafting, hiking etc too.

I have a trip report which I can send you if you pm me. we did 3 weeks with teens and stayed in Sechelt, Vancouver, Jasper and Golden. masses to do in the west coast and wished we had had an extra week to stay on Vancouver island.

I've beennto Newfoundland and it's absolutely beautiful. Air Canada are fantastic.

Definitely include Vancouver island if you can. Just beautiful with amazing wildlife, spend a day whale watching. We've done air Transat a couple of times, they are absolutely fine as an airline.

shameless pm.

Vancouver, Vancouver island - whale watching
We took the Rocky Mountaineer train to Banff then stayed in Jasper and the national park. Loads to do - walking, horse riding, camping
And amazing wildlife - bears, moose, beaver, etc

Go to the Icefields Parkway too to see the Athabasca Glacier
Amazing scenery -go!

Oh wow oh wow oh wow! Getting so excited already.... surprised no one loves Quebec? I'd always thought it would be amazing since hearing about it as a teen....

Any other favourite places? And why?

Mmmmmm so looking forward to starting to book

If staying this side of Canada, Newfoundland is beautiful but weather similar to here. We went to Toronto this year for 6 nights and stayed on the Bruce Peninsula for 9 nights i think. It has numerous national parks and also a marine park, it is absolutely beautiful, rugged and stunning.

We’re going to Vancouver for a week and then Whistler for a week in July. If you go to Vancouver, I’d book accommodation ASAP- I booked in a suite hotel a couple of months ago and they’d already sold out of my first choice of room type.

Oh, and I love Quebec too but I haven’t been there in nearly 30 years so imagine it’s changed a bit.

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