Where have you travelled (going to travel) open thread

[Bryan]

Canada and the USA are vast countries, which may explain their inability/unwillingness for overseas travel.

On the other hand, Australia is a vast country and for them overseas travelling is like a rite of passage, something you are expected to do.

New Zealand is not a big country but it is remote as hell and therefore travelling must be expensive but it hasn't stopped them.

Overall, a question of priorities.

Depends on your definition of "overseas". North Americans travel to plenty of tropical countries. They're just most likely to be in the same hemisphere.

But, yeah, the distance makes a huge difference. I can go for thousands of miles and still be fully inside of Canada.

[Bonam]

Always interesting talking to the locals and near locals but I always forget how weird Americans are. Can't really explain the feeling but part of it has to do with their lack of interest in foreign adventure (unless it involves war). Canadians aren't much better, tbh.

Hmm, I dunno. Having lived in Seattle for 7 years now, I can't say that I find the people here are much different in terms of their desire for or frequency of foreign travel and adventure than in Vancouver. Some like it and enjoy it, other's don't, same as anywhere else.

[Smallc]

Canada and the USA are vast countries, which may explain their inability/unwillingness for overseas travel.

On the other hand, Australia is a vast country and for them overseas travelling is like a rite of passage, something you are expected to do.

New Zealand is not a big country but it is remote as hell and therefore travelling must be expensive but it hasn't stopped them.

Overall, a question of priorities.

Canadians spend about as much as you'd expect in comparison to Australia when it comes to international travel each year - almost 1/3 more. Americans spend proportionately less.

[bush_cheney2004]

Canada lacks the infrastructure to easily travel to all parts of the country as conventional tourists. Even Canadian truckers make use of the U.S. interstate highway system for point-to-point travel in Canada.

[Smallc]

It's easy to drive form one end of Canada to the other - I've done most of it. Winnipeg Toronto to Ottawa, Waterhen to Calgary, Calgary to Vancouve - I haven't driven east from the, but there is now freeway from Windsor to Halifax, or will be by next year anyway. There have also been big improvements to the roads through the BC Rockies ans northern Ontario. Most truckers stay on this side of the border for national loads, as crossing the border twice with a load saves no time in most cases, and involves a lot of red tape.

The road trip culture that exists in the US just doesn't exist here, mainly because going anywhere that you haven't been usually requires going through places that you have already been. Someone called Canada a horizontal Chile the other day. That's a great analogy actually.

[cybercoma]

There's a Montreal Bypass now. It makes the trip from Fredericton to Windsor a hell of a lot better now. I've started stopping in Cornwall though. It makes the drive a lot more tolerable.

Edited August 21, 2016 by cybercoma

[Smallc]

Trying to do the drive from Winnipeg to Toronto on highway 17 is a bad idea, btw. That is, it's a bad idea if you try to do it all at once. The biggest problem at night was not fatigue, but fear of moose, combined with rain and fog. Around Marathon the moose are literally everywhere.

Highway 11 was fine all at once. Ontario has more rest stops than any place I've ever driven (Ontario west for Canada, and about 15 US states), so there is lots of opportunity to stop and empty your bladder of all of the energy drinks you're drinking. Not as many moose and far straighter too.

Edited August 21, 2016 by Smallc

[bush_cheney2004]

....The road trip culture that exists in the US just doesn't exist here, mainly because going anywhere that you haven't been usually requires going through places that you have already been. Someone called Canada a horizontal Chile the other day. That's a great analogy actually.

Canadian media reported that the outage of a single new bridge stopped/slowed all major east-west traffic earlier this year. So I guess that is a good analogy.

There are many different ways to travel east-west/north south on highways in the United States, and some places are fun to visit many times anyway.

[Guest]

Took a couple of relatives to Jasper and the Badlands this week. They liked it very much.

[Smallc]

Canadian media reported that the outage of a single new bridge stopped/slowed all major east-west traffic earlier this year. So I guess that is a good analogy.

There are many different ways to travel east-west/north south on highways in the United States, and some places are fun to visit many times anyway.

The United States has a completely different population distribution. You already know that.

The ironic though about the incident with the bridge is that the said bridge was the first half of a divided bridge that was designed to stop exactly what happened.

Took a couple of relatives to Jasper and the Badlands this week. They liked it very much.

I'm in Waterton Lake right now. Alberta is certainly a beautiful place.

[Guest]

The United States has a completely different population distribution. You already know that.

The ironic though about the incident with the bridge is that the said bridge was the first half of a divided bridge that was designed to stop exactly what happened.

I'm in Waterton Lake right now. Alberta is certainly a beautiful place.

Yeah, you don't notice it so much when you work in it, especially after working all over BC for many years, but when you stop to look, it does have many beautiful spots. Waterton is on my list of places to visit.

Edited August 21, 2016 by bcsapper

[Big Guy]

Cross Canada Via Rail Trip. Something every Canadian should do before they die. A little pricey depending on accommodation desired but a life long experience.

[Smallc]

Yeah, you don't notice it so much when you work in it, especially after working all over BC for many years, but when you stop to look, it does have many beautiful spots. Waterton is on my list of places to visit.

I splurged for one night at the Prince of Wales hotel. The view is just as amazing as it looks on Google - even more so. No image doctoring required.

[msj]

Cross Canada Via Rail Trip. Something every Canadian should do before they die. A little pricey depending on accommodation desired but a life long experience.

Before doing this I recommend trying the train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and also the train from Hanoi to Hue.

Try out the non-western bathrooms: nothing like squatting over a hole in the floor where your pee and poop go to the tracks below!

Still better than the trains in India and China, I'm told, where they cram 6 to 8 people into each area. Much more comfortable when it's only 4.

After this experience going 3rd class in Canada feels luxurious and you can save money. It practically pays for itself.

Edited August 22, 2016 by msj

[-TSS-]

I guess if you really try to drive from one end of Canada to the other you must take some precautions in case of a breakdown of your car as there must be a lot of places where you can see nobody else anywhere around.

Those precautions include things like taking extra food and drink with you.

[msj]

Yes, it can be very rough travelling in Canada: one time I had to call BCAA and wait for over an hour.....

[Smallc]

There are definitely remote places, but on a cross country tour those places are limited to a few locations in Northwestern Ontario.

[The_Squid]

I guess if you really try to drive from one end of Canada to the other you must take some precautions in case of a breakdown of your car as there must be a lot of places where you can see nobody else anywhere around.

Those precautions include things like taking extra food and drink with you.

Yes, it can be very rough travelling in Canada: one time I had to call BCAA and wait for over an hour.....

There are definitely remote places, but on a cross country tour those places are limited to a few locations in Northwestern Ontario.

I think TSS is right though... You have to be careful in more remote areas in the winter... Spring/summer/fall, not so much. I drove to Yellowknife in the winter from my island paradise, and it is very remote. If you are stuck overnight in -50, that can be serious...

[Smallc]

I think TSS is right though... You have to be careful in more remote areas in the winter... Spring/summer/fall, not so much. I drove to Yellowknife in the winter from my island paradise, and it is very remote. If you are stuck overnight in -50, that can be serious...

I would agree with that - but when I think of going from one end of Canada to the other, I usually think of a basically straight line from Halifax to Vancouver.

[Smallc]

So, my review of my road trip.

I'll preface by saying that this trip was very, very, fast trip.

We left Waterhen on Thursday, and drive from 6:30 a.m. until 6:30 PM, passing through Brandon MB and Williston ND. There's not much else to say about that.

We stayed at the Radisson in Billings. It was a nice hotel for the less than $100 CAD that I paid. That night, we ate at Texas Roadhouse. Now, I'm not a small guy. That's mostly because I like food. What Americans see in this place is beyond me. If I wanted my steak raw on the inside and burnt on the outside, I could do that myself (actually, I wouldn't do that). The Keg or someplace like Mr Mikes (if you've ever heard of it) is far better as far as chains go.

We got up early the next morning and headed for Beartooth pass. If you've never driven Beartooth, you need to. Ascending into the clouds on a dreary day and coming out the other side is kind of hard to imagine until you've done it. On a clear day, you can see the absolute height that you've driven to. After that, you begin the decent into Yellowstone. Don't go at this point in August. The park is too packed. Still, we managed to see basically everything on the west side, including Old Faithful. It's more spectacular the first time than he fourth though.

That night, we stayed at the Sawtelle Mountain Resort about 30 minutes outside the park in Island Park Idaho. It, like everything else around Yellowstone (in terms of lodging) is expensive. It's a resort with rooms and campground areas. There's a pool and laundry. We didn't use any of it, other than the beds.

On the way to the hotel, we stumbled across the Outpost Restaurant in West Yellowstone. Go to this place. The home cooked food is amazing. I had the hot beef platter. I wasn't disappointed. Like something my grandma would have made.

The next day was another early one. We quickly left Idaho and re-entered Montana. We drove for 6 hours to Glacier National Park, Montana. American roads are pretty wonderful, though there's a noticeable decline in surface quality in Montana compared to my last visit (North Dakota had prefect highways, as usual). At Glacier, we went over the Going to the Sun Road. It was good, but not as good as Beartooth. It's worth doing at least once in your life. Anther thing - for a park called glacier, there sure aren't many. I'm not sure if that's a recent thing.

We re--entered Canada and stayed in the dry (to my fiance's sadness) Mormon town of Cardston. We got a free upgrade at our motel to the honeymoon suite, complete with Jacuzzi. She was more happy after seeing it.

The next day, we made the short drive to Waterton Lake National Park. My brother left back to Winnipeg that morning. Like Yellowstone and Glacier, it was packed. Waterton is amazing. Why it doesn't get more attention than it does is beyond me. I'd rate the scenery as the best in the country, better even than what I saw on the Sea to Sky Highway and at Lillooet. We splurged and spend one night at the Prince of Wales Hotel. It's beautiful, despite what some reviews say. Yes, there's some peeling paint and shingles on the lake side (the hotel is constantly buffeted by winds that can be in excess of 100 kph), but the road side and the lobby are kept immaculate. The rooms are old (at least the rooms on the 5th and 6th floor, that once were used for the help), but they are more than adequate. The only problem was a lack of hot water in the morning. The view combined with the experience of being transported into a hotel from the past makes it more than worth it. The hotel also serves very good food for dinner (the potato leek soup is to die for) and the breakfast is good too.

Today, we drove home (12 hours from Waterton to Waterhen). It was worth it as Waterton was always one of my dreams. Another thing off the list.

[overthere]

Before doing this I recommend trying the train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and also the train from Hanoi to Hue.

Try out the non-western bathrooms: nothing like squatting over a hole in the floor where your pee and poop go to the tracks below!

Still better than the trains in India and China, I'm told, where they cram 6 to 8 people into each area. Much more comfortable when it's only 4.

After this experience going 3rd class in Canada feels luxurious and you can save money. It practically pays for itself.

The comfort in Indian trains is directly related to the class of seat you choose. In Western terms, even the highest class is not expensive. When planning a trip on the massive and bust Indian rail network, the lowest long distance class I'd consider is second class reserved(which has fold down berths for overnight hauls). Day trips are very comfy in first class Chair Cars. You can book on the official Indian Rail website, but it is pretty much a nightmare and paying for seats with foreign credit cards can be difficult. A much easier site for Indian rail travel is Cleartrip. They also do well on domestic flight bookings, but be aware that not every domestic airline is on Cleartrip site, it is worth checking both Cleartrip and individual airline sites for full info. India has far more domestic air choices available in recent years, this is because there have been more airports built/expanded in smaller cities recently. Most of them have more than one carrier servicng them, so fares can be competitive.

[overthere]

Canada is such a vast country that I guess it is by no means uncommon that someone from Toronto has never been to Vancouver, or vice versa.

What I find amazing is that so very few Canadians ever go to what makes our country interesting to foreigners: the oxymoron of accessible wilderness.

Lets face it: our cities are not interesting at all when compared to others in the world.

But every year I spend a good chunk of my time in Yukon, and every year I observe lots of German tourists, and very few people from Canada.

[overthere]

My road trips this summer were complete opposites .

About 3 weeks in Europe, mostly in Paris and London. Then three weeks travelling from Alberta to Yukon and back, which is around a 5200 km round trip by road on the direct route we took this year. Once again, my belief that the very very best of Canada is The North was confirmed. No, not The North like Muskoka, but the real deal.

We had planned to take the Dempster Highway again from Dawson City Yukon to Inuvik and on to the Arctic Ocean at Tuktoyuktuk, but the final leg to Tuk is not quite open. Now scheduled for 2017. In the end, there had been heavy rain on the Dempster Hwy, and washouts prevented us from going further than Tombstone Park. Tombstone is surely one of my Top 3 best places in Canada. The first picture is of the Tombstone Valley. It is an ethereal and surreal place. http://blog.caasco.com/travel/the-10-best-photos-of-the-yukon-territory/

[-TSS-]

People often dont appreciate their own country. It doesnt seem exotic or exciting enough as compared to travelling to some farawayland.

[Smallc]

Canadian cities are unique in the world. They're extremely interesting places to visit.