Canada

[Mrs Toolman]

So DH and I really fancied Canada to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary but DH spent two hours in Trail Finders today discussing a 3 week holiday and it came in at £10,000! No food included 😯 Just looking for ideas on what anyone else has done and how to cut the cost.

[porridge]

I wouldn’t expect food to be included in a Canada holiday - you only normally get that with med and Caribbean holidays etc.
£10,000 is crazy. We’ve been a few times to Canada. We just book things ourselves. Look at BA, and west jet for flights. Also air Transat - the latter two don’t always come up in price comparisons.
Look at hotels.com and booking.com for hotels (make sure you pick refundable ones just in case). I reckon you could easily get it half price or less - unless you’re going on the rocky mountaineer train - that’s quite pricey.
I’d begin by pricing up what they quoted yourselves, then if it’s still too expensive then choose slightly different dates/flight times/duration, or cheaper hotels. Sometimes it’s cheaper to fly early morning than midday. Sometimes it’s cheaper to go for an extra day.

[porridge]

To add, if you’re going to places like lake Louise etc, you might have to book direct with the hotels, as a lot are smaller independent places. Check tripadvisor first for reviews.

[Mrs Toolman]

I think our problem is the worry of booking everything separately, especially with Covid and not knowing how things will be next year. Looking at the hotel's they have quoted us for, to be honest they aren't that special. I wasn't expecting all inclusive at all but maybe bed and breakfast. It seems really pricy. I think we are now back to the drawing board for somewhere special to go

[skalexander]

Originally Posted by Mrs Toolman

I think our problem is the worry of booking everything separately, especially with Covid and not knowing how things will be next year. Looking at the hotel's they have quoted us for, to be honest they aren't that special. I wasn't expecting all inclusive at all but maybe bed and breakfast. It seems really pricy. I think we are now back to the drawing board for somewhere special to go

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Canada, like the US, is usually room only, although you do find some hotels offering bed and breakfast, either as standard or with a supplement. For me personally though, eating breakfast out can be part of the adventure!

We were looking at Canada for next year, before things changed at our end. We were going to book flights and car with BA (they’ve got a very flexible policy plus you only pay £150 deposit) and then book hotels with free cancellation. You can also include hotels on a BA booking, but they don’t always have a huge selection, depending on location.

Canada is an amazing place to go. If I could only visit one country for the rest of my life, it would be Canada. Don’t write it off on the basis of one giant quote

[Disneybear]

Originally Posted by Mrs Toolman

I think our problem is the worry of booking everything separately, especially with Covid and not knowing how things will be next year. Looking at the hotel's they have quoted us for, to be honest they aren't that special. I wasn't expecting all inclusive at all but maybe bed and breakfast. It seems really pricy. I think we are now back to the drawing board for somewhere special to go

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You could book it all with BA using the custom holiday on their website, that way it would all be with one provider and you’d have package holiday protection for peace of mind, I’d be very surprised if it was £10K with BA

[tonymc]

As others have said, that £10k seems way too dear. Although it is now some 6 years since we visited, I'm fairly sure that we spent around the £4,500 mark for three of us.

This covered:

- Flights (Manchester-Toronto (Air Transat), Ottawa-Vancouver (Air Canada) and Vancouver-Manchester (Air Transat))
- Car rental from Toronto and dropping off in Ottawa for 5 days (allowed us to use whilst still in Toronto to visit Niagara falls)
- Accommodation in Toronto (Airbnb apartment for 5 nights), Picton (between Toronto and Ottawa B&B for 2 nights), Ottawa (suite hotel for 4 nights) and Vancouver (TripAdvisor apartment for 5 nights).

A large number of Airbnb properties have cancellation policies up to a short period before check-in, as do many hotels, so you shouldn't have too many problems there if you couldn't go after booking.

The only thing I would note about flights is that it may be worth booking with an airline that has a good network, as if you cancel your flights, you may only get a travel voucher to use with that particular airline. For example, book with Westjet and you are limited to flying to Canada, book with BA and you can travel world-wide.

Whatever your plans, I hope you get sorted out as Canada was fantastic.

[landandword17]

I'm doing the west coast of Canada next year. Have been to Toronto many times as my brother lived there.

£10,000 is completely unnecessary on transit and accommodation. Trailfinders aren't a bargain agency but that's still a crazy amount. I'd be expecting a trip on the Rocky Mountaineer included in that... You need to book it yourself.

A BA holiday package of flights + (either a car of accommodation in one destination or a night at the airport hotel before going etc) will be deposit only. You can book hotels online and you don't need to pay in advance or give a deposit. You can cancel up to 24 hours beforehand with most hotels.

[Scotty0910]

We are booked for Canada for next August- this is our third attempt due to covid.

I have booked flights to Vancouver and a car for 2.5 weeks as we are touring around, at approx £3.5k for 3 adults and cancellable hotels for about £2k.

We haven't booked anything else (whale watching, glacier, white water rafting) yet but will in the New Year which, in the event of cancellation due to covid, will hopefully be either refunded by travel insurance or bounced to the next attempt.

The prices of the hotels since booking trip 1, have remained pretty constant. I have found hotels quite pricey but think this is mainly due to supply/high demand (there are less hotels/places to stay in the Rocky Mountains). We haven't gone for the cheapest on offer so I'm sure you could reduce the amount we are paying.

Flight costs have definitely increased since our first booking. We have booked with BA as we had vouchers to use so possibly other airline's may be cheaper. We are now paying the same for economy flights that I originally had booked for premium but that's unfortunately life and I will just be pleased to get there as we have been looking forward to it for a while now.

Hope this helps.

[anji]

That seems a lot to me too. Where in Canada have you been quoted for? Car for all or part of the time - you won't need it in cities like Vancouver.

We have 5 Sept to 28 Sept booked for Canada and Pacific NW into USA and back to Canada - 3rd attempt! Flights with BA from Heathrow to Vancouver return £1755 including 1 week SUV car hire. Accommodation is £2769 at the moment (bar my tinkering!), all pay when staying and free cancellation. I find that booking as far in advance as possible saves heaps of money! Also further car booked later on for $724USD. Need to book ferries and the train from Seattle to Vancouver (credit note for this though about $120 business class)

Plus I do everything through Quidco with some great cashbacks too.

Hope this helps! It's good fun planning it all