Canada/USA Road Trip, Jul-Aug 2016

[neilhd]

So. We’re not going to Florida.

Not sure how I feel about that yet!

We knew a couple of things when we came back from the last awesome Florida trip. One was that we knew we had to do a cheaper holiday this year. Two was that we still wanted a decent (i.e. abroad somewhere hot) holiday.

My first thought, naturally, was to goto Florida anyway, but just not do parks. With an indirect, end-of-summer-holiday flight I reckoned (rather optimistically) that could be got for £500pp-ish. Then with a cheap-ish villa and cheap-ish car it’d all be cheap-ish, right? Then once everything was booked I could start to drop theme parks into conversations and eventually my darling wife would end up begging to go to them and we could just do it anyway.

At this point let me introduce the family a bit.

Me (Neil). 37. Chief Florida nut.
DW (Ele). 39. Deputy Chief Florida nut.
DS (Joe). 10. Assistant to Deputy Chief Florida nut.
DD (Jess). 19. Not coming this time because she’d only come if her boyfriend came. And because I said that as she works full-time now she’d need to actually contribute and at least pay for her flight. That settled that immediately.

So I was keeping half an eye on Florida and at one point we had pretty much decided we’d do it. Until we decided that we wouldn’t. Then we started looking at other things in Europe, but it all seemed very expensive. Flights to some of the places we were looking at (Zante in particular) seemed to cost not that much less than an indirect to the US. And also Orlando is kind of unique in that it has a massive oversupply of hotel rooms. We were thinking end of August and prices for accommodation then are really quite reasonable because peak season drops off in the US at that point. Europe? Not so much.

We were getting nowhere really. Nothing sounded nice enough. Zante came close, but in the end we couldn’t commit to it. We realised that was simply because we wanted to goto the US.

Then, one day in September, I happened to see a Facebook advert for Westjet offering some seriously cheap (£370) flights to Toronto during the summer holidays. So we made a very quick decision to go to Toronto. We had no idea what to do there apart from the CN Tower, but that wasn’t a problem. When going to book (Via my work - I work for a large online travel agency), I actually found some Air Canada flights for even less (worked out at £345 per person! I don’t get a discount on flights by the way, this was the full price!). The flight times were actually a bit better and the price was less, so we snapped them up. It’s actually Air Canada Rouge which is their low-cost arm. This means no seat-back TVs, but you can download their app to a iPad and stream movies on the plane that way. We have iPads so no problem! We could also book seats straight away for no cost (are you listening, BA? ! ) so we did that, and splashed out a bit on extra legroom seats. Well, the tickets were so cheap it’d be silly not to, right?!

So in the end we are going from 29th July to 9th August.

Of course we had no idea what to do, so I bought up Google Maps and started looking at it with Ele. I have friends in Ottawa that I’ve not seen for years so seeing them was high on my list. And obviously Niagara Falls is a must-do (I went before in the 90s, but Ele has never been). While looking at the map Ele asked how long it’d take to drive to New York. Turns out, not too long. 8 hours or so. So the trip became a road-trip! We were already planning to goto New York in Jan next year for Ele’s 40th (we've booked that trip now using Avios - business class on the way out!), but that would just be the 2 of us. Now we get to take Joe, too. Some time later, Ele got hold of the map again and realised that Boston isn't too far from New York. She's always wanted to go there, so we incorporated that into the plans, too. I have now banned her from looking at maps. The plan is looking like this:

29th - Arrive Toronto, 2 nights in the Sheraton downtown.
30th - Day in Toronto.
31st - Drive to Niagara Falls, 1 night in the Marriot Fallsview (in a Fallsview room, of course).
1st - Drive to Scranton, PA (not much to do there but it’s a good stop off point!), 1 night in the Scranton Hilton.
2nd - Drive to NYC, 3 nights in the Distrikt Hotel by Times Square.
3rd - Day in NYC
4th - Day in NYC
5th - Drive to Boston, 1 night in the Intercontinental Hotel.
6th - Drive to Burlington, catch the ferry across Lake Champlain to Plattsburgh, 1 night in the Holiday Inn there (hopefully get to the ferry before it gets dark!).
7th - Drive to Ottawa, 1 night in the Marriott.
8th - Drive back to Toronto, 1 night in the Westin Harbor Castle.
9th - Fly home (although not until the evening and there is a Premium Outlets not far from the airport...).

The original plan was to book cheap hotels, but frankly when I start looking I immediately discard those as not nice enough and end up booking more expensive, nicer hotels instead! Luckily I do get a discount on hotels...

We’ve hired a car with Hertz (an SUV - Mazda CX-9 or similar, so a fairly large one but not a 7 seater). Was trying to do it with Avis but they took forever to answer my questions about taking it into the USA and by the time they finally did the price had gone up by about £300. So Hertz got the business instead.

I’m trying to keep the driving to around 4 hours per day. I think I’ve largely done that, except the Niagara-Scranton leg which will probably be more, especially with the border crossing to do, and the Boston-Plattsburgh leg which is quite long. The Ottawa-Toronto leg is also quite long, but none of them are likely to be appreciably more than 4 hours. The only downside to driving really is that parking in NYC is something like $75 per day at the hotel. Gulp. Can’t be helped though really. At least not easily. We have considered ditching the car somewhere outside NYC and getting a train in, but I’m not sure I can be bothered really. I quite like the idea of driving into NYC anyway, sadist that I am.

So that’s our whistle-stop tour of Ontario, New York State, Pennsylvania (Auto-correct!), Connecticut (Auto-correct!), Massachusetts (Auto-correct!), and Vermont. We might have to nip across the river in Ottawa to stick a metaphorical flag in Quebec as well.

Frankly we’re all mega excited by this trip. Should be great! At the moment we’ve no idea what to see or do still in any of the places we go to. Obviously the CN Tower, and obviously the Niagara Falls boat and the behind the falls thing. There's lots to do in NYC of course. I like the look of The Ride tour so we might do that. Statten Island ferry to see the Statue of Liberty probably. Brooklyn Bridge, Empire State Building, Central Park. Not enough days! Fortunately we have the January trip for Ele's birthday to cover anything that Joe might find boring (probably will save the 9/11 memorial for that trip) or anything else we miss. We'd like more time in Boston really, but simply don't have the time. Had the road-trip plan been made before we actually booked the flights then I'd have added a couple more days. At the time we thought we'd be sticking around Toronto and Ottawa, so 11 days was plenty.

Only 3 months to go... better start booking attractions I suppose!

[EJSakaAnna]

Your plan sounds brilliant! Toronto is a great city, really modern with lots to see. Looking forward to the report

[dolphinlou]

Subscribing! We went to Boston and New York last summer and then drove back to Orlando for the flight home. Boston is beautiful. We enjoyed a pint in the 'cheers' pub. They serve in a cheers pint pot you can keep. A great souvenir of Boston we thought.
The prudential tower observatory was a good hour or so...
Whale watching was amazing, we saw lots playing and jumping out of the water for us.
We caught a red Sox game which was another off the bucket list.
We also drove into New York - read hubby did - it wasn't as bad as we/he expected but we arrived around 11am, purposely timed to get it at its quietest... we got a deal with our hotel for $30 a night parking which by New York standards was a bargain.
We only had 2 days in New York but with 2 teens we managed to squeeze in a hop on hop off tour getting off at 9/11 and seeing the memorial and museum. Top of the rock at night time, the next day we walked the few blocks to intrepid museum which was much better and more interesting than I expected. DS 17 loved it, the Hubble was there and he's a space nut. We then walked to the circle line cruises which was only 2 or 3 piers away (2 min walk) we did the 2hr cruise round Manhattan, great trip, then jumped in a yellow cab (hailed it new york style, another bucket list moment for me) to central park. We hired bikes for 3 hours and it was a brilliant way to get around and see the park. My boys 17/14 said it was their favourite part of the new york trip.
After that we checked out the hotel and got on the road for 3hrs to our stopover hotel,!
Can't wait to read more of your plans, I'd love to see Canada at some point.

[neilhd]

Originally Posted by dolphinlou

Subscribing! We went to Boston and New York last summer and then drove back to Orlando for the flight home. Boston is beautiful. We enjoyed a pint in the 'cheers' pub. They serve in a cheers pint pot you can keep. A great souvenir of Boston we thought.
The prudential tower observatory was a good hour or so...
Whale watching was amazing, we saw lots playing and jumping out of the water for us.
We caught a red Sox game which was another off the bucket list.
We also drove into New York - read hubby did - it wasn't as bad as we/he expected but we arrived around 11am, purposely timed to get it at its quietest... we got a deal with our hotel for $30 a night parking which by New York standards was a bargain.
We only had 2 days in New York but with 2 teens we managed to squeeze in a hop on hop off tour getting off at 9/11 and seeing the memorial and museum. Top of the rock at night time, the next day we walked the few blocks to intrepid museum which was much better and more interesting than I expected. DS 17 loved it, the Hubble was there and he's a space nut. We then walked to the circle line cruises which was only 2 or 3 piers away (2 min walk) we did the 2hr cruise round Manhattan, great trip, then jumped in a yellow cab (hailed it new york style, another bucket list moment for me) to central park. We hired bikes for 3 hours and it was a brilliant way to get around and see the park. My boys 17/14 said it was their favourite part of the new york trip.
After that we checked out the hotel and got on the road for 3hrs to our stopover hotel,!
Can't wait to read more of your plans, I'd love to see Canada at some point.

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Wow you packed loads in! Joe gets tired quite easily and doesn't do well after about 8pm at night, so I think our nocturnal tour plans will be limited!

I've now bought CN Tower tickets, Niagara tickets (boat, behind-the-falls and a couple of other things), and a NYC pass that should let us get on The Ride, and 2 others out of tons (probably Empire State will be one of them).

Boston is really limited for us, so I think we'll arrive and have a quick look around in the late afternoon/evening, then do a Duck Tour the next morning before heading off again.

[Wobbles]

There are some amazing deals to Toronto this summer - our plan is very similar, we were going to Europe but now we are going Toronto!

[neilhd]

Originally Posted by Wobbles

There are some amazing deals to Toronto this summer - our plan is very similar, we were going to Europe but now we are going Toronto!

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Yes I think a lot of Dibbers bought the Westjet flights this year.

I haven't done a great deal more planning really. I booked The Ride tour as part of the Explorer pass which I'm really looking forward too. I also worked out all the parking costs for the holiday which come to about £250!

[dopson]

Originally Posted by neilhd

I booked The Ride tour as part of the Explorer pass which I'm really looking forward too.

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This sounds interesting, do you have a link or any more info on what this is? I'm off to NYC in August so looking at planning and booking for this now.

[neilhd]

Originally Posted by dopson

This sounds interesting, do you have a link or any more info on what this is? I'm off to NYC in August so looking at planning and booking for this now.

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It's the New York Explorer pass. You can buy it for a varying number of attractions. I got mine here:

travelrepublic/Att...ew.aspx?PIV=34

We went for the 3-attraction ticket.

[stecee]

It sounds like you've got a really exciting trip planned. I've enjoyed your previous TR's and look forward to reading this one.

[lindasarahlou]

Another dibber here flying to Toronto this summer and planning a road trip! Slightly different in that we are doing a rollercoaster tour. Current plan is 1 day in Toronto for CN Tower, then on the road for Darien Lakes, Kings Island (nr Cincinatti), Cedar Point, Waldameer, Niagara Falls-obviously!, and Canada's Wonderland. A very busy 11 day trip.