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Old 7 Apr 17, 11:38 AM  
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neilhd
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The Amazing Race Series 2! Another Canada / USA Road Trip!

Oh look. It's that time of year again! Time to dust down the keyboard, fire up the computer and engage my brain in order to start writing another pre-trip. My employer would probably make the case that I should have my brain engaged, my keyboard dust-free and the computer fired up more often, but that's of little consequence here.

In truth, the keyboard is already dust-free because I've just finished writing the trip report for the child-free trip to New York that Ele and I just took in January for her 40th. With that now over and done with, I'm free to start concentrating on getting this pre-trip done. I should probably do some actual work at some point, but that's boring and holidays are fun. Again, my employer may disagree.

Let me quickly introduce us.

Neil (Me). Aged 38 (will be 39 when we go). Good-looking, slim and athletic. A compulsive liar.
Ele (DW). Aged 40 and I don't let her forget it. Amazing lady, and far too good for me.
Joe (DS). Aged 11. Will have serious gaming withdrawal and there is a very good chance he may actually die from lack of PS4 on this holiday.
Not going is our DD Jess (Age 20).

Here we are last year, on the travelator at Gatwick airport:



After the incredible success of last year's Amazing Race road trip around Canada and the USA, we wanted to do another one. There's a trippie for last year's here. Essentially we flew into Toronto, had a couple of days, drove to Niagara Falls, then into the USA to Scranton, then New York for 3 nights, then to Boston, then to Plattsburgh, then to Ottawa and then back to Toronto. We turned it into a series of The Amazing Race, mainly as a way of keeping Joe (our DS) interested. We gave him clues every day and he had a task or challenge to complete, along with a bit of money for that "leg" of the race. We all loved the trip so much - it was one of the best holidays we ever did. So much so, that within about 3 weeks of returning we were already looking for flights to do something similar for this year. Last year we were with Air Canada Rouge at an amazing price. We checked them again, but the prices were insane this time.

However, we found some basically straight away with Air Transat. They were only available directly with Air Transat and not via any other booking site yet, but for an extremely reasonable fare of £1370 for the 3 of us (rising to £1700 when we added in seat selection - of extra-legroom seats - and the card fee). This works out at about £560 per person, which is pretty reasonable for a direct flight in the school summer holidays.

Anyone on here with any experience knows that if you see something good - you book IMMEDIATELY. Wait, and the price will have gone up. So we booked it. We are flying into Montreal on the 27th July and back home from Toronto on the 10th August. So a full 14 days this time, not the 12 days we did last time. And by coming home from a different airport we avoid having to do a complete circle on our road-trip. An open jaw flight, as we in the trade call it.

We didn't have a massive idea of what our itinerary would look like yet, but that was not important right now. The flights were in the bag and that's all that matters. They have switched our return flight around once or twice though. We are now coming home a bit later than we were, but that's fine by me (the later the better really - every hour counts on holiday!). At some point I logged into my booking to discover the extra legroom seats I had booked - and paid for - were no longer allocated to me. I rang them and they said it was because it was now a different plane with a different seat layout. So she did some stuff and put us in the bulkhead seats. It doesn't show on my itinerary online but she insists it's all done and will be alright on the night. I don't have total confidence in that, but we'll see! It seems that Air Transat don't always have IFE on their planes. I'm not too concerned about that. We'll just load up iPads with movies. I think they might have some sort of streaming service. We managed last year with Air Canada Rouge so we'll manage again. As long as they don't start banning iPads on UK-Canada routes, that is… if they do then we'll have 8 hours on a plane, with an 11-yr old who has never gone 8 hours without a screen in his life.

Next thing to book was the car hire. Again, experience tells me that the later you leave that, the more it gets. Booking in August for the following July is too early though, and most places don't even have cars loaded that far out. So in November I began casting my net. The best deal I found was with Avis, booking via British Airways. This is doubly-important because I get a load of Avios for booking with them, and even more Avios for using my BA Amex card to pay for it (I am on a major Avios-collecting drive at the moment). BA/Avis came up trumps with a Suburban or similar, for 12 days for about £670. The collection is basically behind the hotel we are staying at in Montreal and of course we are dropping it off at Toronto Airport. We'll only pick it up when we are leaving Montreal - we don't need it before then.

Since I've booked it I've gone into the Avis site and checked the booking. It definitely says "Chevrolet Suburban or similar Group Z car", with a big picture of a Suburban. However, the Avis Fleet List shows the Suburban as a Group L, with the Group Z cars being a Tahoe or similar. So I'm not sure what we'll actually get. We don't need a Suburban-class really as it's only 3 of us and 3 suitcases - it's just that I wanted one. But if we get a Tahoe-class I'll have a bit of a moan at them regardless, as I had assumed that's the size I'd be getting when I paid for it!

So with wings and wheels both sorted, we needed to work out what to actually do in the intervening 14 days. There wasn't much point in re-visiting anywhere we'd already been (especially NYC as Ele and I went back there in January for her 40th for 5 nights). Ele did, however, want to go to Long Island to visit Montauk, This has everything to do with The Affair on Sky Atlantic. I wanted to go to Washington DC. After much poring over the map, the route began to make itself obvious and around January time I started booking hotels. The itinerary looks like this:

- We start in Montreal for 3 nights, staying at the Marriott Chateau Champlain.
- We then pick up our hire car and drive down into the USA. We are staying a night in Albany, at the Marriott Renaissance which is right in the downtown near the Hudson river and State Capital building. Albany also has a Cheesecake Factory and an Outback Steakhouse on its outskirts. This will lead to a difficult decision, no doubt.
- Then we'll skirt around NYC and into Long Island. Montauk was unbelievably expensive to stay in, so we are staying in Riverhead, which is about an hour from Montauk, at the Hyatt Place. We are there for 2 nights.
- After that we drive to Philadelphia. We are only here for 1 night (although now I've looked at it a bit, I wish we were staying longer because it looks like a really nice city). We are staying at the Marriott Downtown, which is right by City Hall and close to the Liberty Bell. It is also literally next door to the Hard Rock Café so that's dinner sorted that night!
- After Philadelphia we drive to Washington DC where we are staying 3 nights at The Willard Intercontinental. This is the most expensive hotel of our trip, but it looks amazing and is literally next door to the White House.
- From Washington we head on a long drive up to Niagara Falls where we will stay the night on the American side at the Sheraton At The Falls.
- The next day we cross back into Canada and drive up to the Blue Mountain resort outside Toronto, where we stay 2 nights at the Westin Trillium.
- Once we're done there we head into Toronto and stay a night at the Marriott Eaton Centre.

Hotels are a LOT more expensive than last year. Taking Toronto as the example - the prices are more than double what we paid last year - even for the same hotel on similar dates. The main reason for this is simply that we booked last year's trip before the Brexit referendum and subsequent entirely predictable crash in the pound. This year's prices are evidently adjusted to make up for that, and then some. In the end I set a £200 per night budget (my original thought was £150 per night but I had to increase it). Assuming I get the Quidco on a couple of them, then my average per night actually came in at £195. If I don’t then it comes in at £202. Last year 2 or 3 of our hotels were under £100 per night (and nice hotels) and my average worked out at £143. This year the cheapest is about £175. Parking throughout the holiday is going to cost a bomb, as it did last year, but you can't really help it.

In terms of things to do, we haven't quite got that nailed down yet. There's a big speedboat thing in Montreal that looks good. The beach in Montauk. See the main sights and museums in Washington. The Liberty Bell in Philadelphia (good to see the real one after seeing the one at Disney so many times!). The American side of Niagara Falls. The museum and the castle in Toronto. They are all things I think we ought to do, at least.

We did originally think 2 nights in Toronto (we loved Toronto last year), but in the end did 2 nights at Blue Mountain instead as it's something new and looks good.

Anyway, so there it is - our upcoming road trip with only 5 months to go. Better start making those clue cards - they took ages last time!
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Edited at 11:19 AM.
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Old 10 Apr 17, 11:46 AM  
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fillmore
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Sounds like another brilliant trip. I've just read your trip report from last year - if you get chance in the future go back to Boston. We spent a week there years back and still didn't get to do everything. Lovely place. I'd never heard of the amazing race but may have to pinch your idea for our road trip!
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Old 26 Apr 17, 03:39 PM  
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neilhd
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Blimey, just noticed that we breezed past the DDD over a week ago!

Haven't actually done anything further yet though!
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Old 27 Apr 17, 07:03 AM  
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WileyCoyote
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Sounds like a fab trip. Makes me realise we haven't sorted a car yet for our road trip. Oops. Looking forward to reading along.
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Old 28 Apr 17, 07:51 AM  
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neilhd
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Originally Posted by WileyCoyote View Post
Sounds like a fab trip. Makes me realise we haven't sorted a car yet for our road trip. Oops. Looking forward to reading along.
I would suggest that on a road trip, the car would be a reasonably important part. Walking will get tiring!
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Old 29 Apr 17, 02:10 PM  
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WileyCoyote
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Originally Posted by neilhd View Post
I would suggest that on a road trip, the car would be a reasonably important part. Walking will get tiring!
Yeah, who knew, 2 days to walk from Memphis from Nashville .. How does google even know this Do they know how slowly I walk

Just realised there is also the one way fee to take into account so really need to get our car planning sorted asap !
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Old 30 Apr 17, 02:26 PM  
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CrispyA
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Sounds like a great trip - I really enjoyed your trip report from your last one. Had to laugh at the PS4 & screens - my teenage boy is the same. Heaven forbid we book a hotel with patchy Wifi and he is unable to keep up with Snapchat for a whole 24 hours!
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Old 30 Apr 17, 04:40 PM  
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Melbatb
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Sounds like another great trip! We are flying into Montreal again this year but will leave the same day and come back on flight day 25 nights later

We had a whole week without internet last year - the kids did survive
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2016 Quebec - Kuala Lumpar - New York City 2017 Dubai - Eurocamps France - Ontario and Quebec - So-Cal 2018 Montreal - Bangkok - New England 2019 Argentina - Quebec City - Hong Kong - 2020 Switzerland 2022 Arizona - Costa Med Cruise - Oslo 2023 Hong Kong - Gothenburg
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Old 2 May 17, 07:40 AM  
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neilhd
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Originally Posted by WileyCoyote View Post
Yeah, who knew, 2 days to walk from Memphis from Nashville .. How does google even know this Do they know how slowly I walk

Just realised there is also the one way fee to take into account so really need to get our car planning sorted asap !
The alternative would be to hitchhike. Could save you a fortune and be fun! *


* There is a higher chance of being murdered, I admit.
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Old 10 May 17, 02:09 PM  
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neilhd
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MINI-UPDATE

Not a very interesting one I grant you.

Our Washington hotel (The Willard Intercontinental) was the most expensive hotel by far, and we are there for 3 nights. I had booked directly with IHG and it was cancelleable up to the day before arrival.

So I went onto their travel agent special site to see if there was an agent rate. There wasn't, but it seemed the full price had dropped significantly. So I then checked my own work site and we now had it even cheaper still, plus of course I get a discount. So in the end I've saved close to £300 on that stay - almost £100 per night cheaper! It's now no longer the most expensive hotel of the trip.

Result! That also dropped my overall average price per night down to £167 from close to £200 before.
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