Canada advice

aliasojo

Need to visit Canada, probably within the next 2 - 3 months. Most likely area we need to be based is Calgary or surrounding area.

Never having been abroad before (furthest trip has been Blackpool - very sheltered life, me!) I have no idea where to start.

Trip is meant as a fact finding mission, although we might want to do touristy things too. Should I start looking for holiday packages or just flights and separate accommodation? Should I risk just flights and get accommodation when we get there?

There's 5 of us and I expect 4 of us will be classed as adults, so I suppose it wont be cheap. We do need to be as economical as possible though.

Any tips/pointers/advice? I feel a bit overwhelmed as I'm not really a traveller and I'm not sure what's good, what's bad and what's downright ridiculous! Any advice would be welcomed, also tips on decent companies/airlines/hotels etc would be helpful.

Charlton_Taz

Go to canadianaffair.com and zoomairlines.com. They both do really good airline prices!!

For hotels I'd recommend looking at sites like hotelscomparison.com, expedia.co.uk, and octopustravel.com which are ones I like to look at.

For advice on Calgary (and any other place for that matter) I also like to look at tripadvisor.com which can give you information on almost anything. Its basically a discussion board (a bit like this one!) and there is information on hotels / things to do / restaurants / weather etc etc on any particular place you want to go!

Have fun!

aliasojo

Thank you so much for pointers, I really appreciate advice on where to start. I'll check out the sites you mentioned shortly.

Altarf

aliasojo wrote:

Any tips/pointers/advice?

Calgary is a lovely town, my brother and his family moved out there a few years ago. Its only downside is that it gets damn cold in winter. The whole town is connected by walkways over the street from building to building (like a hamster run) so nobody has to go outside in the winter. Even the park and children's playground in the town centre is covered by a double glazed roof.

Are you going to be travelling around? If so don't forget Canada is big, I mean really really big, and empty as well. If you don't plan your routes and stops it is all too easy to find yourselves hours (and I mean hours) from any civilisation at all, especialy as driving speeds are significantly lower in Canada. But if you plan well, you can see some incredible sights. On our last trip we went from Calgary over to Banff, up the Rockies to Jasper, cross country to Vancouver via Whistler, over to Vancouver Island, and then back to Calgary, taking about two weeks to do that.

Everything is cheaper, but not incredibly so, than the UK. When travelling around it is easy to find small hotels and motels. In the big towns like Calgary and Vancouver you may possibly find a better deal on the internet beforehand rather than turning up on spec.

Everyone is very friendly and life seems to run at a slower pace than the UK.

albalad

There is another company , who fly from Glasgow International http://www.airtransat.uk.com/ , but they sell their tickets through http://www.globespan.com/Zoom airlines are good , keep an eye on BA.com as well they quite often have good deals to canada

markmat

I'd recommend Canadian Affair as well, although it was four years ago when I used them. Although their headline prices are all with charter type airlines they were also helpful with scheduled flights.

aliasojo

Thanks everyone, all info very useful (and very welcome).

Good info Altarf, I didn't realise there was a difference in driving speeds, for example. By the sounds of it we really do need to plan things rather than leaving it all to chance.

Baz-Bee

Do not know precisely when you are thinking of going but if it is in early July then the Calgary Stampede is on from 8th to 17th.

I've been to Calgary and it is worth visiting, but not when the Stampede is on. See Calgary Stampede for info. However, I do know that the prices shoot through the roof during the Stampede period. Just a word of advice!


If you do go and like thrills visit the Olympic Park where you used to be able to go down the Bobsleigh run in adapted sleds. (This is the run that the Cool Runnings film is based upon). It is pricey though so save up.

mummytofour

For flights check out flyzoom.com
My family are from winnipeg, one of the cheapest cities in canada for housing too!