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What is the Cheapest way to travel across Canada?

May 14th, 2017  |  Travel

2017 is Canada’s 150 year anniversary. The celebration, along with a battered Canadian dollar, means a lot of Canadians will be taking a domestic vacation this year. If travelling across Canada is your goal, and you’re on a limited budget, this is the article for you!

Here is a comparison of ways to travel across the country.

Bus Travel

As unglamorous as it sounds, taking the Greyhound from Halifax to Victoria (through Toronto) is the least expensive choice at just over $500. Although this great rate doesn’t allow you to get off the bus and explore the cities and towns the bus passes through, you will get to travel on the historic Trans-Canada Highway. For a higher price, you can purchase many one-way tickets, opting to take the bus from Halifax to Quebec City to Montreal to Ottawa, etc. This will allow you to stop and sight-see, and to break up the monotony of the journey.

If you’re a student looking to take the ultimate bus trip, Greyhound does offer a 25% discount off its adult fares. Unfortunately, Greyhound has not released any promotional fares to celebrate Canada’s 150th.

Train Travel

Students and youth with a bit more money can opt instead to take the train. Via Rail offers unlimited summer travel passes, which are valid for 60 days between May 15 and August 31. This pass was, temporarily, offered for the low price of $150 (versus its original price of $699), before quickly selling out.

People over the age of 25, who are not students, can travel across Canada inexpensively by mixing train and bus travel. This provides the additional benefit of being able to visit cities that aren’t served by rail service.

In addition, Via Rail offers Discount Tuesday deals that see fares between select cities slashed. For example, a one-way sleeper ticket between Edmonton and Toronto is reduced from $915 to $610 (meals included). It’s still not cheap, but it's the most comfortable way to travel the country by train.

Air Travel

It’s tricky to nail down a precise cost for air travel, but Toronto to Vancouver usually goes from $650 to $750 in the summer, while a coast to coast trip can be close to $1000. The new airline New Leaf beats these standard prizes by a longshot, but it only flies into a handful of airports across the country.

If the destinations matchup with your itinerary, New leaf is probably your best option. If not, airfare tends to match up with other modes of transportation, but is obviously a lot faster.

Road Trip

Taking a road trip across Canada can be economical, if a large part of the country is skipped. With cheaper gas prices and a slightly faster route, traveling from Toronto to Winnipeg through the United States is the most frugal option to get from the GTA to the Prairie Provinces. While you’ll miss being able to visit northern Ontario, you can visit Chicago, Milwaukee and Minneapolis instead.

Travelling through the United States, a trip from Atlantic Canada to B.C. runs about 65 hours and is over 6500 kilometres. Estimating a fuel price of $1.30, this option would cost between $700 and $800. Not the least expensive way to travel across Canada, but definitely the cheapest if you enjoy off-the-beaten path activities, visiting smaller towns or can’t live without the independence of having your own vehicle.

Additionally, and although frowned upon, sleeping in your vehicle can reduce the overall cost of your travel across Canada.

Canada is a large country and, partly due to the high cost of domestic transportation, remains largely unvisited by the majority of Canadians. Looks for deals and determine how leisurely you want your trip to be when deciding upon the best method of transportation.

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