aorourke

Has anyone driven from Ontario to Alberta and back again? I have a cousin in Alberta who is getting married next summer, my husband will be working away so I can't go on my own and we can't afford for me to fly with our 3 kids, so I thought we could drive over. I know it's going to take around a week to get there, a week to get back and we will stay a week as I'd like to spend some time with family. It's going to be a big wedding.
Any tips or just any info about taking on a long haul drive. Yes I know it will be very boring for the kids. So will make plenty of stops.
I'm hoping my In laws will come over from Scotland to watch our kids as they are planning to come over but I'd like to have a back up plan In case they cannot make it.

Almost Canadian

A week? Why do you think it will take 7 days to make such a trip? We were planning a trip to Manitoba and then onto Kenora in August. We had planned on 3 days to the east side of Manitoba and were planning on taking our bikes so not taking shifts driving.

aorourke

I saw the 35 hrs and assumed it would take me almost a week or at least 5days to get there, plus traveling on my own with 3 kids. They are good travelers so I may be able to do it in less time. So looking for any info or advice for traveling such a distance.

HGerchikov

5 days seems realistic for 35 hours of actual drive time. I took my son to Florida on my own some years ago 24 hours drive time. We did it over 3 days, each day I picked a place to visit on the route. First day was a State Park and we went for a swim and spent a couple of hours on a beach with a picnic lunch. 2nd day we went to Savannah and stayed overnight with a dinner cruise. Basically we made the trip into a huge part of the holiday. It was a lot of fun.

Piff Poff

My daughter and her boyfriend drove back with just one overnight stop, they drove through the 1st night and shared driving.i wouldn't fancy it, they timed the driving to do Northern Ontario in daylight. Their journey to AB was via Las Vegas.

Oink

I agree. I left NYC at 9:30am on a Monday morning and arrived at local pub in Eugene, OR on Wednesday evening. I stayed in motels on Monday and Tuesday nights. Although you do gain an extra hour each night going West.

Shard

That would be a tough ride with three kids, but I guess you could do it in 4 days / 3 nights.

Shirtback

I love road trips. I’ve even done them with (small) children. However, I’m vaguely wondering how much *cheaper* this particular ~4/5 day drive there and ~4/5 days back would be than flying, once one counts lodgings, food, gas etc.

If you actually *want* to do it as a road trip, HGerchikov’s post is the way I’d do it.

sharkus

a very quick expedia search; Pearson to Calgary return, mid june, 4 people (1 adult, 3 kids), was around $1720 all in.

Steve_

Driving across Saskatchewan and the eastern part of Alberta is incredibly boring and there aren't that many places to stop. Well, places that you'd want to stop anyway. I think I'd slit my wrists by the time I got to Brandon, never tried going that far. It's called "prairie" for a reason.

Linotype

Did it in 1985 from Edmonton Alberta to Ottawa, Ontario.
An ex girlfriend was moving to Ottawa and asked me to come along.
Edmonton to Devils Lake, North Dakota - 1,362 kms (We slowed down after this)
Devils Lake, North Dakota to Ironwood, Michigan - 740 kms.
Ironwood, Michigan to Flint, Michigan - 860 kms.
Flint, Michigan to Toronto, Ontario - 400 kms.
Toronto, Ontario to Ottawa, Ontario - 450 kms.
Total 3812 kms.

neilcumming

Im truck driver I have done that trip more times than I can remember.I know it will be difficult with 3 children but you want to plan your trip doing 9 or 10hrs driving a day,start at 8am so you finish driving at suppertime ,plan where you are going to stop for the night,take a break from driving every 3 or 4hrs.I used to take the high road Hwy 11 through North Bay ,Hearst onto Nipigon its a better highway has more towns than Hwy 17 which is really bumpy.When you get to Nipigon you join Hwy 17 the Trans Canada until you cross MB border then it turns into Trans Canada Hwy 1 after that its a 4 lane highway all way to Calgary .
As Linotype stated you could go through the states ,it would be a little quicker as the Interstate is a much better highway than the Trans Canada "moose trail" and depending on the exchange rate gas and motels maybe cheaper.

Siouxie

You might find this trip planner of use; you can put in max hours driving per day, time to depart, preferred stops and it will give you directions, mileage, motels, places to eat etc.- as well as places of interest.

https://trips.furkot.com/

scrubbedexpat091

That is one of the sites I am using to plan our road trip from Vancouver to San Diego, it's been a useful tool.

Dorothy

That's a great website! Thanks for that