Hi,

Anybody went on a cross country drive from Toronto to Vancouver, Please share you experience ? timeline ?

Its been quite over a year since immigrated to Canada and been living in and around Toronto most of the time. Couple of times drove up north to Sudbury and really enjoyed beautiful country side and small towns. I am planning to drive from Toronto to Vancouver next early summer and fly back to Toronto. Would it be about 3 weeks to finish this trip.


Thanks,
J......

Its a long way, take plenty of water

Questions, because I've considered the same thing.

1. Do you have the route planned? And if so what's it going to be?

2. Do you have contingency B and C routes in case of problems? Or are you just going to 'wing' it?

3. What vehicle(s) will you be driving.

4. Insurance?

5. Will you be stopping off at motels/hotels on the way or living in the vehicle? (see #3).

6. I suspect 3 weeks is underestimating it, but I guess it depends on how much of the country you want to see. I was considering approx. 2 months.

6. Maybe a good idea to put this up on the
'Wages for truckers' thread, I guess there'll be quite a few answers to your question on there...

Did you enjoy Sudbury area? We were thinking of taking a drive up there one day.

We drove Toronto to Calgary in 3 days, 20 hours each day, it's a long way! Then you'll need another day from Calgary to Vancouver. A week would be best if taking it easy.

GavinR

Well we drove from Vancouver to San Diego, San Diego to Florida, Florida to Toronto, Toronto back to Vancouver.
Having done loads of these cross country trips, we have always found it easier and cheaper to do the journey Stateside.
Once over the border you can find motel coupon books in McDonalds and rest areas. We've save a fortune doing this.
We are relocating from Vancouver to Toronto in the next couple of months, and will be driving, (Via Palm Springs)
The drive from Vancouver to Toronto is a comfortable 6 days.

I haven't driven it myself, but some friends who've done this trip by road a few times recommended (if I ever wanted to do so) crossing into the US at Windsor or Sarnia, going round the bottom of Lake Michigan, and heading northwest to cross back into Canada in Montana, up through Lethbridge towards Calgary and turn west across the Rockies from there. Obviously, this doesn't hold if the point of the trip is to see MB and SK, but I gather it's a bit quicker, a bit cheaper and (dare I say it, and with apologies to BE members from those two fine provinces) a bit less dull.

Did Toronto To Whitehorse via NWT, back via Prince George, Jaspers, Banff and back via lethbridge AB in 21days, using motels and a Toyota Celica

Tip 1, Check for events in cities you plan to stop in,
the farming show in Regina meant no free hotels for 200kms
Tip 2, alaway make sure you have enough gas to go to the next town if your plan stop is closed

Were you thinking of RVing it? I've always fancied doing that but it strikes me that RVs are ridiculously expensive to rent (or at least they are from the mainstream companies that you find on the web). Or perhaps there are cheaper options - strikes me that lots of people have RVs sat on their drive for around 10 months of the year so you would have thought it would be possible to strike up some kind of deal with an RV owner. But then there's the insurance thing I guess...

I know it only takes a few days to actually do the drive (colleague of mine did it from Vancouver to halifax with her 2 year old daughter) so the time is really down to the amount of sightseeing you want to do

Thanks for responding. Sorry got stuck with some work issues real tight, couldn't visit the thread.

Yeah, I really did. It was my first break from Urbanized Toronto life. The drive after Parry sound was really beautiful.

Enjoyed the Dynamic Earth (very different experience), Enjoyed the Science museum. Big thing is the break. I just stayed for two days.

Hi Gavin,
Thanks for the input. I am scheduling about 3 weeks (23 days) - 12-13 days for travel remaining for Vancouver.

A big Wow..... Once I finish this up, I would plan visiting the territories, probably next to next summer.

Yeah, about the gas thing, you're right. With gas guzzling Caravan, not worth of any risk. (At least half tank full). Man, this thing has got in my mind now... I am may end up blinking at the O meter frequently...