Hi All,

I am hoping that some of you resident expert travelers could give me some advice about some aspects of a trip I am planning some what in haste.

My current plan is to fly

UK to Toronto somewhere around the 1st of June to see the new niece and do lots of mundane stuff like open bank accounts
Pop down to New York for the 10th of June, if I do this part of the trip, I have to be in New York, actually Brooklyn, for the evening of the 10 of June to help my goddaughter celebrate her 21st birthday, she is in town for 5 days, but the 10th would be really special as her sister is also flying in for the evening
Once I am all calibrated out, then fly over to Vancouver, again the only immovable is the I need, OK would really like, to be in Vancouver between the 15th and 16th of June as that is when a friend is flying through and I would love to spend some time with her, especially as we haven't been on the same continent at the same time for over 6 years
at some point around the 18th return to the UK

Now, one of the many imponderables of this trip is how do I get from Toronto to New York, fly, drive, or train. I only want to be there for the evening of the 10th to help my goddaughter celebrate her 21st birthday. Once I am done celebrating, do I return to Toronto to go onto Vancouver or go direct from New York, presumably from JFK. If I go by car or train from Canada to the US do I need to get an entry visa from the London Embassy, as although I will be traveling on a UK passport I obviously won't be flying and won't come under the visa waiver requirements, I remember reading a while ago about some sort of $6.00 visa obtained at land crossings, but I can't remember if the was for those with Canadian PR or citizenship. Secondly is it at all possible to go by train from Canada to the US? I seem to remember the the US train system was heavily devoted to freight, does Amtrak even run passenger trains anymore, I suppose there is always the bus.

These are some of the travel scenarios that I have come up with

1) UK - Toronto - New York - Vancouver - UK
This one seems fairly optimal in terms of numbers of flights but will likely prove difficulty to organize as I'll need an open jaw international flight and will probably have to use 3 different airlines for all the internal bits, but might prove cost effective, but then again there are 3 one way flights, this could be further complicated by swapping the Toronto - New York bit for some form of ground transportation and the ground transportation throws up all sorts of visa issues

2) UK - Toronto - New York - Toronto - Vancouver - UK
This one requires an open jaw international flight and probably 2 different internal carriers

3) UK - Toronto - New York - Toronto - Vancouver - Toronto - UK
This one would only require a standard international flight, but would mean going in and out of Toronto 3 times, unless I do the New York - Vancouver flight rather than back to Toronto for the second time

Any body got a pet travel agent that could work through some of these scenarios?

This is all doing my head in at the moment with all the possibilities need several


Dozzzzy

Fly. Driving means you have an expensive liability when you get to NYC; the car. I don't think there's a train but there is a bus, I wouldn't eagerly take the bus again.

Again, fly, there's a flight every hour and it only takes an hour or so.


#3 will be dramatically, spectacularly, cheaper than the others. Try running it on expedia or travelocity.

If you have a UK passport there will be no trouble with visas but when you run the possibilities watch for the routings. A mate of mine lives in London and has a daughter who lives near Atlanta, he often comes to the US for work and usually wants a ticket London-work city-Atlanta-London. BA is usually cheapest but they hub through Heathrow so flying with them means going London-work city-London-Atlanta-London. He actually did this one time when we were working in San Diego, the lunatic.

Always consider US carriers, I usually get to Calgary or Vancover via Charlotte or Minneapolis as it's cheaper than flying within Canada and it avoids using AC.

I'm suffering jet lag by just reading that.

You're exhausted! I'm suffering from post-traumatic stress after reading all of that!

And I thought I could complicate my life....

Could try Travelbag or Trailfinders & get a quote - let them think about it....

I've found multi-trip online quotes on places like Expedia aren't very good, too inflexible, whereas with straightforward trips, it's almost always best online with someone like Airline Netwrok. But then they don't cover your Zoom's of the world.

Sure there is a train, goes via Niagara / Buffalo and down the Hudson river valley. It takes a while, but some of the scenery (NOT Buffallo) is quite beautiful. Takes you into Penn Station (Under Madison Square Gardens) in Manhatten. But in this case for a quick visit and assuming its easy to get to the godchild from the airport, flying is the way to go.

One thing to be carefull of is that the US immigration people will be wary of people entering the US from a third party country (not the nation of residence) and will quite likely want to see some tangible proof that you have firm plans to leave the US and head back to the UK from Canada. My brother got caught out once and had to get his hotel in TO where he left his return tickets fax a copy of them to him to get him across the border!

I'm sure it is. We took the train to Buffalo one time, which was pleasant enough, I thought it no longer ran from here to Buffalo but, if it does, then that'd certainly be a relaxing way to make the trip.

Would appear to become a different train at the border, but you can book TO to NY NY on the via rail website.

Departs 8.30am, arrives 9.45pm

Whether it really involves transfering to a different train or not is unclear. $219 return.

Flying seems the best option for a quick trip, but will cost at least twice that much I would think?

Down on the 10th, back on the 11th, lots of flights at $C496, one at $C422 so, yes, twice as much.

well I'v had one quote

International
Gatwick - Toronto 2nd June
Vancouver Manchester 23rd June £258 inc all taxes and fuel surcharges, think I'll take this deal

Internal (OK to the US as well)

Toronto 10th June - NY
NY 11 June - Toronto - Vancouver £478 :scared:

Thats costly, for some reason they wont break down the costs of the internal flights, will get a couple more quotes tomorrow.


Did have one quote from an agent that quoted using KLM

London - Amsterdam - Toronto - JFK - Toronto - Vancouver - Washington - Amsterdam - London and they wanted £3500, I'd want gold plated toilet seats for that kind of money

Another agent quoted

London Heathrow - NY - Vancouver - Toronto - London on United £730 not including taxes and surcharges but also told me it would be cheaper by about £150 if I went to Vancouver then Toronto then NY which doesn't really fit with my plans, ah well.

Looks like it's gonna cost me some money, better warn the moths in residence that their going to be disturbed when I get out the credit card

Dozzzzy

"Toronto 10th June - NY
NY 11 June - Toronto - Vancouver £478

Thats costly, for some reason they wont break down the costs of the internal flights, will get a couple more quotes tomorrow."

Bonkers. Enter, Toronto and NYC and your dates at www.travelocity.com.

The £258 looks excellent to me. You'll probably end up with a spare coupon because Toronto-Vancouver-Toronto is cheaper than a one way Toronto-Vancouver but don't throw it away, they're worth something for a year and you may have need to fly between Vancouver and Toronto again.

Incidentally, flights within the US and Canada are called "domestic" by airlines and travel agents, generally they don't go from the "International" gates.

Get the frequent flyer card for all the airlines involved (if you haven't already), you may as well collect the miles, maybe you never have enough for anything but, maybe, like me, you'll accidentally collect enough for a trip to Australia.