Traveling in North America

Factual Questions
1

I will go to Saskatoon, Canada for an internship next year. But since the demand for flights into Saskatoon itself is not that great, fares on major airlines are astronomical. Being a starving student (well, sort of, at least) I’m looking for cheaper alternatives.

I have never been to North America, though, so I can’t tell what’s viable and what’s not. Are there any other modes of transportation (can be combined with flights into busier airports, say Toronto, Chicago or Seattle)? Travel time is not critical and I would not mind seeing a bit of the continent along the way, either.

I am not asking you to do my homework for me. All I’m looking for is ideas, experiences and possibly some websites. Thank you!

I’m not sure if this really is GQ stuff. Sorry if it’s not.

2

As far as flights go, a site like http://travel.yahoo.com/ would be a good place to start. I checked Munich to Toronto, Chicago, and New York, leaving all the other options at their defaults, and found Toronto to be twice as expensive as New York, with Chicago roughly in the middle.

Once you’re on the continent, taking a bus is probably the cheapest option. Checking http://www.greyhound.com/, the price to go from New York to Saskatoon was about one-third the cost of flying between the same destinations. I’m sure others may have more tips, but these should be good places to start. Good luck!
D

3

Heh, after clicking submit, I realized my bus-vs-flight comparison compared one-way bus with a round trip flight, so I need to correct the above “one-third” to “two-thirds”.

4

Your question is pretty broad. Hitchhiking is probably the cheapest way to travel and
I crossed the country several times this way, but that was in the 50’s and early 60’s. I
wouldn’t recommend it today unless you’re very adventurous. Greyhound Bus lines
serves the U.S. and Canada and they have a web site for each country. Bus travel
means sitting for hours w/ short rest/meal stops. Food at the stops is limited and fairly
expensive. I guess you could layover at places and take a later bus if you wanted.
You could try advertising in an eastern newspaper, or maybe in Craig’s list for a ride
from whichever U.S./Canadian city that you plan to arrive in. There are also people
and companies, such as truck rental businesses, who are looking for drivers to
transport their cars/light trucks from large metro areas to more out of the way places.
They usually pay expenses plus a modest fee for your time. All these have their
benefits and drawbacks. Some online research should give you a better idea of
what’s right for you.

5

You’re coming from Germany? (Wilkommen! :slight_smile: )

Okay. Saskatoon is a LONG way from Toronto, Seattle, or Chicago. Actually, Saskatoon is a long way from anywhere. :slight_smile:

Thing one about the Prairies: it’s flat and open. Really, really flat and really, really open. It can be disturbing if you’re not used to it: when I visited (road trip to Edmonton), I felt like a fly on a pie-plate at times, as if I could feel the earth curving down to the horizon. And driving was stranger; at times I g=felt like my eyes were gettign sucked out through the windshield.

My mother was born in Saskatchewan and loved it; she often spoke of the beauty of the skies. When she went to Vancouver through the western mountains, she said they just ‘got in the way of the scenery’. :slight_smile:

Thing two about the Prairies: it’s an inland mid-continental climate with few moderating bodies of water west of Winnipeg, and pretty much nothing between you and the Arctic but grassland and the occasional tree. Translation: it gets bloody cold in the winter. Mom talked about walking to school when she was a kid, along the wooden sidewalks of Regina in -40 temperatures. What with global warming and all, it’s probably warmer now, but it’s still colder than Toronto. Be prepared.

Will you be moving a lot of personal belongings with you? Electronics, etc? <insert usual caution about different AC mains volatage and electrical plugs, TV standards, radio frequencies, etc>

Planes…
I would not recommend passing through the States unless you specifically want to visit the States; otherwise, it just adds another layer of hassle. There is no such thing as an ‘airside’ transfer in the US; all passengers touching US soil must pass though Customes and Immigration, even if they are getting on another plane and going on to a third country. This has buggered up the flight of more than one person.

It might be a good idea to get to Toronto, then take a connecting flight from here. Toronto has the largest airport in Canada, and you can basically get flights to anywhere out of Toronto. Also, travel to Toronto is easy from Europe, London especially.

Several Dopers have mentioned that Zoom Airlines is the cheapest way to get across the Atlantic to Canada; it goes from London and other parts of the UK, and Paris, to Toronto and Montréal and other destinations in Canada. Zoom has flights from London to Toronto in June for UKP 170 (plus taxes and fees in the UK, I assume).

(The UK pound is about $2 Canadian; the euro is about $1.40 Canadian. I distinctly remember both of them as being more, but that was five years ago. Hmm.)

I leave the exercise of getting to London from Germany as an exercise for the reader. :slight_smile:

There are, of course, direct flights from München to Toronto on other airlines at greater price.

Once in Montréal or Toronto, you can get a domestic flight on WestJet, Air Canada, or that other airline I don’t remember.

I would investigate taking a flight to (in preferred order of nearness) Regina SK, Winnipeg MB, Calgary AB, or Toronto ON, then taking a bus. I suspect at least one of these destinations would be cheaper than flying directly to Saskatoon. You will almost certainly have to change planes somewhere to do this.

I find a one-way air cost of about $400 (ticket price plus taxes and other charges, of which there are about half a dozen on air tickets) on Westjet for Toronto to Saskatoon or Regina; $300 for Toronto to Winnipeg; $375 for Toronto to Calgary. (Hmm. Not as bad as I thought.) Air Canada and Westjet are about the same in price.

On the other hand, Zoom has a direct flight in June, London to Winnipeg, for L200!

Bus…
Most buses in central Canada are run by Greyound, which has gobbled up other companies, and then reduced service. Bus trips run almost nonstop, with breaks every four or five hours for meals and rest stops. Very few people travel on bus journeys longer than a day or so.

It’s about a two-day non-stop bus journey to Regina from Toronto. I would not recommend this unless it was dramatically cheaper; I once did the bus trip from Toronto to Sault Ste. Marie, about a third of the way, and it took 11 hours and was rather brutal. The bus station food in Sudbury was …not terribly great.

Greyhound bus fare Winnipeg to Saskatoon is $98 plus tax one way. Greyhound quotes a bus fare of almost three hundred dollars (plus tax) Toronto to Saskatoon. Might as well fly. :slight_smile:

Trains…
There is not a lot of train service outside the Windsor-to-Quebec City corridor of central Canada. Passenger trains are run by VIA. The train trip from Toronto to the west would take about three days and would probably be quite expensive, as the famous transcontinental train (there is only one route) is now geared more towards tourists as a ‘rail cruise’, rather than a way to get somewhere. VIA gives a fare from Toronto to Saskatoon of almost $500… but at least you can get there on the train.

The route shown is the only surviving transcontinental train route; it goes through the bushland of northern Ontario. There used to be another route that went through Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay and along the north shore of lake Superior, which is stunningly-beautiful country, but it was axed in a costcutting move.

If you pass through Toronto, we’ll have a DopeFest in your honour. Likewise Spoons and the others in Calgary, I’m sure.

6

My wife used RyanAir to get between Frankfurt and London when she visited a friend in Halle a few years ago. It cost like $50.

7

The thing I keep hearing from Europeans about North America is how BIG the place is – apparently both the US and Canadian major cities are further apart from each other than major cities in Europe. Which is why air travel is so popular.

You might get a better deal flying a major airline into a major hub, then taking a smaller airline to Saskatoon.

I find rail travel more comfortable than bus travel, but as already pointed out, there are a lot fewer rail options than there used to be. Bus travel isn’t fun once you get past the first few hours. Let’s face it, even the first few hours can be unpleasent to hellish, depending on who else is on the bus. (I once went to Grand Rapids with a soft-spoken but very drunk and very smelly man attempting to use my shoulder as a pillow the whole way. Icky-poo)

If you have a driver’s license you might consider a rental car. I don’t know if there are any deal available, or what the cost would be, but it would be a heck of a lot more comfortable than bus, you can take food with you (my recollection of my Canadian road trips is that there can be long stretches with simply no place to stop and eat), and you will see the countryside. I don’t know how you’re planning to get around Saskatoon once you’re there, but you might consider picking up a used car for your transportation needs for the whole time you’re in North America. It will make getting around a lot easier, which could compensate for the higher initial cost of obtaining it.

8

It seems to me that the smartest and most practical course of action is to fly into Calgary and drive from there. It’s “only” 400 miles (roughtly 7 hours driving).

Whereas
Seattle is 1,150 miles away (and on the wrong side of the Rocky Mountains)
Chicago is 1,350 miles away
Toronto is 1,900 miles away

Calgary is a fairly significant airport and should have quite a few options are far as domestic and international airlines. And you wont have to deal with customs twice as you would if you flew into the US.

Bear in mind, when you add up short-haul airfares (for example Toronto to Calgary if you have to arrive there), + car rental + gas (or +bus tickets) it may not really be any cheaper than flying direct.

9

I sincerely doubt that flying into Regina from Toronto is any cheaper than flying into Saskatoon. And Calgary is closer to Saskatoon than Winnipeg is, about a 6 hour drive compared to 8 from Winnipeg (substantially longer on a Greyhound). Calgary would be the obvious place to look at flying into, but in all honesty I expect that you won’t save much if any money compared to a Westjet flight to Saskatoon by flying to Calgary and then taking a bus. The key will be switching off of the major carriers when you land in Toronto and switching to Westjet, which is currently the most economical domestic carrier serving us here in Saskatoon.

10

I second the notion of avoiding the U.S.
Currently it is nothing but a hassle to use it as a mid-point in any trip.

Besides the Calgary/driving and Greyhound options, you might consider VIA Rail Canada. The software to check out travel times is an unforgiving piece of junk, but once you have gotten a trip selected the information is good. The VIA Rail Canada pages in German actually look easier to navigate than the ones in English. (Canadian National and Canadian Pacific are no longer in the passenger business.)

They show a travel time from Toronto to Saskatoon as just over one day and 18 hours for $273 (Canadian) for a student. (I could not even find a rail station at Calgary and I do not know what transportation is available from the Toronto airport to a VIA Rail Canada station, but you can include that in your homework. :wink: )

11

It’s perhaps worth pointing out that the VIA trip would take you through some very beautiful country. The railroad runs through the Canadian shield along the shore of Lake Superior before it cuts across the prairies. And riding the train is actually quite pleasant, where the bus is just torture. I wouldn’t expect a flight to be much more expensive, though.

12

Thank you very much for your input, all of you! I really appreciate that. There’s even more options to choose from than I had thought possible.

I’m seriously considering this, even if it isn’t any cheaper than flying, really. It would be a pity to go to Canada without actually seeing much of it except from 30,000 feet above. And since I’m rather with Broomstick on bus travel, I don’t think I’ll go with Greyhound.

:eek:

You’ll be hearing more about this as time goes by. Again, thank you very much.

13

Well, assuming the OP passes through Calgary, of course. It is entirely possible.

I’ve flown from Toronto to Saskatoon before on WestJet. It wasn’t bad, about three, three-and-a-half hours. Getting back to Toronto from there was another matter entirely: from Saskatoon to Calgary to Winnipeg to Toronto. Phew!

Okay, to the OP’s question. I’ll back up what others have said: do not go through the USA if you can help it. Flights from Europe to Canada are frequent and common; I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there was daily Frankfurt-Toronto service on Air Canada or Lufthansa. There may also be someplace-in-Europe to Calgary service; I know a number of European flights go in and out of Calgary. Anyway, expect to go through a major Canadian hub before you get to Saskatoon. Once in Toronto or Calgary or Montreal, you should be able to get a flight to Saskatoon either directly or through another Canadian city.

Thinking about the bus? Don’t. Understand the size of Canada; it is a three day bus trip from Toronto to Saskatoon. It is a three hour bus trip from Regina, though, so if you can get there, you’re not doing too badly. Still Greyhound schedules are not as frequent as they could be, and if you miss your bus, you’re going to be waiting another three, four, five hours for the next. Or maybe until tomorrow.

Train? The trip from Toronto is terrific. I’ve done it before, and it was superb. Problem is, it is very expensive. The other problem is that if the schedules are the same as they were when I went, then you get into Saskatoon at about 3:00 a.m. Probably not the time you want to get into an unfamiliar city.

On the other hand, the train runs both ways, so if you can get to Edmonton, you might catch a train from there to Saskatoon–roughly a five or six hour train trip. Problem here is getting from Edmonton airport (quite far south of Edmonton itself) to the train station, in the north end of the city.

I’m not sure if I’ve helped much, but there are other great suggestions here, so I’ll leave this for now. Whatever you do, welcome to Canada!

14

Hearty recomendations for the previously-mentioned Zoom…they’ve made strange things such as flying via Cardiff or Manchester or Glasgow into viable options for a self-created flight plan. And given the proliferation of cheap flights from Europe to the UK, this can only be good.

15

I thought VIA took the northern route, not the one along the shore of Lake Superior. That’s what their map seems to say.

Fish Cheer, I suspect a lot of your decision will have to do with how much luggage you are bringing. If you are just bringing two or three suitcases (clothing, personal supplies, plus books and stuff), and expecting to pick up other stuff in Saskatoon, then an itinerary like “mainland Europe to London, London to Winnipeg on Zoom, then bus to Saskatoon” might not be too bad.

If you are moving things like a computer, research gear, furniture, skis, or other large and bulky objects, then it might be worthwhile to pay the extra cost in dollars and connections to get a less direct flight that goes all the way to Saskatoon.

Or ship some things separately.

I’d recommend bringing as little as you can, though. If you have pre-furnished accomodation (university residence or apartment or a room in a shared house), that will make things a lot easier.

16

I can help in that department.

To go from the airport in Toronto to the main railway station, take the #192 bus to the Kipling subway station, then take the subway to St George station, change to the southbound University line, take it to Union subway station, and the railway station is right there. Cost: one TTC fare ($2.50) and about an hour and 15 minutes.

There’s a direct private luxury bus that takes around 35 minutes, but it’s at a luxury price of something more than $15. Not really worth it in my opinion, unless you have a lot of luggage to juggle.

Cabs to downtown will be at least $30 or $35–cabs out of the airport are ridiculously expensive–but they are only worth it if you are going somewhere in the outer suburbs, or far across the city, that would involve more than two or three transit-vehicle changes. Or if you have lots of luggage, as mentioned before.

17

To put it in perspective, the distance between Toronto and Saskatoon is a little over 2200 kilometers - about a hundred kilometers farther than the distance from Munich to Rostov.

18

Or 200 kilometers shorter than from Munich to Reykjavik.
Or more than 1/3 the distance from Munich to Toronto.

19

One thing you might do is download Google Earth or WorldWind and ‘fly’ over Saskatoon and the Prairies to get a sense of the spaces and distances. Plus, the mountains are amazing. :slight_smile:

20

Heck, I wouldn’t try it even with American citizenship. I almost missed a domestic flight once because of customs at National. No way I’d try to make a connection inside the US to go to another country unless I had absolutely no choice or I could save several hundred dollars.

Why not fly into Edmonton or Calgary and rent a car? Spend the night there in a hotel, get over the jet lag, and drive to Saskatoon the next morning. Or is this my being an American and raised in the southwest showing itself?