The great Canadian Christmas Travel Thread.
 

Going on a Quebec-Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto tour over Christmas.

It got me thinking who else is going on a big trip over the holidays?

What are good things to be doing in late December?

Where would you want to go?


EDIT: Might slip in a day trip to hamilton so I can say I've visited all the large metros.

Making a quick visit to Montreal this month. Hard to believe it's been over 3 years since I was last there! Gonna see how my old haunts from my university days are doing and take a stroll through some of the areas that have seen lots of development over the past few years. Plus take in a choir concert at a beautiful old church in Mile-End. I'll only be there for a couple days, but I'm looking forward to the trip.

Almost certainly going to spend Christmas in Gaspé in my gf's family, as usual. (Longer trip than Toronto-Montreal, to put it in perspective.)

I'd like to go spend part of this winter in Florida, if I can find the time for it.

Now http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=237363 #13 finally makes sense to me. ;)

You mean that it explains how come I'm familiar enough with this road in winter? Sure :) I didn't think it was a secret.

As chance has it, my mom is also from the Gaspé, like my gf (that's pure happenstance though, we met in Southern Quebec). The difference is that my gf is from Gaspé (the town; in English the peninsula has the same name which can be somewhat confusing) to which there's only one possible road, while my mom's family is from the south coast, and there's three roughly equivalent ways to get there, each of which we've done countless times over the years.

(Now that A-85 is almost all twinned, the NB path has taken a clear edge though.)

Lol when you first told me your story, I was wondering what you were doing in that area. :haha:

I'll be leaving a frigid Seoul, and heading to the sunny shores of Thailand with a couple of days in Hanoi.

I'm heading back to Queensland Australia to hang out with mates and celebrate a milestone B-Day on the beach. So excited for this.

Staying home for Christmas, my step-sis from Halifax is coming here for a week. I'm also off from the 24th to the 6th, so we might go on a university tour with my daughter, depending on weather. She just got early acceptance to Ottawa, and she also applied to Queens and Carleton.

I am familiar with it too because as a child we'd always travel from our home in Ontario across Quebec to spend Christmas with family in the Maritimes. It happened a few times that we almost missed Christmas due to the A-20 being closed between Lévis and Rivière-du-Loup. As a kid I was very familiar with all the motels on Boulevard Kennedy in Lévis and also Le Martinet in La Pocatière.

That stretch of A-20 is a great example of the impact of clear-cutting forest (for agriculture in this case) on blowing snow conditions. They've planted rows of trees as windbreaks in some places but much of the highway is still wide open all the way to the edge of the St. Lawrence.

You also have a similarly deforested stretch of plain north of Cobalt in NE Ontario along Highway 11. Again they've planted rows of trees here and there as windbreaks but it's not everywhere that is covered. Nor is it as effective as a full old-growth forest.

I almost never travel these roads in winter anymore. These days we don't visit my wife's family or my family in winter unless it's for a funeral. If we go by choice it's in the summer.

I never travel at Christmas since most of my family is in and around Winnipeg so we stick around for all of the gatherings. The winter vacation comes after Christmas :)

One of my fond memories of being a kid, though, was going on train trips over the holidays to Toronto. I did it several times during the 90s... I just love the memories of rolling along through Northern Ontario with the landscape looking like a giant snow globe.

I will be heading beyond the confine of civilization that is Empire Avenue, deep into the wilderness of moorland and trees, to my parents' suburban crescent in Mount Pearl.

I was just thinking that for francophones especially, leisure travel on Dec. 24-25 by couples or the smallest family unit (mom, dad and kids) is basically unheard of.

People do travel for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but it's to be with extended family somewhere else. No one I know goes to Punta Cana or NYC on Dec. 24-25.

I'm going to fill the fridge and freezer and don't plan on leaving the house.

Taking VIA up to Ottawa on the afternoon of the 24th for a few days to spend with my wife's family - I generally like to take a minimum of time off at Christmas as it's nice and quiet in the office with short days. And the government doesn't close down offices like everyone I know in the private sector... People with kids like to take holidays then so may as well take advantage while I still can!

Got business class tickets on VIA so should be ready to roll into dinner well lubricated. So long as we aren't late at least!

I'll be taking advantage of Porter's flights from Toronto/Ottawa to NB.

Going to the Sunshine Coast but would rather stay in Toronto.

Business class on VIA ... nothing better.

VIA Business class is great. Especially if you are in one of the retrofitted cars. Awesome food great service. The 4-5 hr journey feels about half that. had the best short rib of my life coming home from Montreal 3 years ago. Meanwhile in couch it's like VIA makes an effort to hire 50+ year old grumpy franacaphone men that treat you like the garbage food they offer you that can only be described as gas station food.


I'm flying Airtransat :yuck: Christmas day to Vancouver and will be coming home Air Canada Business Class. I'm boycotting Westjet atm.

I'm heading to NB by bus as there's no train nor Airport near my parents' place as I can't drive much. It's always my worst trip of the year. I loathe it loathe it loathe it. There's better things to do than need to spend a ride with carny-type of people. One year I took the train to RDL and took a cab, cost me $400 for the ride but heck I had enough of the fucking bus.