2019 Canadian Trip Thunder Bay to PEI

[Sky_Boss]

The 2019 Newmar Kountry Klub rally is in Syracuse, NY the first week of October. We want to take advantage of the location and transit from the west tip of Lake Superior to Prince Edward Island. We are planning 90-100 days for this trip.

I have a lot of general questions and some specific ones.

1. What would be the highlight spots to see on the route north of the lakes from Thunder Bay to the Toronto area? We are looking for 5 or 6 places worth spending up to 5 days at each.

2. Looking for recommendations for places to stay up to 5 days each near:

• London
• Toronto
• Prince Edward, ON
• Ottawa
• Montreal
• Quebec City

3. How difficult will it be when we hit the French Canadian areas to communicate and navigate? We do not speak French.

4. Looking for recommendations for NB and NS. We think we will have time for 1 place each for about 5 days each.

Thanks!

[Lv2Roam2]

During our visit last month to Quebec City we stayed on the east side of the St Lawrence river in the town of Levis at the Camping Transit RV Park. Nice place - just off major road route, plenty of big rig access. A ferry about 15 minutes drive away takes you across to Quebec's Old Town - a delightful walking area.

If you stay at Camping Transit there's a little farmer's stand just off the highway that has delightful veggies and bread that begs for lots of butter.

English is spoken widely; sometimes a word or phrase gets jumbled, or the staff seeks help from a more proficient english speaker - but it always worked out.

When entering addresses in the GPS try different combinations to get street addresses, i.e., the word 'Chemin' in their address system is like our 'way' or 'road.' Leaving the word Chemin out of the address entry helped. Otherwise the road signage is pretty clear.

Great area to travel in ... enjoy!

http://campingtransit.com

[Lv2Roam2]

Don Re: questions on NB and NS: we're currently in Baddeck, NS headed for Newfoundland. On return we will see the rest of NS and NB. Based on your questions, today I suggest you focus your NB visit on the Saint John or Moncton area so that you can do day-trips through the Bay of Fundy area and PEI. Then focus the NS visit on the Truro area so that visits north to the Cabot Trail and south to Halifax are possible.

Average travel speeds (coach or toad) are less than 50 mph so such a plan requires long travel days. Depending on your interests and available time there are other options to consider. FYI: this year we're paying ~ $35 U.S./night for campgrounds and ~ $3.55 U.S./gal for fuel.

[gbstewart]

Be ready for lots of driving we did the trip about 5 years ago from just north of TB (Sioux lookout ) we didn’t go to Toronto went Ottawa , traffic in Montreal was crazy , we did all side roads in pei you go tip to tip make sure you do the hopewell rocks in the bay of fundy st the time the roads where terrible we to side roads to see more little towns
Take the ferry to PEI and the bridge back it’s cheaper you pay to get off the island
We met some great people
Quebec traffic was nuts but the camp grounds where great

[gbstewart]

I forgot to mention be prepared to put some hard use on your credit card, east coast is expensive

[Sky_Boss]

Originally Posted by Lv2Roam2

...

Average travel speeds (coach or toad) are less than 50 mph so such a plan requires long travel days. Depending on your interests and available time there are other options to consider. FYI: this year we're paying ~ $35 U.S./night for campgrounds and ~ $3.55 U.S./gal for fuel.

Thanks for the heads up on travel speeds. We plan an average of 55 MPH in the US but that also includes fuel and rest stops. Sounds like I should look closer to 40 MPH then.

It seems that with the exchange rate that our CG costs will be similar or a tad less than in the US. Fuel...YEP...OUCH.

We have room to add extra days in the NS & NB areas for longer and more day trips in the toad. We've been in places in the coastal areas of Oregon and Washington that had similar day trip opportunities. Our biggest issue is whether or not to bring our German Shepherd along on day trips.

It is also my understanding that we could find that many of the Canadian parks and even NE US parks are 30 amp set ups. That isn't too big of an issue for us on shorter stays but longer ones we will probably look harder for 50 amp CGs.

All in all...it will be an adventure.

[Sky_Boss]

Originally Posted by gbstewart

I forgot to mention be prepared to put some hard use on your credit card, east coast is expensive

We are expecting that. We have 2 credit cards that are pretty good for use in Canada. We spent a few days in Victoria BC last year and it was pretty painless as far as that went. The shops and vendors were quite fluent in conversion rates and took USD$. However, since we will be planning to hit some of the less populated areas I'm wondering if we should plan on getting some Canadian currency. Did you find any real need for that?

[nothermark]

The exchange rate may be better with some places than the credit card companies give. That and the idea that it's easier to do small purchases in cash would have me carrying some. YMMV.

[gbstewart]

Yes take some Canadian cash there’s road side vendors that you may be interested in purchasing something , they won’t give you the best exchange rate , otherwise credit card is the way to go you will get a better rate .
It was a good trip we will be going to back to PEI and spend more time there , hopefully the roads will be better

[Gheidbrink]

We are heading to that area next week. When planning the trip we did not have any language issues. Several campgrounds told us cash or Canadian checks only. No credit cards. For what it's worth.

[msy4us]

We did part of that this May - we stayed at Fort William Historical Park in Thunder Bay, Neys Provincial Park in Terrance Bay, KOA Saul Ste Marie, Carol Campsite in Sudbury, and Glen Rouge Campground in Toronto. We loved Toronto - great food and things to do