Whenever I met friends who came back from Vancouver or Toronto, the usual question posed to me was: "When are you coming to Canada?". My usual quick response would be: "Soon!". But over time, they were less enthusiastic about asking but instead added: "We won't be asking because we know the answer!".
That prompted me to seriously consider planning for a one-time grand tour of Canada. I would do a tour that would silence and appease all the doubters!
A 4-week tour was planned and we finally landed at YVR, short for Vancouver International Airport at 10.45am local time on 14 August 2017. That was also our first time flying in China Southern Airlines. Besides its much lower fare, the flight's only transit point was attractive to me because I dislike multiple stops along the way. The flight from KK to Vancouver has just one stop in Guangzhou. Its only drawbacks are the wee hours departure time of 3.30am in KK and a transit of 7 hours in Guangzhou.
After spending a week in Vancouver, we picked up our rented car from YVR and started our driving tour to the Rockies - our primary place of interest.
Since that was my first experience in driving a left-hand drive vehicle, I took extra care to avoid any mishap especially in the initial period of driving. In fact, I had been warned earlier that it may take a bit of practice to get use to driving on the right side of the road rather than the left side which I have been used to all my life. In the end, I did well and the car was returned in one piece without any bump or scratch!
From Vancouver to Edmonton, we had overnight stops at Hope, Kamloops, Rivelstoke, Banff, Jasper and finally in Edmonton.
Since that was my first experience in driving a left-hand drive vehicle, I took extra care to avoid any mishap especially in the initial period of driving. In fact, I had been warned earlier that it may take a bit of practice to get use to driving on the right side of the road rather than the left side which I have been used to all my life. In the end, I did well and the car was returned in one piece without any bump or scratch!
From Vancouver to Edmonton, we had overnight stops at Hope, Kamloops, Rivelstoke, Banff, Jasper and finally in Edmonton.
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| Route through the Rockies from Vancouver to Edmonton. |
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| After Coffee Break on the way from Vancouver to Hope. |
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| Coffee Break near Rogers Pass to Lake Louise. |
We returned the rented car at Edmonton Airport and took a direct flight thereafter to Toronto by Air Canada.
In Toronto, we didn't rent a car but instead moved around in the city by using public transport - the subway and the public bus.
We also joined two pre-booked tours in Toronto - a One-Day Tour to the Niagara Falls and another 3-Day Tour to Montreal, Quebec, Thousand Islands and Ottawa.
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| 3-Day Tour to Montreal, Quebec and Ottawa from Toronto. |
P/S We did learn a lesson about booking air travel with multiple stops. We had to pay CAN$25 (RM87) for each luggage from Edmonton to Toronto by Air Canada simply because we booked the flight KK-Canada and return sector separately from the Edmonton-Toronto sector. Had we booked the whole flight in one single booking through "Google Flight" website under the multiple stops, we would have enjoyed free 2x30Kg luggage for each passenger throughout!
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