Canada 2015: A 13-day Canada Trip

Touchdown Vancouver

We had a layover in Taiwan. Luckily for eva air, we need not go out of the terminal to get through the gates. We just went over to the transfer desk and followed procedures to go to the gates. Of course, there was still a security check, so we had to empty our bottles up.

Upon touchdown at the airport, we proceeded to go to immigration. They process by families so if you are with your siblings and family, you're bound to be processed together. They also have translators if you can't speak in English ( which is not a bad service). They will ask you about the purpose of your trip, which travel agency you booked with and what food did you bring in to Canada.
Then it's off to collect your bags.

As we opted to go to an airport hotel, we went to the shuttle pick up service in Vancouver. We had to wake up early to take a flight to Vancouver Island. ( If you are going by pacific coastal, which is at south terminal, you have to be specific to the driver that you are going there)

Toronto

Day 1

Once we reached the airport , we went to use the cab service at the airport, so our rate to the city is a fixed rate. We booked the hotel which was near Dundas Square ( because it was near the meetup place for the Niagara Tours).

Day 2

Chariots of Fire ( Niagara Tours ) Ended: 6pm, Started: 8am

Pickup/Drop off point: Dundas Square ( walking distance from Bond Place Hotel)

Day 3

We booked supervacation for the local tour in Canada. Without a car, you are only reliant on the tours offered locally.

SIM Card

Difficulty in finding sim card ( because it's not readily available at the airport). We must go out of the mall ( which is miles away to find cellular provider if there is any) . So far in the malls that I've been to, I've only seen fido and koodoo.

Most of the tourist spots and malls do provide free wi-fi. Tim Hortons is your best bet and drinks are relatively cheaper than Starbucks! Inns also provide free wi-fi unlike hotels.

Tours 

While researching on the tours in Eastern Canada, only Chinese travel agency in Canada seems to handle these tours.

Most of their tours are done in Chinese as most of the clientele are Chinese. They do speak in understandable English, so all is well for the non-Chinese. Most of the time will be spent on the bus.

The cities are quite far from each other.

Toronto to Montreal takes about 3h. Montreal to Quebec another 3h.

You have to pay for the driver and tour leader's tip at the beginning of the tour.

There are some optional activities on the trip along with food that are optional.

TakeTours/SuperVacation Comment:

You can bring luggage size of 20inch. There is no free wifi on the bus.

The drop off point is different from the pickup point but both are in Chinatown.

Pickup Point: 447 Dundas Street West ( It's far from Dundas Street east even though they say it was 1.6km)

Drop-off : 220 Spadina Avenue

Find the tour guide first to make sure you are boarding the correct bus ( and before handing your luggage to the bus driver)

The optional tours and meals are very flexible, you can opt for meals on certain days or just have all lunch or all dinner. We opted for all lunch. Their stop over for lunches are actually quite remote places that sometimes you don't have a choice but to eat at that same restaurant where they are having lunch( This is true for Thousand Island Cruise). However,in Quebec City, it should still be all right as the place is full of restaurants ( the problem is you will not be sure of the timing since you are with the tour group), plus the French restaurant that they booked ain't that bad. You are not require to put a tip on the table in the French restaurant(I think). The last day lunch stop over was near the highway, we saw Tim Hortons( so it shouldn't be that bad). As for our dinner, since we knew that the dinner will be a chinese buffet meal in Chinatown, we opted to find other spots. On the first night, we took to eat at the bakery in Chinatown (kinda regret that we didn't research and had known that Chinatown and Old Montreal are quite near to each other) and explored Chinatown. There's literally nothing there. The next night was at Old Montreal, we recognized some of the landmarks from the first night and was like" Oh the Notre dame basilica was quite close to Chinatown, dang!" We ate at a lebanese eatery there.( Other choices were Mcdonald's , A&W, and Subway, there's Starbucks too at some corner)

Chariots of Fire Comment: 

I managed to find another tour agency that handles tour for Niagara Falls. This one is really smaller in size. The drive from Toronto to Niagara Falls was around 1hr  ( if you're not caught in traffic).

There's also not much food for lunch around the area( should have gone tripadvisor and research the place Niagara on the Lake.) We just ordered the sandwich meal that they offered. The place was quite small that we had to stand and eat our lunch at the corner of the store, we could have taken our lunches out had it not been for the rain or cold weather.

Traffic 

The traffic in Toronto was worse.

Hotels

Not all hotels got free wi-fi and they also do not let you leave your luggage. Toiletries are a common kit but they don't come with free comb,toothbrush or razor.

Taxi 

You can hail a cab almost anywhere in the street at downtown Toronto. This is a tipping society, thus prepare loose change of $5CAD.

From Airport (Toronto)

Do take note of the transitlink website of Toronto, the airport cab don't come with a meter and everything is charged with a flat rate. To go downtown Toronto around Yonge and Dundas, it costs $55CAD (Zone1) + Tip. There are signs to go to take Taxi at the same floor as the arrival. We reached our hotel around 10pm, our flight was at 7pm. It might have taken some 40mins to reach airport to downtown Toronto.

Airport Shuttle

From Airport (Vancouver)

Just wait at the green bus stop area. It is just right after the stop light before the carpark area.

From Hotel (Accent Inn Vancouver Airport)

Just go to the exit at the front lobby, the shuttle will usually wait for you there. They will only wait for a time. The interval was every 30 mins so 10 mins before the shuttle arrives, you have to wait at the lobby.

MRT/StreetCar

If you prefer to take the UP Express Train from Airport to Union Station, one needs to shell out 27.50CAD. It will only take you 25minutes to go to the main station to airport. Once you reached the last stop and exited the station, the left hand side will take you to the subway, while the right hand side will take you to Rogers Centre, CN Tower and Ripley's Aquarium. The transportation cost is 3CAD ( not sure if it was per station or per trip, but the streetcar and MRT do share the price as we did not need to pay extra to take the subway). There is a city pass for you to use in a day, it costs 11CAD. This is not bad if you plan to go to more than 3 places.

StreetCar

You can pay directly to the driver but they don't give change.

Food

Normally, food costs around 12-15CAD (10inch pizza, rotisserie), 10-15CAD ( sandwiches, burger set meal). There's always that cheaper alternative at Tim Hortons where you get some bagel and wrap for around 7-10CAD. If you go for restaurants,dining should be an average of 20-25CAD.

Do Note: When you're travelling with senior people, they just eat half of the food.

Inns

They are far from the city. Best if you can find inns that provide shuttle back to the city or airport.

Do note that if they do have free shuttle, make sure to note all the stops they are making before boarding the shuttle. In our trip to Vancouver, we thought that the shuttle provided by the inn was to make a stop on all terminals ( apparently, they just make stops only in Domestic and Main terminal and not the South Terminal) as written on their website. You have to make a special request to drop you to the South Terminal! We almost didn't manage to go to our terminal if we did not make a request to do so ( at the last minute) and the driver almost wanted to drop us and let us take cab on our own.