It's essential to plan carefully how you'll get around. With VIA Rail services becoming more skeletal each year, provincewide bus companies provide the main surface links between major cities, though in isolated areas you may be thrown back on more sporadic local services. Flying is of course more expensive, but competition in the skies can lead to some decent bargains.
On most forms of public transport there are
discounted fares
for children under 12, for youths between 13 and 21, and over-60s. It has to be said, however, that things are always easier if you have a
car
: even if a bus can take you to the general vicinity of a provincial park, for example, it can prove impossible to explore the interior without your own vehicle.
By bus
If you're travelling on your own,
buses
are by far the cheapest way to get around. Greyhound Canada runs most of the long-distance buses west of Toronto, including a service along the Trans-Canada Highway from Toronto to Vancouver. The major...
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By train
The railway may have created modern Canada but passenger trains are now few and far between - at the beginning of 1990 more than half the
VIA Rail
services were eliminated at a stroke and fares were increased dramatically. Services are...
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By air
The complexity of Canada's
internal flight network
is immense, and throughout this guide we have given indications of which services are most useful. Now that Air Canada has bought Canadian Airlines, it has the most prolific domestic service,...
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By car
Travelling by
car
is the best way to see Canada, even though a vehicle can be a bit of a liability in the big cities, with their stringent parking areas and rush-hour tailbacks. Any US and UK national over 21 with a full driving licence is...
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Roads, rules and regulations
The best
roads
for covering long distances quickly are the straight and fast multilane highways that radiate for some distance from major population centres. These have a maximum of six lanes divided by a central causeway and are marked on...
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By bike
Cyclists
are reasonably well catered for in environment-friendly Canada: most cities have cycling lanes and produce special maps for cyclists, and long-distance buses and trains will allow you to transport your bike, perhaps for a small fee. The...
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