Sadly, most American don t think of Canada when it comes time to take a vacation. Some of that might

Last year I was invited by VIA Rail (the Canadian passenger railway) to test their new wifi service from Toronto to Quebec City. As I m a sucker for anything with travel and internet, I jumped business corporate travel at the chance.
The trip took place in October and just a month earlier I had driven around eastern Canada on my own and managed to drive almost the exact same route we were taking in reverse: Quebec City to Toronto. That time I was just driving through after having visited Newfoundland, but it still provided an excellent contrast between traveling by car and traveling by train.
Sadly, most American don t think of Canada when it comes time to take a vacation. Some of that might stem from the current strength of the Canadian dollar, business corporate travel but also stems from our ignorance of things north of the border.
The Toronto-Quebec City corridor is analogous to the Washington-Boston corridor on the East Coast of the US. It is densely populated, the route contains some of the largest cities in the country, and they are close enough business corporate travel together to allow for reasonable travel times.
Our trip started in the Canada s largest city, Toronto. Despite its size, I often think that Toronto is forgotten by Americans. It is the 5th largest city in North America and larger than every US city other than New York, LA and Chicago.
In Toronto we did the typical Toronto things: The CN Tower, Kensington Market, and Chinatown. We also happened business corporate travel to be there during the arts festival known as Nuit Blanche (White Night). The festival literally goes all night long with contemporary art exhibits located outside throughout the city. In addition to the art, there are food stands and there is of course lots of drinking. This is Canada after all.
Overall, I found Nuit Blanche disappointing. For starters it was cold, so walking around business corporate travel wasn t a pleasant experience. Second, the art exhibits were spread too far apart. You d walk for blocks and not see a thing. Finally, what exhibits we did see weren t that impressive. The coolest thing I saw was a white van with holes drilled all over it and a bright light inside.
Our next stop was Canada s capital, Ottawa. The trip from Toronto to Ottawa was the longest leg of the trip, clocking in at about 4 hours. The time flew by considering we had a meal on the train and were able to work on our laptops.
I had been to Ottawa business corporate travel several business corporate travel times before and it has always been one of my favorite Canadian cities. This time I was able to stay at the Chateau Laurier, business corporate travel which is the castle like hotel near the historic Rideau Canal and Parliament Hill. The Chateau Laurier is one of the few hotels in the world where I really wanted to stay at some point.
Visiting Parliament Hill is an interesting experience for Americans. There is only a fraction of the security you would find if you visited Capital Hill in Washington DC. Also, there are gargoyles on the outside of the Parliament building in Ottawa, whereas in Washington the gargoyles are on the inside :)
This time, I had much more time to spend in Montreal. It is a very unique city. While in Quebec, it is really more of a bilingual city than a purely francophone city. Getting around knowing English isn t difficult and is much easier if you even know a bit of French.
While a bit more spread out than Ottawa, it isn t nearly as bad as Toronto. Exploring the city can be done on foot or via public transportation. Montreal even has a network of bicycles you can rent which are located all over town.
Just as we happened to be in Toronto for Nuit Blanche, we were in Montreal for the Lantern Festival at the botanical garden. business corporate travel This was far more entertaining and photogenic than what I found in Toronto. The lanterns at night were a photographic bonanza and I could have spent the entire evening in the gardens taken pictures.
If you are in Montreal, business corporate travel make sure to take time to vist the world famous Schwartz s Deli and try their selection of smoked meats. You also have to try poutine , Canada s national dish too. With french fries, cheese curds and gravy, it is a heart attack on a plate!
Quebec has become my favorite city in Canada, and quite possibly in all of North America. It is the most European city you will find in North America and when you are walking the streets of the old town, you might think you are in France.
Quebec City is the only walled city north of Mexico. The centerpiece business corporate travel of the Old Quebec is the Citadel, which was the French fort in the city. It is also the residence of the Canadian Governor General, who serves as the representative of the Queen as Head of State in Canada.
Outside business corporate travel the fort is the Plains of Abraham, which were not named after the biblical character, but rather business corporate travel the man who used to own the land. It was here that the British took control of Quebec from the French in 1759, in what was a surprisingly short fight. Both French General Montcalm and the British General Wolfe died in the battle.
The other dominate building in Old Quebec is the Chateau Frontenac. Like the Chateau Laurier, these hotels originally build by the Canadian National Railway and now owned by the Fairmont Hotel chain, are uniquely Canadian and can be found throughout the country. In fact, the Canadian pavilion at EPCOT is in part modeled on the Chateau Frontenac.
business corporate travel Its cheaper. Gas in Canada is expensive. I m not sure you will be saving any money by driving yourself around. The same goes with the cost of getting to Canada itself. The only exception might be if you live near the boarder in the North East United States.
You don t need a car. If you drive a car, you will have to deal with parking in several business corporate travel major urban areas, business corporate travel which is never cheap. All four of the cities I visited had good enough public business corporate travel transportation to get to you most of the major tourist areas you d want to visit. The one exception was visiting the island outside of Quebec City, which is rural.
No border crossings. Having crossed the US/Canadian border several times in the last year by car, it is something I have no desire to do again. Agents on both sides of the border feel the need to act like total a-holes and depending on the luck of the draw, your border crossing could last a full hour. You wont have these problems if you enter Canada by plane. Avoiding dealing with a land border crossing would be reason enough not to take a car to Canada.
It was good, perhaps a bit better that should be expected for being on a moving train. They were still beta testing the network business corporate travel when I was on the train, so it was available for free for all passengers. As such, I m not sure how much the network performance was impacted by a lot of people trying to access the internet at once. They were planning to charge for the service once they were ready to go live, so I have no idea how that would effect performance, but even with it wide open, the performance wasn t bad. I d say it was on a par with, or slightly better than the quality of bandwidth you d find on a domestic flight.
At some point on each leg of the trip there was a short period of time when the network would freeze. Based on where Foursquare would locate me, I think the network business corporate travel was switching business corporate travel over from one location to another Foursquare would locate me in different cities after each network freeze. The switch lasted no more than 1-2 minutes.
Thanks again for travelling with us Gary, loved the trip account that you re a fan of short-haul train travel vs flying or driving! Expect an even better wifi service on board VIA Rail shortly, thanks to partnerships w/ Nomad Digital.
I used to travel around the UK by train regularly, either for work or pleasure, and many of the train companies offered wireless on board. My experience sounds similar to yours largely good, with pauses, presumably between nodes . I could hardly complain travelling at 130mph and getting free internet access to boot is not something to sniff at. I just wish it was universally free it differs from train company to train company and train prices in the UK are expensive enough to not need to charge even more for wireless.
I m glad to read this article, I was waiting for it to come out since I live in Quebec City and I knew you had taken this trip a few months ago. I m happy to see that with everything you ve seen of the world, Quebec City stands as one of your favorite cities in America ! Thanks for this great website/blog of yours !!!
I m glad you enjoyed my beautiful hometown of Montreal. We have a Festival de la Nuit Blanche too, in late February (much colder but much more fun than Toronto s). Let me know if you plan on coming back, I would be happy to show you around the other neighbourhoods.
Thanks This was timely business corporate travel and useful. I am planning to do the same in July later this year. Can you tell me how much did the whole rail trip cost you ? and how easy is it to book tickets last minute (or a couple of days in advance) ?