Canada Trip.co.uk

Well, its the second monday in October, so that means its Thanksgiving in Canada!
Thanksgiving in Canada occurring on the second Monday in October, is an annual Canadian holiday to give thanks at the close of the harvest season. Although the original act of Parliament references God and the holiday is celebrated in churches, the holiday is also celebrated in a secular manner. It’s best considered therefore to be similar to the UK’s own harvest festivals, though this unfortunately for us is NOT a bank holiday!

Thanksgiving is a statutory holiday in most jurisdictions of Canada, with the provinces of Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nova Scotia being the exceptions. Where a company is regulated by the federal government (such as those in the telecommunications and banking sectors), it is recognized regardless of status provincially.

Thanksgiving corresponds to the English and continental European Harvest festival, with churches decorated with cornucopias, pumpkins, corn, wheat sheaves, and other harvest bounty, English and European harvest hymns sung on the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend and scriptural selections drawn from biblical stories relating to the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot. (more…)

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Today is Canada Day! It’s Canada’s 144th birthday and as with every year, the country celebrates in style with fireworks displays, aerial displays, parties and a whole host of events taking place across the country- and to make sure Canadians get the chance to take part – they also have a national holiday to help make sure everyone has the chance to enjoy the day!

Canada Day is however, for the benefit of those who aren’t entirely familiar with the day, is not an ‘independence day’ – Far from it in fact! It is the birthday of Canada. The commemoration of the 1st July 1867, when the enactment of the Constitution Act 1867 was brought into being – uniting three British colonies into one unified country; Canada. Originally the day was called Dominion Day, but when Canada gained its full independence from the United Kingdom in 1982, its name was changed to Canada Day.

If you’re lucky enough to be in Canada for today, you’ll be witness to patriotism we rarely ever see in the UK, and strangely we never seem to be given the opportunity to express. The Canadian patriotism is something that fills me with a happiness.. A country and its people, proud to be who they are and where they are – and for me at least, i believe the Canadian patriotism is at the perfect level – it’s loud and proud, but not offensive or overly in peoples faces – an example where a country in the world has simply got things right. But then, we are talking about the only country in the western world not to actually go into recession in the most recent financial crisis – so it’s not unfamiliar territory for Canada to be the ones who got it right!

So what if you aren’t in Canada? Well, you may jut be in luck. A couple of months ago you may remember me featuring this, as a heads up towards the event. Canada Day has come to the UK. Canada Day London is the biggest celebration for Canada Day outside of Canada, and like everything Canadian, 110% is put into ensuring the event is filled with a massive schedule of events, and Canadians and tourists who visit Canada will find some familiar logos around the place – one of the biggest being Tim Hortons! – Tim Hortons Coffee and Doughnuts are coming to London, so if you can get yourself there.. Make sure you do! (more…)

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If you want to go to Canada for as little as possible the first thing you’ll need to look for are low cost, but good quality flights. After all, you don’t want to get onto a plane for the trip across the Atlantic and just sit staring at the seat in front of you for 8 hours right?

We have, since we set up almost two years ago, always recommended Canadian Affair for flights, where you can get return tickets to Canada for as little as £318 including taxes.

Canadian Affair charter Thomas Cook flights, as well as Air Transat so you you have the piece of mind when you book that you can choose flights by which ever company you’re most familiar with (though Air Transat is my personal favourite). There’s two reasons for us always recommending Canadian Affair. The first being we ALWAYS book our flights to Canada with them – and have now been on 18 flights over the last 7 years, so we have huge experience with them. The second being – they are simply, the cheapest place to book flights to Canada from the UK. I know.. i search every few weeks, always looking to book my next trip!

Thomas Cook 757 at Toronto

Even if you may have heard of Canadian Affair before, there are deals that many people miss, so I’d always recommend checking out their Special Offers page before you start entering dates – so you can ensure you get the best deal before you book your tickets.

With most people, and understandably, the biggest factor is getting the cheap flights to Canada, but there’s more to Canadian Affair than simply being the cheapest flights to Canada! They strive to give you the best customer service possible, for example in the numerous times i have needed to contact them via email, they have always responded the same day – and on a couple of occasions within 30 minutes of me actually submitting my query!

They also provide you with choice. If your closest airport is Manchester and you want to get flights from Manchester to Toronto or flights from Manchester to Ottawa, you can! Likewise you also have the choice of getting your flights from Gatwick to Toronto and flying back from Toronto to Liverpool if you wanted.

Canadian Affair offer flights from the following UK airports: Gatwick, Heathrow, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Newcastle and Exeter. Their destinations include Toronto, Ottawa, Halifax, Calgary, Vancouver, Montreal and Edmonton, but they also do package holidays to various resorts around these locations (such as Niagara Falls) in addition to their flights.

Remember to have a look at our full review from last year on Canadian Affair, details in it are for a trip we took in 2009 but service has only got better since then: Travelling to Canada with Canadian Affair in 2010
(more…)

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We will be having a bit of a hiatus while we’re out for two weeks in Canada looking for new places to recommend and shine the spotlight on for all of you guys! The next article, and the return to normality will be on Monday 23rd May!

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It’s Friday – and its the big day of the Royal Wedding! So talking about Royalty, when you’re in Niagara next, why not treat yourself like Royalty – and stay in one of the best hotels in the city – the Hilton Niagara Falls.

If you’ve been following me by Twitter you will probably have spotted a retweet about this offer yesterday! The offer is $129 for a one night short break in Niagara Falls. It treats you to a Deluxe Cityview Two-Bedroom Jacuzzi Suite with a fireplace and includes a $40 dining voucher for Romano’s Macaroni Grill for your dinner at the hotel, Full buffet breakfast for two, valued also at $40, and Two passes for a winery tour and tasting at Peller Estates, also valued at $40!

The offer is being run through TravelZoo.com and to have a look at full details of the offer click the following link: http://www.travelzoo.com/ca/hotels/ontario/1021136/

These rooms are available now through until June 15th, but you must book by the 10th May and these rooms are likely to sell out quickly, so the sooner you book the better! If you are flying to Toronto to stay there or near and around Niagara Falls – planning a trip there, this is not an offer you should miss! If your journey is particularly long and don’t fancy driving back at night – stopping at a hotel is very much recommended. Not only do you get to avoid a night time drive, you get to enjoy the atmosphere and the vibrancy of the colourful Falls when they’re lit up at dusk – and at all time you have the peace of mind of knowing that you’ve got an incredibly comfy and cosy suite to head back to for a good night’s sleep.

Treating yourself has just got a lot more affordable! (more…)

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Ever wanted to travel to Canada but right now you simply can’t afford to go? Well, for one day a year, Canada comes to the UK. Canada Day London brings July 1st (Canada Day) Celebrations to the UK by providing a spectacular event held in Trafalgar Square in the centre of London! You can finally get to try Canadian foods and get a feel for what makes Canada so special, and all taking place right here without having to catch a plane!

Canada Day is still 111 days away, but that doesn’t mean preparations are not under way to make the biggest Canada Day Celebration outside of Canada – even bigger and better than ever before. Why am i writing about it so soon before the event? Because last year i mentioned it a little too soon to give you guys the opportunity to plan ahead! So, here’s my heads up for you to start planning!

2011 promises to be even bigger and better with more cultural activities, more food and drink from across Canada and a great new line-up of music and entertainment. Whether it’s watching the coveted Trafalgar Cup street hockey tournament, sampling uniquely Canadian food and drink or rocking out to some of Canada’s finest bands, this event is jam packed with exciting activities and performances for everyone.

Canada has no shortage of artistic greats like Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Celine Dion and Brian Adams. New waves of artists like Arcade Fire, The Dears, Nelly Furtado and Nickelback are taking the international stage by storm. Montreal has been heralded as the global epicentre of indie music by Spin and the New York Times. (more…)

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Something different for today! .. It took a while for me to actually decide what to call today’s article.. effectively what i want to achieve in this .. is to define.. what it is about Canada – which grabbed my attention so much – that here i am, author of a blog about the country.
I’ve been to other countries before? Spain, France .. (Wales!) .. but as different as Spain and France are to the UK, there’s something especially captivating about Canada.

If you’re new to this site, I’m writing this as a British traveller, who happens to want to give recommendations and information about some of the best places to go in Canada, as well as information which you really could do with knowing before you set out there. So with this in mind – my first interest to go to Canada started young.

It’s a strange thing when you’re a kid, and told that the Queen of your country, which you’ve known your whole life – happens to be the queen of other countries around the world. It sparks all kinds of thoughts, presumptions and ideas about what are these other countries like exactly? And how, on this gigantic planet – could a Queen be not just Queen of one country, but of many.
It was out of that curiosity, as well as my interest in Geography – and funnily enough my mum’s old Globe (one of those on an axis which turns.. a metal one, with a metal base) which made me choose the two places on earth which i would most want to visit. According to the old metal globe, the flag of Canada was a red flag, with a shield in the middle and a Union Flag top left. Of coarse, this was an old globe, and i soon learnt that things had changed since the 1960s, and the red maple on a white and red background had been adopted.

The more i learnt about Canada the more curious i was.. And TV just spurred it on.. TV images on the news – live or recorded are always fuzzy in the UK if they come from the US or Canada and converted into PAL. It was nice therefore when we touched down at Toronto Pearson Airport in Toronto in June 2005 that the whole north American continent was definitely not soft-toned to look at! (more…)

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It’s Monday! It’s also March tomorrow, so how about we stop thinking about those post-Christmas diets now hm?

If you haven’t been to Canada yet, you’ll almost certainly walk into restaurants and find something on the menu called Poutine. Now, don’t be scared of its particularly unique name! Poutine is actually something that most people in the UK can relate to.. We have all (well.. most of us) gone to the chip shop and got either Chips with Gravy, OR Chips with Cheese .. Well .. although technically it wouldn’t be technically correct – if you had cheese and gravy on the same tray of chips, that is almost poutine! Now, i say almost because for it to be truly poutine, the cheese needs to be cheese curds, not just your normal cheese.

As you can see from the picture, poutine is definitely not the most elegant looking of foods, but lets face it, it beats the looks of mushy peas now doesn’t it! Besides, Canadians have always been known for their no-nonsence approach, and food in my opinion should always be about flavour, and not looks. (more…)

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Canadian Affair runs flights through well known and popular Thomas Cook, so you’ll be flying Thomas Cook or well known (in Canada) Canadian airline Air Transat. In 2009 Canadian Affair was voted ‘Consumer Favourite Tour Operator’ and ‘Consumer Favourite Ski Operator’ by the Canadian Tourism Commission. And with my experience in flying with them (16 flights now), every time i have been i would recommend them over and over as the one stop shop you should be looking at should you want to fly to Canada.
Oh and yes, my trips out this year, are already booked with them!

A lot of people don’t realise that Canadian Affair always run a large number of offers – so take a quick look at the offers most people miss by clicking here for their special offers like flights from £139!

So once again, my recommendation on the company you should fly to Canada in 2011 is Canadian Affair.

Below I’m including my review on Canadian Affair from 2009, but before it I’m going to mention a couple of things I’ve seeing about the web
I’m sure if you’re searching for for Canadian Affair Reviews, positive or negative, you’ll have found a great deal – that’s because many people use the company every year.. One thing I’ve found is that a great deal of negative points are based on ‘one off’ instances which many people would disregard if you had a comfortable flight. I’ve now had the experience of 16 happy flights with them and i have absolute faith in the company. I’ve seen “complaints” over the seats people have booked changing a month or so before their flight – this can happen, for example if a flight is underbooked (not many people booked themselves onto the flight) rather than cancelling the flight, sometimes they will change an A330 for an A310 – different planes have different seating layouts.. but even so they will try to put you in the closest seat to what you asked for (as they did with us last year). And if you look at the reviews which are positive, the majority are almost 5 out of 5 and i think that speaks louder than anything! So as my opinion and experience hasnt changed since i wrote the following, here’s my 5 out of 5 positive review about Canadian Affair from just after flying with them the other year!

“So, what about my experience with Canadian Affair? Well every time i have ever visited Canada, i have always booked through Canadian Affair. This is because back in 2005 i went hunting for the best prices and Canadian Affair won hands down every single time. Since then I’ve been on 12 separate flights booked by Canadian Affair and I’ve never had any major problems what so ever. (more…)

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Well, its January – and the start of a great new year! Time to start thinking of the months to come – and plan this year’s great adventures! But who says it has to be such a long time from now that you’d find yourself on a plane to your next Canada Trip?

I’m sure by now many of you will know we recommend Canadian Affair for flights – and that every time we fly to Canada we only ever book through them. The reason is as most know, Canadian Affair simply are the lowest priced flight operator from the UK to Canada, and they include all meals within their prices – so you get real value for money.

Canadian Affair are offering flights currently from £139 one way – to and from Canada – and you can get return flights to Canada from £298! These prices INCLUDE taxes! So the price you see on their site is the price you pay

Click here for Canadian Affair’s Special Offers page which lists all the dates and prices for flights to Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver.

Or, click here for Canadian Affairs Round Trip Offers to all their destinations!

Though that’s not all that Canadian Affair are offering at the moment. They’re Still offering Skiing holidays from £499pp for this season. You can save 10% on all Rocky Mountaineer tours - Free upgrades and free one way drop offs on Car Hire – and much more! So Take a look at what Canadian Affair has to offer this January! We’re booking our flights within the next few days – so why not do the same?

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