Canada Trip.co.uk

Okay, so, summer is here – August .. But you may want to think about heading out at short notice! .. Just because summer is here, and prices have shot up because of the school holidays, there’s always chances to find cheap hotels in Toronto! You may be reading this because you’ve hit it lucky and been able to get time off work, and really there are few places better than Toronto to take short or even full length holidays. There’s lots of places you may want to look for prices, but we’ll stick to our recommended company Expedia, since they guarantee you the best prices you’ll be able to find – and from my experience it is very difficult to beat the prices they display.

Currently Expedia are promoting how you can Save up to 30% off the price of hotels in Toronto Click here for information and check out the prices for your next Canada Trip!

Toronto sky scrapers

We’re half way through summer, and to be fair we haven’t really had a great one weather wise – so why not look forward, no matter whether you’ve already been on your holiday this year, or looking to book for a break later this year – Have a look and see what you can save by booking your hotels at Expedia.co.uk

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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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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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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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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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A huge majority of people travelling abroad choose to leave their precious car in long stay car parks. The problem is – how much does it cost? Would it be cheaper to book a taxi? Well the fact of the matter is ~ sometimes it actually IS cheaper to book a taxi than to take the car down to the airport and check it in for a nice holiday watching planes for two weeks… That is of coarse if you don’t check out Purple Parking.

I’ve seen this place a number of times , and would certainly recommend you check their prices for airport parking before you go anywhere else. It’s actually the most simple layout for finding a quote for airport parking that I’ve seen, and since i only want you guys to get the best deals, so you can make the most of your money (and ultimately have more spending money when you’re out there!) – naturally i am going to let you guys know of this company!

We actually park at Gatwick usually when we go to Canada – and taking car parking options with hopper bus services that run every so many minutes are truly the best way of getting your holiday off to a quick start. Some of the car parks offered offer a service where you simply drive your car into a designated area, take your bags – show the desk your voucher or receipt, drop off your keys and they will go park your car up for you – leaving you with the task of simply hopping on a bus to take you the short distance to the airport.
Different companies (and tariffs) offer hopper bus services at different intervals. The one we use is generally every 10 minutes – though usually even the ones who are the least frequent are only 20 minutes.

If you would prefer a more direct approach, many airports also offer car parks which are effectively on the doorstep, though you usually have to pay a little more for these – so check out Purple Parking to see what tariffs are on offer and what your best quote will be!

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Well today – I’m going to focus on what foods you can and cant take into Canada.
Like when ever you are travelling from the UK, it’s always good to make sure you’re going to another country – without breaking any rules, regulations or Laws the moment you step into the country right? And lets face it, after an 8 hour flight, the last thing you need to start your holiday – is a royal telling off from the immigration authorities!
Here’s my most useful tip.. If you can, just don’t take any food items into Canada
This helpful line will help keep you stress free, and keep you from treading into a whole minefield of rules about what is and isn’t permitted.. Not only are the rules (for any country) a pain already to really get your head round – but the rules change depending on the different types of health scares that may be present in any country at any given time!

So – if you are going to take food – what can you actually take? The EU has a whole set of rules, but Canada is not in the EU – so these rules are different. Whatever you do, do not use the EU laws on moving foods around different countries in the EU like Spain or France – to decide on what you’re taking.
The best places to find out what you can or cannot take is at the following resource: http://www.pensez-y.gc.ca/english/brirape.shtml#a2. (more…)

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Slightly different slant on today’s offering to the world of Canadian travel and helpful tips! Interestingly, it’s a tech review on the latest way of capturing your holiday .. obviously now not on film, but on disk.

High definition camcorders have been out a good few years now, offering those of us with high definition TVs the ability to capture our most precious, prized moments in a definition previously never dreamt of by home-video creators. And almost anyone with a camcorder, will obviously take it on holiday to Canada should they be heading that direction! – That’s exactly what we did in 2008.

The tech speaks for its self. It was expensive, but it was worth it. In 2008 we captured everything we needed to, including night time footage with the aid of the camera’s built in infrared night-vision mode, and it was neatly packaged up on its hard drive. This was great until we got home!

2008 was the year in which bluray finally came out on top in the battle between its self and the now almost completely forgotten HDDVD. It was literally only a couple of months after this that we went to Canada on that particular visit.. So we had an answer to the problem of what exactly should we do with the recordings on the camera which we’d taken. We needed to invest in Bluray. The problem is that to do that, not only are you going to need a bluray player ~ unless you want to simply copy files from the camera to a USB stick, and play them from that – you will also need to invest in a Bluray combo drive which reads and writes on your computer.. and a computer with sufficient clout to be able to do all the video formatting! You can hear the tills ringing.. (more…)

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Well, last Tuesday i got back from another trip to Canada, more specifically just north of Toronto, Ontario.
We flew from Manchester to Toronto, having booked the flights about 3 months prior to travelling. Booking through Canadian Affair I’ve always found easy, and when selecting seats, again it’s as simple as clicking the seats you want to reserve and then confirming. Obviously you don’t have to reserve your seats, we simply do it to make sure we get a window seat and we don’t have to worry about where we will be on the plane while we’re waiting to check in our luggage.

A Thomas Cook A330 at Toronto Airport October 2010

When you have paid you will be given a booking reference which you can then use to keep tabs on your flights online. You’ll instantly be able to access a paper version of your invoice, and closer to the date of your flight you’ll find another option. Since Canadian Affair don’t issue you with tickets, they issue you with a “TRAVEL ITINERARY” which is a nice simple sheet of paper which tells you all the information you’ll need for your flights. You’ll need this particular sheet however to check in – so remember passports and this piece of paper and you’re on your way! You can either print the sheet off on your home PC or you can wait for them to send it you in the post.

Some people have asked, do Canadian Affair do online check in? Well unfortunately that’s no, they don’t – however if they ever do offer it i’ll be the first person to let you know since I’d love to give it a go, having never checked in online previously! My personal tips for check in (though i know you’ll all have your own rituals when you’re heading off on holiday) is to get to the airport about 1 hour to 30mins BEFORE your check in desks open – this means you have time to find the check in desks you’re going to be checking in with, and be hopefully the first in the queue – that means you can get through security and go have plenty of time browsing the shops – or what i like to do – relax and have a coffee!

I wont go into the security at Manchester Airport T1 as it has nothing to do with Canadian Affair specifically, no matter who you fly with at Manchester you’ll have to go through security – so if you want to read about my thoughts on Manchester Airport check out my article on it!

Our flight set off 40 minutes late going out to Toronto, this was caused due to the previous flight arriving a late its self. In my experience, you’ll get off on time 9 times out of 10, i’ve only known the flights be late taking off twice in all the time I’ve flown with them.

Now, the flights we took this October were Thomas Cook, and flying on their Boeing 757s there and back. I’ve heard from some people travelling Thomas Cook that the legroom on their planes were terrible, but i can 100% assure you this is NOT the case with the flights Canadian Affair charter. I’m 6ft 5inches tall, and i have absolutely no problem with legroom on these planes. They’re leather seats and pretty comfy! Oh, and if your kids want a good view of the engine if you’re flying on these 757s you’ll want to book the seats from row 7 to around 5 (we were on row 7 and you could see the engine pretty well from there..) (more…)

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