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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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!

Canada Day London 2011 promises to be even bigger and better than ever before 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.

As part of Canada Day in London, Canada on Stage is a live concert starting at 6pm in Trafalgar Square, showcasing a stellar line-up of Canadian music talent.

This year’s performers includes: Blue Rodeo, Karkwa, Alex Cuba, The Mahones, Lennie Gallant, Devon Sproule, Jill Barber, Oh My Darling, Justin Hines, Tammy Weis and James Bryan.

The Experience Canada Pavilion will be set up and opening at 10:30am for anyone wondering about visiting Canada. Drop by the Experience Canada Pavilion and learn about the excitement and adventure of traveling to Canada. Visit Canada’s provinces at the pavilion and get information on all the hot travel spots.

The whole event starts in just an hour’s time from this article being published, starting at 10:30am – and the celebrations go on until 10pm tonight – so don’t miss this if you can make it to the show, it’s something you’ll always remember being at!

Canadian Affair, the company we always recommend as having the lowest cost flights going to and from Canada will also be there at their own stall – so while you’re there, remember to call in and have a chat to see what offers they have at the moment to help you go from ‘little Canada’ in Trafalgar Square today – to the real thing!

Canada Day London will be tweeting from the event live today on Twitter @canadadaylondon

Canadian Affair will also be joining in on the live tweeting from the event, so if you want to have a look what theyre doing right now check them out @CanadianAffair .. AND dont miss out on your chance to enter Canadian Affair’s Competition for a pair of free flights at their Facebook Page – http://www.facebook.com/CanadianAffair

And of coarse, while you’re on twitter, why not follow us @canadatrip so that you’re always up to date with the most recent article!

So, i think there’s only one last thing to say – HAPPY CANADA DAY to Canadians everywhere, hope you all have a great time

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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

If you want to keep up to date on the latest offers we find, and our latest articles, be one of the first to find out by following us on Twitter!

Alternatively you could subscribe to our mailing list and choose what categories you want to be notified that a new review or article is out for it!

But a Holiday isn’t all about the flight right? And different people like different types of holidays. Some relaxing – taking the kids out to some of Canada’s best attractions, Some adventuring through types of wilderness that can only be found here, Some just looking to soak up the culture – or even go shopping. But whatever you want to do while on your Canada trip, we try to find places which you will love, and tag them to the locations you’re looking to Visit!

For example, if you’re heading out to have a drive round Ontario – check out our Ontario category. Or, if you’re planning on spending your time in a particular city or destination such as Toronto, then have a look at the places we’ve reviewed and featured in our Toronto Category. We are also building up a portfolio of Provincial Parks – The one we are focusing on at the moment is Algonquin Provincial Park which is easily accessible after landing in Toronto or Ottawa and you’re guaranteed to be able to spend your entire holiday camping, or staying in a hotel just outside the park – enjoying the unspoilt wilderness – and discovering everything the parks have to offer..

So, Reviews.. Where to start! We have 200 articles on Canada Trip.co.uk, all offering advice about where to go, what to see, how to save money and where to stay.. so when asked to pick out specific reviews, its a difficult choice to make! Below are some of the articles of places you absolutely must visit if you’re in the cities they’re located in..

Toronto

Toronto Zoo
Toronto zoo is one of the must see locations on your trip if you’re in the Toronto region – though remember to give yourself a whole day to look around this amazing place – When i visited in May, it was a beautiful sunny day, we got there in the morning and still didn’t quite get to see everything in the zoo… (more..)

Canada’s Wonderland, Toronto
While you’re in Toronto – why not take a day to visit Canada’s Premiere Themed Amusement Park! Whether you have kids young or old, or even if you don’t have any – Canada’s Wonderland is guaranteed to be a day you wont forget! (more..)

The CN Tower, Toronto
If you’re flying into Toronto Pearson International Airport, you may be lucky enough to be greeted to Canada with a beautiful cityscape of Toronto, set on the background of Lake Ontario – The city skyline of Toronto, no matter where you go in the world will always have a needle looking building to its centre – this is the truely world famous CN Tower Toronto. (more..)

more Toronto articles…

Ottawa

Parliament Buildings, Ottawa
Parliament Hill (colloquially The Hill, in French: Colline du Parlement) is an area of Crown land on the southern banks of the Ottawa River in downtown Ottawa, Ontario. Its Gothic revival suite of buildings — the parliament buildings — serves as the home of the Parliament of Canada and contains a number of architectural elements of national symbolic importance. Parliament Hill attracts approximately 3 million visitors each year… (more..)

Canada’s Wonderland, Toronto
The museum’s collection contains a wide variety of civilian and military aircraft, representing the history of Canadian aviation from the pioneer era before the First World War up to the present day. Particularly noteworthy is the collection of vintage bushplanes from the 1920s to the 1940s. The military aircraft represent aircraft flown by Canadians in the First World War, Second World War, and the Cold War. The museum’s best known exhibit is the surviving components of the Avro Arrow interceptor from the late 1950s. (more..)

more Ottawa articles…

Vancouver

Toronto Zoo
Back now to Vancouver – and one of the city’s key attractions – The Capilano Suspension Bridge. Not a place to go if you have a fear of heights, but if you’re clear of that – you’ll find the trip out to this attraction to be something special, and something you’ll remember for a long long time. The Capilano Suspension Bridge is a simple suspension bridge crossing the Capilano River in the District of North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada… (more..)

Vancouver Aquarium
Vancouver Aquarium is Canada’s largest Aquarium, and also a non-profit organisation! They dedicate their efforts to effect the conservation of aquatic life through display, interpretation, education, research, and direct action. You will experience all this and more when you go visit them! (more..)

Fort Langley National Historic Site
My personal thoughts are that if you truly want to get to know somewhere, then you should always go a little bit further to learn about how it came to be this way in the first place, hence my love for history! So, I’m shining the spot light on Fort Langly National Historic Site of Canada in Vancouver, BC… (more..)

more Vancouver articles…

Halifax

Halifax, NS
Another one of the cornerstones of places to visit in Canada would certainly be Halifax. Halifax was the site of the first British town in Canada, founded in 1749. Since then, the area has evolved to be home for a diverse mix of people. Charming fishing villages, farming communities and Atlantic Canada’s largest city are just some of the things which Halifax has to offer. (more..)

Halifax Citadel
Located within the centre of Halifax, this fort is easy to get to from wherever you may be staying in the city. Though a little word of warning – each day at noon a cannon is fired as a symbol of Halifax’s military history.. This often comes as a great shock, being so loud, to unsuspecting tourists – so now you wont be one of them! (more..)

York Redoubt, Halifax
York Redoubt as a place to visit is both an interesting historic site, as well as a fantastic spot to take pictures of the surrounding landscape, and not only that it’s only a very short drive from the city its self… (more..)

more Halifax articles…

Quebec / Montreal

The Citadelle, Quebec City
And I’m once again going to delve into the history of Canada. Anyone who happens to be a member of English Heritage or National Trust in the UK may be interested in Castles, and simply for its imposing position, significance and importance – The Citadelle in Quebec City I would probably most likely compare to Dover Castle, as far as visitor experience is concerned. (more..)

Montreal Biodome, Montreal
If you or your kids ever wanted to be able to visit a number of different places around the world within a few hours, the Montreal Biodome is the place you’ll want to take your family!… (more..)

Canadian Railway Museum
f you have kids, love history and or trains – this is one place that if you’re in Montreal in Quebec, you will not want to miss out of your trip! (more..)

more Quebec / Montreal articles…

Calgary / Edmonton

Calgary, Alberta
Nestled in the foothills of Canada’s Rocky Mountains, Calgary, Heart of the New West is a place where visitors come to explore the heritage of the Canadian West. This safe, clean and vibrant city offers the best of all worlds: a cosmopolitan city of over 1 million people and breathtaking outdoor adventure in pristine wilderness. Not only does it offer amazing wilderness, it has an immense number of activities for you and your family to head off to! (more..)

Edmonton, Alberta
Edmonton is the capital city of Alberta and is well known for its scenic river valley and a thriving music and art community. Located 294 km (183 mi) north of Calgary, Edmonton is home to North America’s largest shopping and entertainment complex, West Edmonton Mall. More than just a shopping centre, West Edmonton Mall also has a giant water park, a man-made lake, a skating rink, two mini-golf courses, 21 movie theatres, a Vegas-style casino and an amusement park with 25 rides and attractions. (more..)

The Calgary Tower
Officially opened June 30th 1968, the ‘Tower’ has become the City of Calgary’s most famous and identifiable physical landmark. One of the first Towers of its kind, the Calgary Tower offers the best view in Calgary and is a must-see on any tourist’s itinerary… (more..)

more Calgary / Edmonton articles…

Remember, you can check any of the categories on the left to specify if you’re looking for anywhere that isn’t listed here. For the latest articles, feel free to head back to the home page and have a look around!

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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!

If you want more updates about the Hilton Niagara Falls Hotel, you can follow them on twitter here: @Hilton_Niagara

And remember you can always follow me on Twitter here:@canadatrip

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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!

I remember that first trip out, it was almost like being on a different planet. At least when you go to Spain or France, you see the some things which are familiar.. for example models of Cars. But when you’re in Canada for the first time, you’ll find almost everything is different in some way.

Cars are bigger, chunkier – bolder.. And certainly for me – everything simply seems new! In the UK we’re so used to driving down country lanes. There’s a dry stone wall on both sides which predates the USA – and it’s normal for us, we don’t pay it any attention.. So when you go to Canada, the lack of these features gives everything a clean and fresh perspective!

I’ll leave out the state-the-obvious details for example driving on the right. Though although i don’t recommend it to you – a lot of people speed at least little above the limit, but if you do go, it’s just not worth it. You will no doubt have a car with cruise control, just set it to the limit – and relax. The car behind will over take you in whichever lane it feels like so remember to use all your mirrors! Lane discipline isn’t so tightly stuck to in Canada! .. and then there’s the Trucks. In the UK we have the boring flat fronted trucks, standard across Europe.. where as in Canada – there are real trucks, with front mounted engines, giant grills.. double exhausts .. Yep. Real trucks!

The first thing, as silly as it sounds, that we did when we were in Canada – was stop off at a local McDonald’s – the food tastes better. For me, it was like eating the best McDonald’s meal i had ever had.. combined with fries which i’d not tasted since i was a kid. It proved to me that in the UK, McDonald’s had changed their fries.. maybe it was the oil? Who knows.. all i do know is i was literally transported back to memories of a happy meal i once had before seeing the Lion King in the Cinema as a kid!

My very first evening in Canada brought me face to face with a species I’d only ever seen in photos, film and cartoons. A Raccoon, uncharacteristically came out early in the evening, before the sun had fully set. Almost as if it somehow in a fictional way, knew – it was my first evening, and came to present its self as some kind of furry ambassador of Canadian wildlife for me to take photos of! Even today i remember it as a special moment, as we rarely spotted raccoons out while it was still light.

Then there’s the peace and tranquility. If you’re lucky enough to be able to stop somewhere out in a Provincial park camp, or with relatives out of the city.. or just simply somewhere out of a busy city centre, you’re left with peace and quiet. The stars shine brighter, than you will have no doubt ever seen before since the light pollution is limited to cities, and next to nothing outside of them, and the quiet is silence. All but the rustle of trees and the sounds of nature around you.

So, it looks as if first impressions definitely do matter. My first day in Canada showed me everything i’d hoped Canada would be – and more. The best part was – the best was still to come! So why Canada? Because it’s Canada.

If you’re heading to Canada for the first time i hope your first impressions are just as good as mine were! Even if they turn out to be the none conventional type. Or, if you’ve travelled to Canada from the UK previously, it’d be great to hear some of your stories of how you may have come to love the country!

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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.
What I’ve found on review sites are a few people who mention Overbooking being a problem.. I have only ever seen this happen twice out of my 12 flights. Canadian Affair’s method to deal with overbooking is very generous and they try to make it as fair as they possibly can – The first time i knew my flight was overbooked was my flight out in May this year. An apologetic person went through the check in queue asking for Volunteers, letting people know the flight was overbooked and offering them if i remember right over £100 off their next Canadian affair flight and accommodation for the night if they would take the offer of going on the next flight out to Toronto. It is entirely voluntary – BUT do as i do. ALWAYS get to your check in when it opens, just because you have 3 hours to check in doesn’t mean you can get there an hour after it opens – if you get there first, whether you have booked seats or not, you will always be guaranteed to fly out on the flight you booked.. Oh and the second time? My return flight last Saturday, this time the apologetic Canadian woman going through the queue was offering £250 off the next Canadian affair flight, as well as accommodation for the night if someone would volunteer to transfer flight. £250 was the entire amount i payed for that flight! So as you can see Canadian Affair do all they can to be fair and honest to their customers.

Thomas Cook 757 at Toronto in June 2006

How about the quality of the flights? Well, I’ve flown on Thomas Cook and Air Transat as I’ve mentioned before (as well as My Travel before they were bought by Thomas Cook) and the food – in my opinion – for airline food was top quality. Thomas Cook, being a British airline company will usually serve two hot traditional style meals (such as a chicken dinner or pasta bake) or, depending on the time you’re flying a hot meal and a snack – usually of a small sandwich, crisps, cheese and biscuits and a branded chocolate bar. Air Transat however are a French Canadian Airline and the food you find on these flights are usually different, with a nice french/American twist to their meals – for example a carrot and cinnamon muffin for breakfast, and a portion of three bean salad with your hot meal. On either Airline you fly with i have always found the service by the crew very helpful and polite, and in the case of my flight back last Saturday very patient, since my partner kept accidentally pressing the “call” button on the armrest!

Entertainment varies on your flights greatly. It’s very difficult to say that there is good entertainment on specific flights simply because everyone has different preferences as to what they want to watch. Most of the flights operated by Air Transat or Thomas Cook in my experience have TVs that come down from the roof, so offer only a single channel of TV. These usually include two recent movies one oriented at kids, and another oriented at Family, or in the case of when i was flying back last Saturday on a Thomas Cook A330, we had three films which pretty much filled up the whole flight – Pink Panther 2, 17 Again and Aliens Vs Monsters. If you’re lucky – some of the Thomas Cook A330 Planes have back seat TVs built in, which gives you a much greater choice of what you can watch – but my tip is if you’re pretty specific about what you like to watch, try take a PSP or small DVD player with you, or maybe even a good book, for the programs or films you may not feel like watching

The GPS Map Channel on Thomas Cook A330 Aircraft

My experience with Canadian Affair has always been positive, speedy response to queries be it email or telephone, kind personal responses which make you feel respected and valued, great quality service and flights and the absolute best prices.

If you book with them for your next Canada Trip please email them and let them know if you’ve had a great flight and service, also feel free to leave a comment here to let everyone else know what you think! The funny thing about us British is we’re always quick to complain, but we very rarely take the time to complement – and Canadian Affair, certainly over my last 12 flights deserve all the compliments they can get! So let me know your experiences with Canadian affair by leaving a comment!

If you want to look for the latest deals, the cheapest flights are made easier to find, when you get to the home page after clicking the link to Canadian Affair below – check the “Special Flight Offers” section on the right, it’ll take you to the list of all the lowest priced flights and which dates they’re on, so go check it out at Canadian Affair!” Click here For more information about canadian affair and the flights to toronto and other destinations for £139

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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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If you can, just don’t take any food items into Canada

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.
You’ll probably notice the significant lack of Meat products on there.. basically the golden rule about things meat wise – is just do not take them!
For example, you can take Vegetable Suet, but do not take Beef Suet.

All food, plants, animals, and related products must be declared. Food can carry disease, such as E. coli. Plants and plant products can carry invasive alien species, such as the Asian Long-Horned Beetle. Animals and animal products can carry diseases, such as avian influenza and foot-and-mouth disease. Furthermore, certain species of plants and animals are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and their trade is carefully controlled. Because of these risks, the Government of Canada regulates the import of certain food, plants, animals and related products to and from Canada.

Based on emerging threats, the import requirements for food, plants, animals and related products are subject to change on a daily basis. To determine the most up-to-date import requirements for these items, refer to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) Automated Import Reference System (AIRS) at www.inspection.gc.ca. AIRS is an automated reference tool that will lead you through a series of questions about the food, plant, animal or related product you wish to import to determine the applicable regulations, policies and import requirements.

Here’s the direct copy of the regulations on the page as it is as of time of me writing up this article – HOWEVER ALWAYS CHECK WITH THE LINK ABOVE AS THIS ARTICLE RARELY GETS UPDATED, USE THIS AS A ROUGH GUIDELINE BEFORE CHECKING THE LINK ABOVE FOR MORE INFORMATION.

Products allowed into Canada from countries
other than the United States

This is a list of commonly imported products and the guidelines for importing them from countries other than the United States. Because pest and disease situations are constantly changing, these requirements may be adjusted at any time.

Even though these items are allowed into Canada, you still must declare them on your declaration form.

Some items do need documents to accompany them. For more information, go to the “When are documents required?” section.

Baked goods, candies, etc.

• no goods containing meat
• up to 20 kilograms per person

Dairy products

• cheese:
  • up to 20 kilograms per person with a value of $20 or less

These items are not allowed

• milk
• milk products (whey, cream, skim milk, butter oil, and so on)
• in these forms: dried, frozen, reconsituted, or fresh

Fish and seafood

• up to 20 kilograms per person
• all species except
  • pufferfish
  • Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis)

Flowers: cut

• not coniferous foliage/green cones
• must not be for propagation

There may be some restrictions depending on the type of flowers and where they come from. Use the Automated Import Reference System (AIRS) to confirm if a specific item is allowed.

Fruits and vegetables: dried

• up to 20 kilograms per person

Fruits and vegetables: frozen or canned

• up to 20 kilograms per person

Fruits and vegetables: fresh

• depending on the country of origin, entry may be severely restricted or prohibited

When products are permitted, there is a maximum limit of

• 15 packages or fewer
• weight not to exceed 250 kilograms per person
• may be subject to regulations in the province of destination

Root vegetables (for example, carrots, potatoes and so on)

• restricted
• must be 1.5 centimetres or less in thickness

Herbs, spices, tea, coffee, condiments

• entry permitted

Infant formula

• commercially packaged
• for personal use only
• sterile
• up to 20 kilograms per person

Leather goods and skins

• fully tanned hides and skins only

Sea shells and sand

• sea shells and items made from them are allowed
• must be clean and free of sea life, soil and sand

You are not allowed to import sand.

Vegetables: fresh

See “Fruits and vegetables”. Use the Automated Import Reference System (AIRS) to confirm if the item is allowed before bringing it into Canada.

Wooden souvenirs

• must be free of bark, insects or evidence of insect activity

For more detailed information, you can review the import requirements for specific products using the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) Automated Import Reference System (AIRS). By following the appropriate prompts, you will be able to determine current requirements based on the type of product you want to bring with you.

So there ya go! I’d always advise though – to avoid all this stuff above? just don’t take any food — All the food is better in Canada than in the UK anyway!

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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..

So, the videos got transferred to our computer … and as it was 40Gb of data, eventually got backed up on a large number of DVDs.. where these files stayed until this month.

So, the inherent problem is that a lot of people still only have computers with hard drives of 250Gb space.. only 5 years ago this was considered a big hard drive, yet with a HD Camcorder with its own hard drive storing 40Gb of data you’d only get 6 full camera’s full of data on your hard drive at best! And what about all those photos you snapped as well?! The cheapest option initially would be to buy another hard drive for your computer.. but it doesn’t detract from the fact that with this quantity of data, unless you have something like 3Tb of hard drive space, 40Gb is no small amount. So – we have to look at ways of getting the videos and the memories off the computer to a format which you can keep, but not have to worry about clogging up space!

In the past it was easy, from camera to video tape! In the more recent past, again, with DVD being the now default audio visual format for movies and even games, we could take it from camera and even burn movie DVDs. But now we have moved into High Definition, we have that data size problem! DVDs can only take a fraction of the files we need to hold so Bluray is an essential if you are going to use a HD Digital Camcorder.

So How much does it cost?

Good question.. annd it seems that with bluray, although being the default media format for high definition disks now, companies are still treating it as being in its infancy. Bluray players are now coming down in price, you can get a good one for £119 now.
We bought the Sony BDP-S370 for £119 from Play.com ~ and the player is fantastic, it comes with a whole heap of features which – coupled up to your Internet via a network cable (or a wireless add on) you can watch BBC iplayer, youtube or a whole heap of other things, as well as getting regular software updates for it. Its much slimmer than we thought it’d be, so it actually sits almost invisibly on top of the DVD player we have.
So.. part one complete – the ability to play your videos on your TV (if you have an HD TV).
Now for the difficult bit. The making of the media to go into your bluray player.
Most computers built within the last 2 years .. generally speaking, unless you have the absolute most basic model, will handle the task of creating bluray format disks. The problem is that your computer will need a bluray drive (just like your DVD drive but for bluray). These can cost anywhere from £80 and prices only ever go up. These drives, i would hope, like ours would come with Bluray disk writing software, which is great! It means you can fit your drive to your computer, then transfer files from your camera to computer – and then use this software and burn your first bluray disk!
But, remember what i was saying about companies treating Bluray as if it was in its infancy? Should your camara record in 5.1 surround sound, like ours does, the hopes of simply installing the software that comes with the drive – burning and being happy breaks down.. We did that, and ended up with – an albeit HD bluray disk of our 2008 Canada trip, but the software had kindly destroyed the surround sound, and replaced it with simple 2.0 stereo.
I looked around to find out why it had done this when the original files did indeed have full 5.1 surround sound, and it turned out that the software i was using: Cyberlink Power Producer – did not do 5.1 surround sound UNLESS i paid £56 to upgrade to its ‘ultra’ version.

So i was stuck. How do i burn the AVCHD format files to Bluray with full 5.1 surround sound intact? Preferably without spending any more money, since already it had been a pretty costly adventure. I decided to have a look at the Sony Vegas range of products. After all, our camera was a Sony product, and it had come with its own handy cam software – which was great, apart from when i installed it on my windows 7 64bit operating system computer, it nuked windows… and i needed to completely reinstall… I installed the trial of Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum – which making videos in, when you have limited understanding of what you initially need to set up is fairly easy! Everything was fine until it came to making the movie. It then prompted me to tell me i needed to install Sony DVD Architect Studio 5.0 – so I went and downloaded the trial of this.
Now, if i had bought the software before trialing, i would have spent £68 for the Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum, and then had to spend another £30 on the DVD Architect Studio.
I began to make the movie.. but the formatting of the video was taking ages, and due to my limited understanding of the software, i decided the time it was taking to create this movie file would be simply too long, to just wait for, in the hope that at the end i could actually burn the movie to a disk and have the surround sound, HD movie i so desperately wanted! .. So i cancelled the movie making process and went back to the Cyberlink software.

The Cyberlink PowerProducer software is oddly, very easy to understand, it reduces the complexity an awful lot by having a simple wizard style setup – it has a simple ‘what disc would you like to create’ with all the options from CD to bluray – and even AVCHD disk. Its only fault .. which in my opinion is a huge one – is the chapter setting, that is the points in which on a DVD or other bluray disk you can skip into the movie by using. It seems to want you to set them within the movie clips you import into it, rather than simply using each movie clip as chapters. The result is you seem to end up with one huge movie file when it’s written to the disk which you cant skip into without using a fast forward button on your bluray remote..

Still, i did it, i bought the upgrade, with a 20% discount so the website said – allowing me to get it for £42, as it did promise me 5.1 surround sound recording. It still took a couple of attempts to get the right setting, but all I’ll say – is if you’re using this piece of software, don’t use the option it gives you ‘(for video recording)’ – use the option that says ‘(with menu)’.. if you use this software you’ll know what i mean. The ‘for video recording’ option is NOT what you’re looking for.. i don’t entirely see the point in the option to be honest. It will effectively make you a data disk with the files you import on it.. and the video quality when i did it – was NOT high definition.

£500 for the camara
£119 for the player
£80 for the recorder
£42 begrudgingly for the upgrade to the software
£11.99 for the bluray 25Gb writable discs
======
£752.99

So in summery, its fiddly, its INCREDIBLY expensive – But if you’re looking for the ultimate way of recording your holidays – in a more emmersive way, HD with surround sound? It may just be worth it!

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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..)

I’ve only one criticism about my outbound flight, and that was the entertainment, unfortunately the Boeing 757s don’t have seat back TVs, so you will have to watch what’s on the main screens, the entertainment on this flight was the film Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, then around 3 to 4 other shorter programs. The programs and film its self was actually fine! The problem was the crew seemed to take a while to set it going, so there was about an hour where nothing was playing, and then the same at the end of the flight. This isn’t usual for Canadian Affair run Thomas Cook flights, and as far as I’ve learnt it also depends on which aircraft you’re on. I’ve been on main-screen only flights run by Canadian Affair and they have played FOUR different films! It was also a little odd on the outbound flight as Nanny McPhee was actually the return flight film! Still i’d always recommend you take a good book, or some hand held film/music/games consoles on board in case you get a film you don’t care for!

The food on the outbound flight was actually very good. I would say it was actually the best food I’ve had on a flight so far. You get two meals when you fly Canadian Affair to Toronto, the first is served about an hour or so after take off, and this for us was Chicken in Tomato sauce with roast potatoes, carrots and peas. To accompany the meal you also get a box of goodies which had a bread roll, separate portion of butter, 2 Jacobs snack crackers, a REAL piece of cheddar, and the final thing which made it especially impressive – the desert which was a Frü miniature lemon cheese cake pot. Yep, Frü – those deserts that are normally way too expensive to buy every week, but great as a special treat now and then! You also get your choice of Tea, Coffee or Squash with your meal.
The second meal – which is a light snack generally was also pretty good! It was 2 small finger sandwiches – and i apologise as i cant remember exactly what the flavours were! But trust me, they were nice – and the bread was surprisingly good as well! With these small snack sandwiches you got a bag with a fruit salad inside and the milk for your drink if you should have coffee or tea, or you could choose to have squash.

The outbound flight (which on average is never usually any longer than 8 hours) its self was actually very interesting, if you like to look out of the windows! Because there was a particularly strong head wind, the pilot took us on a very northern route, so northern that it actually took us over the south of Greenland! There we caught some amasing views of the mountains, glaciers and ice sheets that cover it, before then heading over the final body of the Atlantic and into mainland Canada.

Flying over Southern Greenland October 2nd 2010

When you land at Toronto, you will have been asked on the plane to fill out a Canadian Immigration Landing Card, so try to remember to take a pen onto the plane! If you forget, ask cabin crew for some assistance – Toronto Pearson Airport seems to be always well organised. They sometimes even let you know what luggage carousel you’ll be picking your bags up from, before you’ve got off the plane!

Coming back from Canada the flight is always shorter due to the winds, so you can expect around a 6 hour 30 minute flight on average. Ours was in fact 5 mins shorter of the average, and this time the entertainment was better! We had a slightly newer plane, and although we didn’t have seat-back TVs still, instead of black screens they were constantly cycling through flight information such as how fast we were going, how high up we were and even a GPS live screen showing where in the world we were, so even in between the films you could check on the flight’s progress! Being a big kid at heart i liked that a lot
The films going home were Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, and Valentines Day. The food going home was ALLLMOST as nice. The only difference was going home we had a chocolate brownie in replacement for the Frü desert, and the morning snack had the sandwiches replaced with a (very nice) blueberry muffin.

So, over all I’d say my flights out to Canada and back this October get 9/10 – The food was fantastic, the flights were pleasant and once again on my 15th and 16th flights with Canadian Affair, none of my luggage was ever lost, keeping up its 100% record with me

If you want to check out my previous experience with Canadian Affair take a look at my other article from earlier this year about Flying with Canadian Affair in 2010

And finally! One thing i’ve learnt from flying so many times with Canadian Affair is always check out some of the offers some people miss or only see after they’ve booked! So have a look here before you book anything as there may be some offers here which could save you more money!

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