Canada Trip.co.uk

I happen to love flying, and having done the journey either to or back from Canada over 10 times now I’ve got a pretty good idea what you should expect from your flight! So here’s my experience – and some helpful little tips when flying to Canada!

Okay, first thing everyone thinks of first — the Airport.. Well, every time (so far) that I’ve flown to Canada, I’ve flown from London Gatwick Airport. I like to see this airport as being pretty organised, and we usually park our car up – head in nice and early and get a cup of coffee at Starbucks in the land side part waiting for our check in desk to open. When we’ve checked in – if it goes as well as it did this year in May, we were through security in record time – 10 minutes for X-raying bags, coats, walking through the metal detector – and then through the shoe X-ray machine – I was massively impressed!

When you’re through you’re confronted by what seems to be a massive shopping centre complex. Now whether its morning or evening – this place is usually pretty busy – but don’t worry as there’s usually always somewhere to sit if you have a particularly long wait for your flight. We usually head in and get breakfast at McDonald’s.. however strangely – as i will always say – this McDonald’s is THE BEST McDonald’s restaurant in the UK! [Let's get side tracked for a moment - McDonald's in the UK - in my opinion are pretty poor, that is when you compare it to the McDonald's food in Canada! - they use AAA grade Canadian Beef.. which is top quality stuff, and you can seriously taste the beef.. so while you're out there - why not try a quarter pounder burger and marvel at the taste! sooo... this leads on to... ] The burgers at the McDonald’s in Gatwick airport really reaally do taste of beef.. i don’t know if it’s just fantastic staff, or if they actually import their burgers – they’re at an airport after all – but seriously – give them a go while you’re here waiting for your flight! Also.. if you haven’t taken a pen with you into the departure lounge – buy one – you’ll need it for the immigration card you will be filling in on the flight!

At the far end of the mall type area that you walk into, you’ll see some stairs that lead up to a resteraunt.. Now this frankly irritated me in June of 2008.. and it will do every time i go from now onwards.. You see.. i really like planes.. and i like flying – so when you go to an airport, you expect to see planes.. well sorry – but unless you walk down into the gates, you wont see planes here.. Up those stairs I’ve mentioned used to be an open area, with large windows which look over the apron, with seats – and right next to a sports bar where you could buy drinks and watch the planes come and go as your flight moves up and up on the departure boards.. well as i say – suddenly in June 2008 this area was completely converted into a restaurant.. so unless you go for a walk down to the gates – you wont be seeing planes until you’re pretty much in one.. which is why you’ll now probably find very few pictures of outbound planes from me!

So, you’ve got to the airport, gone through security, done your eating and duty free – and your flight is called! – In Gatwick Airport, i think they designed the airport with cruelty in mind. . . You see anyone who wants to get to their gates in South Terminal, has to walk down a ramp from the departure lounge mall area towards the gate.. which is fine, but the whole left wall is glass – and you get to look at the people who have just landed and heading into the arrivals area.. This is all well and good when you’re going out – but when you’re coming back, and you’re looking up at the departures area – remembering that was the very start of your holiday, and you’re now on the lower level heading towards those happy people at UK Immigration – you’ll likely come to the same conclusion as me!

Okay, so you’re now on your plane! Holiday is here! This flight is usually the longest of your two flights – outbound from the UK to Canada, and depending on the headwind your flight can either be late or early for arrival in Toronto (or which ever destination you’re heading out to). When we flew this year it took 8 hours 45 minutes because we had a particularly strong headwind as we flew out – BUT the best thing about flying out to Canada from the UK is – your flight may be 8 hours, but the time difference will help make up for lost time .. If you’re flying to Toronto for example one 8 hour flight .. You set off at 8am UK time, and land in Canada 11am – yep, before lunch time!

If you are flying from the London Airports, keep your eyes out of the window. There are a couple of different flight paths which your captain may take you depending on the conditions. One heads you north, from London, by Manchester, out over Ireland then up past the tip of Iceland and Greenland, then over gander, arching down following a river all the way up to Toronto – The other takes you along the south coast, where you can get amazing views of all the southern coastal resorts – as well as seeing the entire of the Isle of White in one go.. You’ll never need to take another photo on the isle of white – since you’ll have taken everything all in one photo – think of the film or storage space you can save!

Now you’ve taken off, had the fun of watching the UK go by – finally vanishing as the blue of the Atlantic fills your vision – now’s the time you’re going to notice everything about your aircraft, or at least going to want to have every amenity known to aircraft-kind.. One thing you may want to think about when booking your flights is what is going to be available on your plane.. For example not all aircraft have back-seat TVs – not even on these long haul flights.. HOWEVER .. Here’s my handy tip to help you know which planes DO! .. If you’re flying on a budget – you’ll likely be flying Thomas Cook or Air Transat – the plane to look for when you’re booking your flights – is the Thomas Cook A330! These once used to be that big A330 i have a photo of out of Gatwick – on these planes you can find out where abouts you are if there’s nothing on any of the channels you can choose from – by looking at the GPS Map and flight information. It’ll show you the course you’ve been flying on – the speed and the temperature! If you’re not on these flights however, don’t worry – as you still will have excessively comfy leather seats.. And Air Transat, which is a Canadian airline company offer the absolute best customer service that i have experienced .. though i have to admit i haven’t flown British Airways or Virgin Atlantic before.. But remember these arent budget airlines..

So, as you can see from the GPS Map, you’re halfway there! – looking out of the window you’ll see sea.. and lots of it! – nice deep blue sky and if you’re flying high enough you’ll be lucky to see the curve of the earth staring back at you – giving you some perspective on how huge the earth is, and how small you are!

Now, one of the questions you may want to know – is “is there much turbulence” … Well, to be honest, relatively there is very very little turbulence on the flights – you’d be unlucky to come across much on your flights. The planes fly at pretty high altitudes where turbulence doesn’t often crop up unless there is particularly nasty weather going on below you, and remember if you do get turbulence on your flight – the plane has been flying for a few years, and so will have likely been through far worse turbulence than you are going through at that point, planes are made to withstand some unbelievable forces – they’re the safest form of transport you can be in, and you’re living in the 21st Century! – Flying over an ocean that used to take over a month to navigate on the speediest sail ships.. over a sea which took many lives of intrepid pioneers dreaming of the land you’re now headed off to! People on those ships would have only dreamt they could fly like a seagull and skip the whole ocean all together .. so sit back, relax and as soon as you can, call over an air stewardess to get yourself a drink!

If you’re still looking out of the window as you draw closer and closer to Canada, depending on the time of year, you’ll start seeing the odd little white spec on the sea.. these are actually huge chunks of ice – yes – ice burgs! The closer you get towards Canada, the more of these, and the bigger in size you’ll get to see… until finally you may be lucky enough to see what i saw in May this year …

And then closer still – you’ll see the edge of the ice sheet.. all resting up against Land – Canada!

So you’ve made it over the ocean, you’ll be about 5-6 hours into your flight now.. this will give you an idea of the scale of size which Canada actually is.. Canada is the second biggest country in the world, and this is when you’ll start to see why! A third of your flying time will be over Canada! … soon enough you’ll be almost there and if you’re on the right side of the plane at the right time – you may be greeted to Toronto by an areal city view – showing off all of its Sky Scrapers and of coarse the CN tower, all on the backdrop of Lake Ontario.

Touchdown! And your holiday has begun! – If you’ve got any questions about the flights you’ll be going on over to Canada, feel free to ask them in the comments!

Total flying time between London and Toronto – around 8 hours!

If you’re looking for flights – remember to check out Canadian Affair, our number 1 reccomended company for great value flights to Canada!

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 31st, 2009 at 10:41 am and is filed under Flights/Car Parking/Hire etc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.