When will you consider resuming Canadian travel ?

[bcwife76]

Leaving Saturday morning for 6 nights in the Columbia Kootenays, can't wait! We've got a townhouse rented in Sun Peaks, a condo rented in Golden at the bottom of Kicking Horse and on the way home, staying one night in Salmon Arm.

 

[Susan2771]

We did this month! After the recommendation I read here in another post to visit Mont Tremblant in Quebec, we were up there this month for 5 nights and it was wonderful. Such a lovely destination with so much to do outdoors! We stayed in the pedestrian village and our girls said the area looked like the village in Beauty and the Beast. The dining was a bit expensive. Got a wonderful 2 level loft with 2 bedrooms, bathrooms and a kitchen. Felt very safe there and lots of protocols to keep guests and staff safe. Glad we got a chance to get away and experience this lovely destination and had many adventures.

 

[pigletto]

Travel means using other people's bed linen, cutlery, food, household items, even in a hotel. It's the same as swapping your home with a stranger neighbor for one week. I do not see my family doing that during this time of pandemic.

Completely untrue. Are you saying that the hotels you stayed in previously didn’t change their linens between guests or wash their cutlery ? Its ok if you aren’t comfortable with the precautions an establishment might be taking but I would caution you to not make blanket statements about an entire industries cleanliness that aren’t based in fact.

 

[bcwife76]

Completely untrue. Are you saying that the hotels you stayed in previously didn’t change their linens between guests or wash their cutlery ? Its ok if you aren’t comfortable with the precautions an establishment might be taking but I would caution you to not make blanket statements about an entire industries cleanliness that aren’t based in fact.

I completely agree. We are about to embark on a 6 night road trip where 5 of those nights will be spent in a rented condo and a rented townhouse (the last night in a hotel) and we have zero concerns about any of it.

 

[isabellea]

Tomorrow is our 20th anniversary. We were supposed to celebrate at Castaway Cay and Palo. We took advantage of the fact we have been on vacation and not in contact with anyone for awhile to send the kids stay with their grand-parents a couple of days and we are looking at going to Ottawa for the day tomorrow. We could go to Mont-Tremblant but we've been there so many times and I want a different scenery. If weather allows it, I am currently looking at walking trails where we could go eat our Panera Bread take-out (DH's favourite and not available in Montreal). The Pine Grove looks really nice.

 

[bcwife76]

Tomorrow is our 20th anniversary. We were supposed to celebrate at Castaway Cay and Palo. We took advantage of the fact we have been on vacation and not in contact with anyone for awhile to send the kids stay with their grand-parents a couple of days and we are looking at going to Ottawa for the day tomorrow. We could go to Mont-Tremblant but we've been there so many times and I want a different scenery. If weather allows it, I am currently looking at walking trails where we could go eat our Panera Bread take-out (DH's favourite and not available in Montreal). The Pine Grove looks really nice.

Happy (early) anniversary! August 21st is our wedding anniversary as well (16 years tomorrow for us). Hope you have a wonderful anniversary!

 

[isabellea]

Happy (early) anniversary! August 21st is our wedding anniversary as well (16 years tomorrow for us). Hope you have a wonderful anniversary!

Happy anniversary to you too! I hope you also have a wonderful day. Any plans?

 

[Pumpkin1172]

Wow...it seems the 21 is a popular date for anniversaries!!!! Ours is as well, 27 years for us. In some ways, it feels like it just happened yesterday, and other ways when I think of all the things we have done, and things we have worked through over the years is seems like a lifetime.

Congrats to @isabellea and @bcwife76 I hope you get to have a little get away of some sort to celebrate.

 

[bcwife76]

Happy anniversary to you too! I hope you also have a wonderful day. Any plans?

Dinner tonight at a local place we love. It's not fancy but the food is good and the service is excellent. Trying to support "non chain" restaurants in the pandemic. Then we leave tomorrow for 6 nights in rented condos in Sun Peaks and Golden

 

[quandrea]

Flights are so cheap right now for February. I wonder if we will be able to fly safely by then?

 

[wdwmom3]

Flights are so cheap right now for February. I wonder if we will be able to fly safely by then?

I think February may be questionable. But if you don’t mind having money tied up in flight credits and if the airlines are still allowing changes or cancellations, then it may. E worth the risk.

 

[Chickinvic]

You couldn't pay me to cruise or fly right now. I have no issues driving places though. Now that I'm back living in BC (Victoria) I really have no desire to travel for the foreseeable future. There's so much beauty here on the Island. I had kind of put it out of my mind how much I missed the natural beauty here for the 7 years I was living in Ottawa. Now that I'm back I realize there's no place like home (as Dorothy said).

 

[hdrolfe]

You couldn't pay me to cruise or fly right now. I have no issues driving places though. Now that I'm back living in BC (Victoria) I really have no desire to travel for the foreseeable future. There's so much beauty here on the Island. I had kind of put it out of my mind how much I missed the natural beauty here for the 7 years I was living in Ottawa. Now that I'm back I realize there's no place like home (as Dorothy said).

It's interesting, I live in Ottawa and while a lot of it is very flat, I do find there are some very nice outdoor spaces, especially the greenbelt trails and of course going over to Gatineau Park. However, I've never been out to BC (furthest west was Winnipeg, I lived there for 4 years growing up, and furthest North was Churchill, lived there 3 years growing up). I want to go out there but it seems so expensive! Hopefully I will get to take kiddo out west someday.

 

[Gigi22]

I have already considered it. Unfortunately all my travel would have to be limited to the area where I live. I am in a vulnerable group, I don’t drive, and I am trying to avoid public transportation as much as possible. Not many alternatives there.

 

[Chickinvic]

It's interesting, I live in Ottawa and while a lot of it is very flat, I do find there are some very nice outdoor spaces, especially the greenbelt trails and of course going over to Gatineau Park. However, I've never been out to BC (furthest west was Winnipeg, I lived there for 4 years growing up, and furthest North was Churchill, lived there 3 years growing up). I want to go out there but it seems so expensive! Hopefully I will get to take kiddo out west someday.

I agree Ottawa has lots of greenspace which is nice, but honestly it doesn't hold a candle to the Island's natural beauty. Actually, BC in general is stunning. When you say you want to go out here but it seems so expensive, do you mean to visit it is expensive, or to live? I agree it is expensive here if you wanted to buy a house lol. Visiting is not so expensive

 

[hdrolfe]

I agree Ottawa has lots of greenspace which is nice, but honestly it doesn't hold a candle to the Island's natural beauty. Actually, BC in general is stunning. When you say you want to go out here but it seems so expensive, do you mean to visit it is expensive, or to live? I agree it is expensive here if you wanted to buy a house lol. Visiting is not so expensive

I did mean both But living for sure. I'll have to look at a visit, maybe next summer since we'll probably want to stick to Canada.

 

[Chickinvic]

I did mean both But living for sure. I'll have to look at a visit, maybe next summer since we'll probably want to stick to Canada.

Honestly, Ottawa is getting pretty pricy in the last few years. You can get a townhouse here in the Victoria area for about the same (or sometimes less) than they are going in Kanata now. I can't believe what they were wanting for towns in Kanata. Unfortunately I sold mine in 2017 for $320K (bought in 2014 for $302K - did loads of improvements so I basically lost money). Now it would easily be $500K or more. Sigh - my luck.

Vancouver (mainland) is ridiculously priced - and honestly it isn't as nice as the Island anyways. It rains there a LOT more than here. Victoria gets 1/2 the rain that Vancouver does. Actually Victoria gets less annual rain than Ottawa - by quite a bit.

 

[hdrolfe]

Honestly, Ottawa is getting pretty pricy in the last few years. You can get a townhouse here in the Victoria area for about the same (or sometimes less) than they are going in Kanata now. I can't believe what they were wanting for towns in Kanata. Unfortunately I sold mine in 2017 for $320K (bought in 2014 for $302K - did loads of improvements so I basically lost money). Now it would easily be $500K or more. Sigh - my luck.

Vancouver (mainland) is ridiculously priced - and honestly it isn't as nice as the Island anyways. It rains there a LOT more than here. Victoria gets 1/2 the rain that Vancouver does. Actually Victoria gets less annual rain than Ottawa - by quite a bit.

that is true, we rent and at this point I can't see ever being able to afford to buy with the way prices are going up. I've been lucky as my landlord hasn't raised my rent very much in the time we've been here, I'm sure he could get a lot more than I'm paying.

 

[Chickinvic]

that is true, we rent and at this point I can't see ever being able to afford to buy with the way prices are going up. I've been lucky as my landlord hasn't raised my rent very much in the time we've been here, I'm sure he could get a lot more than I'm paying.

For renting, then I find Ottawa just as expensive as here in Victoria. There are deals to be had here, as well as people who are out to lunch with what they want for rent. I was quite surprised that I'm actually making the same here as I was in Ottawa. I thought I would be taking a pay cut for sure (since when I lived here before I wasn't making what I could in Ottawa), but I was pleasantly surprised. I don't foresee myself buying a place here.

This is my hometown, and I was never able to buy a place before. I was actually in a pretty nice co-op townhouse backing onto trails for a few years. If you can get into one of those, they are very reasonably priced. I was paying "market" rent (not a subsidized unit in other words), and I think it was around $1000 for a 2 bed/2 bath townhouse with washer/dryer and a small fenced yard (allowed a dog). Co-op "rents" are geared to their actual operation costs, and everyone who lives there is a shareholder in the co-op. I think my "buy in" was about $2,500 (which you can borrow the money if you can't afford it). Once you are in there, you have secure tenancy and cannot be evicted. There are people who live in them for decades. The rule is that you can't have more bedrooms than people (so I couldn't be living alone in a 2 bed townhouse, but if I have a partner we can be there even though technically we share the same bedroom).

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

Real Estate in Halifax and some surrounding areas is insane. We bought our semi-detached home in 2005 for $162,000. If we sold now for around $240,000, we couldn't afford to get a brand new one. New semis are at least $400,000.

We have thought about it many times as our street is turning into trash-ville and I'm sure our property value is dropping as I type.