Hi Canadians, I am giving up on web search and rely again on actual people.
I want to go to Canada in Summer for about 5-6 weeks. I already asked a travel agency for a quote for renting a RV, but thats STUPID expensive. I used to go couchsurfing. the website is no more (i think), i am registered on BeWelcome now but haven’t looked into it.
What’s the best ways for someone with little money to still travel most of the country? renting a car there? buying one and selling it later? RVs? couchsurfing (and how)? hostels? camping?
I am grateful for all hints and tipps and connections :)
edit after some comments: I’m from Germany. My budget is not high. I think I can maybe push it to 4000$, but that’d be pretty high for me.
What’s your total budget roughly? What do you want to see? More cities, more nature, more mountains, more plains, more tundra, more rivers and lakes, more oceans?
On average my short-term travelling escapades average out to $200-250 Canadian a night, but that includes local souvenirs, a nice meal, round-trip travel fare, metro transit tickets, hostel or hotel and I’m budget conscious but not trying to stretch every dollar to the limit.
The cheapest way to cover long distances is by air, but you will miss all the country there is to see between and there are limits to the stuff you can bring in your luggage (no camping stoves, etc.). It’s also the only way you can get to many places in the Arctic (such as Nunavut).
Rail is a beautiful way to travel the country, without the stress and costs of driving, but you are at the mercy of freight rail traffic so the schedules of The Canadian or The Ocean trains basically mean nothing. You can mostly get away with public transport if you are staying within the Greater Toronto-Hamilton Area, île Montréal, Metro Vancouver. These largest cities also have decent commuter bicycle rental programmes for small, inexpensive trips.
The intercity bus can take you some places but it’s not too comfortable and there are huge gaps within Canada so it’s not reliable for everything.
The car’s cost is depending on how much hassle you want to have. Rental agencies based on my very brief search seemed to cost $900/week plus gas (estimate 10c/km). I’m a member of a carshare co-op (with $500 refundable buy-in) and the rates for me are $100/day for 500km and $0.35/km above that, gas included. Buying and selling a car I have no idea how expensive that would be, but it would be quite a bit of paperwork for buying selling and getting insurance, and finding a good car to travel around with then finding a buyer later seems like a lot of hassle. Maybe app-based car sales might make things easier but IDK. Parking it in the cities is another hassle and expense.
If you can get a car cheaply and you love nature: get a tent, food and camping supplies and spend time in Canada’s many national and provincial parks. Many of them are beautiful, and when it comes to cost they are rather cheap places to stay with most campsites having toilets and showers, which you can base yourself at then explore the woods. The popular ones may get booked out for the summer, and especially around Canada Day (1st of July), so be aware.
thank you for all the consideration you put into this. I don’t think we travel in similar ways. when I was in Japan, i think i spent around 2000€ for 4 weeks traveling, which I guess is impossible in 2025. I’d love my budget to be around that number, but i’m willing to maybe double it. but then everything would need to be in there.
What I want to see is anything and everything xD i already heard about the trains being unreliable and weird (weight limits and such). I don’t know how it is with buying and selling cars, too. so maybe you’re right and it is too much beaurocratic hassel.