Cheap day trips without a car in Canada and the US
Visitors frequently underestimate the massive distances and peak winter conditions in the US and Canada. Because stringing together multiple trains and buses is unexpectedly expensive, travelers without vehicles must rely on guided tour groups to get around. This makes it difficult to affordably decide what to do on their final travel days.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Booking guided tour group day trips
- 2Flying between distant destinations instead of trying to take trains or buses
- 3Delaying the trip to the summer to avoid peak winter snow, ice, and road closures
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I’m trying to decide what to do for the last day.”source ↗
“I do not have a car, so I’m using tour groups.”source ↗
“sometimes i forget how big canada and the US is lol im from the uk so you can imagine. thought trains would be cheaper but its probably not when you think about the distance and the fact multiple trains would defo be included. just tryna keep it as cheap as possible haha.”source ↗
“good shout about the peak winter part! dont think i thought about this as much as i should have 😂. i still want to keep it in january-february time as that is my birthday and i want to jump at the chance to travel! do you have any ideas of what i could do instead during the winter, especially in canada?”source ↗
“my plan is to fly to canada, then canada to US, and take trains or buses everywhere else. i want to make this trip as affordable as possible so i can make it happen.”source ↗