Driving to and in Canada in January
 

I am traveling to Canada in January. First I thought we would fly to Quebec City but now I'm thinking of driving that way we can stop a few days in Montréal and then to Quebec City. My only concern is the driving conditions at that time of year. I only plan on driving to the destinations and parking the car and using public transportation. I am driving from Southwestern PA through upstate New York. Thanks

Realistically I think flying is by far the best option, but...

How much experience do you have driving in the snow? Do you have snow tires? Do you have 4-6 days to do all that driving?

Snow tires are required by law in Quebec in the winter, so if you don't have them, the car trip is a no go. Regardless, I wouldn't drive in that area in the winter without them.

Conditions could be bad or good - any route is going to involve going through the 'snow belt' where you can get huge dumps of lake effect snow. You want to avoid driving in the dark and when the weather is bad. If you want to do the trip via car, you'd need solid experience driving in snow, snow tires, a good emergency kit and lots of flex time.

For the latter - you would want to have back up plans - i.e. know where you can stop & find a hotel if the conditions are too bad to continue. From the NYC area, it usually took me 9-10hrs of solid driving to get to Toronto, so add on time for your trip. Realistically, it's two days driving, plus an extra day for bad conditions. Can you afford 6 days just for driving?

Honestly in January, I would fly to Quebec and rent a car there or take the train. You will have lot more time to actually see Quebec and a lot less stress. Just be aware that January in Quebec can be magical, but it can also be very cold and very snowy.

Follow up, given that my time estimation above was a bit off...

Driving from say Philadelphia to Montreal is about 8hrs, not including delays due to traffic and border crossing or stops for gas, washrooms and food. I'd probably allow 9-10 hrs minimum. Longer if you hit snow.

In the winter, that's really more than you can realistically expect to do in one day, especially if you aren't familiar with the area or winter driving. So I think it's safe to assume you will need to spend at least one night along the way.

That makes perfect sense very good information. I don't have snow tires so I guess we will fly. I would rather drive but I don't want to get stuck in any potential bad weather. Thank you for your help.

I would fly to Montréal and home from there as you will have a much better choice of flights than to or from Québec City. Take the train (3 hrs) to visit Québec City.

Even if it were legal, I wouldn't drive in winter in Québec without snow tires.

Snow tires are required by law on Quebec registered cars only.

We have driven the Montreal to Florida route through PA or NY during the winter months, and most of the time the roads are dry and bare.

If your car has ABS and Traction Control and your tires have a lot of thread depth left, you are pretty well equipped to handle the conditions you are likely to encounter.

Driving in the snow is similar to driving in the rain, it is slippery. Slow down.


Mark

I disagree with the above post. I live about 100 miles south of the Canadian border, so I do a lot of winter driving. 80% of the time you will be fine with all weather tires (plain summer tires would be insane), but there are times when snow tires will make a huge difference in traction and handling. Fishtailing at 60 mph is no fun.

If you don't want to drive your own car and don't want to fly, take an Amtrak train to either New York Penn station or to Albany (Rennsalear) to get on the Amtrak Adirondack to Montreal.
Canada has a great train system between Montreal and Toronto called ViaRail.

Zootsi

There is no such thing as a summer tire anymore, tires either have the snowflake symbol to indicate a winter tire or they are "all season tires"

I agree that fishtailing at 60mph is no fun but I tend to assume that people are smart enough not to do 60mph during a snowstorm or in slippery conditions. If they are not, well..

Until the introduction of the compulsory winter tire law in Quebec I have driven with all season tires and I don't recall any situations that I wished I had winter tires.

Mark

Mark,

Although I've never seen them in NH, summer tires can still be found at places like Tire Rack, etc. Yes I agree that most times good all weather tires are fine in the winter. However there are times - typically when the temps hover around freezing, and the snow is very greasy - that winter tires make a big difference. For the first 15 years of driving Subarus I always relied on all weather tires. However I had a few instances when I could barely hold the road at 20 mph, even with my nearly new all weather tires. I'm now convinced that snow tires are the way to go here in the north country, even with a Subaru.

Watch the news,,,ha see plenty of you " i know how to drive in snow people" in the ditches,,its always someone else that cant drive, lol