Edmonton to Montreal
 

How long does it take to drive from Edmonton to Moncton?
We want to see the east coast, canada and as far as Washington D.C.

So we would like to go straight to the east coast and than slow down and tour around there. We have 4 weeks. Is this enough time?
Is it a crazy idea?

To fly and than rent a car, and do hotels and restaurants is to expensive for us.
We need to camp, however, we expect to be doing hotels when we get to the bigger cities like NY and Boston etc.
Which brings up another issue, where do we park the trailer while doing the hotel in these big cities?

Any help we appreciate it.

if you only wanted to do about 8 hours/day through canada, i'd figure on 6 days. according to mapquest it's 42 hours, 2 minutes Total Est. Distance: 2526.47 miles going cutting down to the states.

Parking a trailer in New York City poses a big challenge. There simply is no parking (Manhattan) without paying big $$$ for it. I have read other threads with people asking this same question and tried to find them for you but with no luck, sorry.

It has been recommended by some to try to park in New Jersey and take public transportation into NYC. I would post those specific questions on the U.S. board to get better information.

Sounds like quite a trip! Have a good time.

If you started early and drove into the evening, you could go from Edmonton to Yorkton in a long day. Second day, again starting early and driving into the evening, gets you somewhere around Kenora or Dryden.

Third day, Sault Ste. Marie or Sudbury.

Remember, these three days are long drives, into the evening, and then you'd need to set up your camp site. You might be better off with cheap motels.

Forth day, you'd get to Ottawa, or even Montreal, but again,. there's the time to set up camp,

Fifth day -- long drive to Moncton.

Sisth day. Moncton is almost 1000 miles from Toronto -- I;ve done this drive a dozen times. Montreal is about 360 from Toronto, so that means Montreal to Moncton is over 600 miles. A long, long days drive.

It does not really matter if you go through Edmunston and Fredericton or to the coast and Cambellton and Bathurst.

Coming home....

Let's say your starting point is Washington.

First day, you'd get to somewhere between Toledo and Chicago, depending on start times and when you wanted to stop.

Second day, you'd get to Fargo. Long day,

Third day, to somewhere in Montana, and forth day, you'd be back home late in the evening.

Remember, these are all based on long drives, not stopping often, not seeing the scenery along the way, eating fast food rather than stopping and making nice lunches or eating ion good restaurants.

And this to-from the east coast takes up about eight days. That leaves you about 22 for the tour of the east coast.

I'd extend the driving part of the east-west journeys by at least two days each way, and I'd add a day in Ottawa and a day in Montreal and half a day in Quebec City.

That still gives you two weeks to go around the maritimes and drive down to Acadian national Park in Maine, then down to Boston and New York and Washington.

Whether that is enough time really depends on your personalities.

It is a huge amount of driving, and not a lot of time for wandering around and laying on the beach and spending a half day inside a museum.

If I was doing it, I'd certainly stop drivbing south at New York, and skip Washington.

I'd hit Niagara Falls on the way home, if I had not been there before.

And if I could swing the money, I'd skip the camping, especially if it involved towing a trailer, for three reasons. The trailer slows down the driving, the trailer means trying to find campgrounds, probably still in daylight, and they are a lot harder to find than motels, and the trailer is a problem driving in the big cities.

You could leave it at a campground, and then drive to a big city and stay in a hotel, but then you'd need to backtrack to get the trailer.

Your overall trip should be a bbig circle, with very little covering of the same ground coming and going.

I don't think you're crazy, but I do think you may have a thousand miles too much on your trip.

BAK

Hello Birdie69,

I have not travelled with a motor home or trailer since I've been an adult. When I was a kid, my family went on many vacations with a trailer.

We have some American friends who have retired and are travelling around the U.S. in a motor home with a fifth wheel while they decide where to settle for the retirement years. That said, they've been travelling around like this for two or three years while they make up their minds, so I'm starting to wonder if this isn't going to be a permanent arrangement, at least for a few years.:)

Anyway, these friends visited their son and his family in Calgary over the Christmas / New Year holidays. (Let me hasten to add, they flew here this time.) When we saw them and got an update on their travels, they repeated a point they'd made previously. They said that, once they started RVing, they discovered there was a whole subculture of people who are into this lifestyle.

What our friends said made me think that there probably were Internet forums devoted to this topic. I did a Google search and, sure enough, some links came up, like this one, for example:

http://www.rvforum.net/index.php?opt...e&Itemid=1

I bet there would be more people on those forums who are familiar with all of the logistical issues of RVing than there are on Fodors. That is not to say there are no Fodorites who have travelled with RVs. Obviously there are. I just think you'd find a larger "critical mass" of people with relevant experience on the RV forums.

But perhaps you've thought of this idea, and already are happily discussing things on an RV forum.