Travel plan idea blog

How I would create a Canada road trip / NHL hockey vacation plan

I recently received a question about how to design a travel plan to road trip around Canada stopping in hockey cities. I don't think we're looking for an actual travel plan but I can talk a little about how you might get started.

I did a little research on this one. For starters, Canada has six NHL teams:

1. Toronto Maple Leafs
2. Otawa Senators
3. Montreal Canadians
4. Calgary Flames
5. Edmonton Oilers
6. Vancuver Canucks

Checking for cities that are nearest each other, Calgary and Edmonton are real close. Vancouver is a ways south of those two. Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal are fairly close to each other as well.

So the first step for me would be to decide east or west and go from there. A travel plan for western Canada would go Vancouver - Calgary - Edmonton assuming you're coming from the south. The eastern Canada plan would go Toronto - Ottawa - Montreal (or the other way around if you're staring in New England).

The next step is to find the schedules for each team. Make sure there's a home game when you'll be around and plan your trip accordingly.

Let's say you picked eastern Canada. You checked the dates for the Canadians, Senators, and Maple Leafs. You wrote down the dates you need to be in each of those three cities for the game(s) you want.

Now you need to see if you want to add more stops. Let's say you have 10 days between games in Toronto and Ottawa. You could either spend more time in either/both of those cities or you could hit Algonquin Park in between. You'll have to drive a bit out fo your way but a) you're supposed to meander some on road trips and b) it's not that far and c) it's good for wildlife viewing (like moose and beaver).

Then once you have the itinerary set up it's time to get more specific. Which museums do you want to see? Are there any restaurants you want to try?

Regarding restaurants, I have never had the greatest luck with guide books although Let's Go Italy 2001 did turn us on to Il Duomo where we ended up going about 15 times during our month in Assissi. A lot of times they end up being hard to find or sometimes impossible. Anyway, on my last trip to Europe we pretty much just went wherever we happened to pass something looking good. Another option may be to see what's in the phonebook - or the online version like these restaurants in Canada. And if I were going back to Montreal I would be tempted to search all the restaurants there looking for the Thai place I went to in 2000 during Jazz Fest. It was the first time I'd ever had Thai food and I had these crispy noodles with a spicy vegetable sauce. I eat Thai fairly regularly now but I've never been able to find that dish and it was really good.

And that's what I would do for this kind of travel plan.

Posted by James Trotta at July 22, 2010 8:00 PM