Money advice!

Hi David

I havn't travel extentively in Canada, but from my experiences there, in England and in the US (where I'm located) I can tell you that prices are all generally the same, excluding the exchange rate. For example, a nice dinner out would be at $17-30 US, $17-30 Canandian and 17-30 pounds for the same quality meal, give or take a dollar or two.

On average, the pound is worth twice that of both US and Canadian as of late, so for budget purposes, you could use English prices with a budget of ~12k pounds to approximate how far your money will go. If you're planning on working and have this money in addition to flights and accomodation, you should have more than enough to have a wonderful time.

Hope that helps! Reply to this

Hey David,

Stephanie and Andras are right on the exchange rate, it's great for us travelling on the pound! We've been travelling across Canada and US for 2 months now and unfortunately find Canada more expensive than the US. :-(

It depends on what you want to do while you are in Canada that will determine your budget, for example, if you want to go white water rafting, kayaking, whale watching etc you will need to factor in these. We have definitely found food to be more expensive in Canada, (both from restaurants and grocery stores). How are you getting across Canada? This will also impact on your budget, although you have said that is covered elsewhere so no worries on that front.

We found it really helpful to work out how much you will spend daily, then add 1/3 for unexpected and try to have a "slush fund" for all those things that you just couldn't miss out on!!! Do you want to skydive? Scuba? Bungy? etc etc....

For one year, not including travel and bed, 6k is 500 per month, in places like Banff & Vanc island it will not go far, but then it all depends on how long you want to work for and where. Also the type of work you get and whether it is well paid! So many factors!!!! That's why it is such a hard question!!! :-)

Phew, hope that helps and isn't too rambling! (Try reading it in a Northern Irish accent and you will get our drift!!x)

Good luck and happy planning.


Reply to this

Hi all,

Yes, the comparisons using the Pound Sterling and the dollar are correct. And just as in most other places, it's more expensive in the larger cities than in the smaller places. Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal are expensive. There is decent rail travel in the western and central part of the country and some parts east. Buses are also available but the distances are very large, especially if you're going across the Prairies or Northern Ontario. When do you plan on doing all this travelling, David?

Brian Reply to this

I would pack somewhere between "light" and "a lot." When I think "packing light" I think about 1-2 pairs of pants, 2-3 shirts and a pair of shoes. You'll want more than that if you're there for a year and staying in one spot (if you move around, no one knows if wear the same clothes every three days but if you're stationary people who see you regularly tend to catch on....)

But when I think packing "a lot" I think of huge suitcases (plural!) stuffed to the brim which is burdensome and often unnecessary.

Think seriously about what you wear now. How many "staples" do you have to your wardrobe and how many items do you wear just because they're there. Would you miss them if you didn't have them? Several pairs of pants/shorts, shirts (long sleeve, short sleeve, something casual, something dressy) and two pairs of shoes (casual walking, something for a night out) would be a minimum recommendation. Also, I know that in many US cities people tend to dress much more casually than people in Europe (London especially!) even to work.

I would think you should take enough to be able to go a week without doing laundry, but if you can easily go two weeks or more, you're taking too much. Keep in mind too that you can always buy clothes on your travels so you don't have to take everything you think you might need. Reply to this

That's a fair point, there a lot of clothes that take up my wardrobe and I wouldn't miss much to be fair. Good way of looking at it. I hopefully will be working when I'm out there, so work shirts, trousers and a pair of shoes are a must!

Apparently layers is the way to go to beat the cold, so I guess I have to take that into consideration, as well. Especially in January!! Reply to this