Confessions of a YYC Travel Junkie

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

WestJet has done some weird things with their winter schedule in particular for Las Vegas. Gone is the ideal 10:30 YYC-LAS flight and the 1pm return to Calgary is gone. Instead there is an 8am flight to Vegas or 3:30pm and the return flights are in the evening (6:15 or 8:30.)

That 8am flight is pretty stupid because it means getting up early but also you arrive way to early in Vegas and hotel check-in generally won't be available so it means leaving bags with the bell desk. I'm guessing this also makes connecting schedules somewhat undesirable for people that have to connect in Calgary. The 6:15pm return is probably not that bad but I really liked the early afternoon flight home.

Haven't seen the full winter schedule but perhaps they've beefed up n/s Vegas flights from other centres so connecting may not be as big an issue. I don't recall if YEG was Swooped for Vegas flights but if/when they were I think it cut off the option for GP and Ft Mac flyers to connect via YEG. If mainline is back on the table from YEG that opens up connections for northern flyers as well.

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Things we hit up in Tokyo as a family with kids aged 13 and 10:

-Teamlab Planets Tokyo
-Harajuku
-Imperial Palace grounds
-Shopping/taking in the urban sights of Shibuya and Shinjuku areas, and Tokyo station area
-neat little tiny alley restaurants in Omoide Yokocho next to Shinjuku station
-Senso-ji buddhist temple (near the Skytree area)
-Cafe Capyba, a Capybara cafe near Skytree

We spent a lot of time simply wandering around from main station areas and seeing what we could discover too. Stayed in an AirBnB near Shin-Okobu station, which has the JR Yamanote line that does a great circle around a lot of Tokyo, so a great jumping off point to get around.

I'll vouch for Teamlab Planets, it was so much fun. My daughter is 5 and she loved it but it was cool for us adults as well.

We were in Tokyo for 5 days. Not enough time (I don't know if anything is enough time, it's so amazing). It's super easy to get around but there's so much there. I'd plan to go to a specific area and spend your day in that area.

Not sure if going with kids, but this is a great guide on playgrounds:
https://bestlivingjapan.com/top-10-r...arks-in-tokyo/

For food, almost anything is great but if you want to really hone in on great food, the website https://tabelog.com/en/ is great. Even if you notice a place, just Google "Ippudo roppongi tabelog" or whatever and it'll tell you everything you need to know about the place. Japanese are very honest reviewers and a place that's 3.5 stars out of 5 will be excellent (4 stars and up will generally be a Michelin Star restaurant).

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Originally Posted by pseudoreality

I recently booked my family for a French vacation in November. I've been tracking flights with Westjet and booked when it was a pretty good deal for all four of us. Now a week later I get an email from Westjet saying they have changed my itinerary. They gave me three options, click to accept, click to change, or click for refund. However, there was no deadline given for when I needed to accept the changes. Does anyone know if there is a cutoff, other than the day I fly, that I need to accept their changes? I kind of want to keep the free cancelation in my back pocket. I don't like the new itinerary as it includes an overnight in Calgary on the way back and shortens our time in France by a day, but that's not a dealbreaker for me.

I'll often book a flight or trip well in advance knowing that it will likely change and usually I'll wait to confirm to keep my options open. Usually when I look up my options, there'll be a better flight available to me that wasn't before (particularly when I book on points).

I've never had an issue where my time has run out and I can't change/cancel anymore.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

Haven't seen the full winter schedule but perhaps they've beefed up n/s Vegas flights from other centres so connecting may not be as big an issue. I don't recall if YEG was Swooped for Vegas flights but if/when they were I think it cut off the option for GP and Ft Mac flyers to connect via YEG. If mainline is back on the table from YEG that opens up connections for northern flyers as well.

Maybe YEG added some capacity to connect the smaller bases up north but it doesn't look like they added any point to point flights for cities like Kelowna, Saskatoon or Regina so they are still dependent on YYC as a hub.

[MoneyGuy]

Anyone here traveled to all three territories? I’d like to fly to the three and rent cars in each. We’ve been to every province and it’s be cool to complete the circuit. It’d be a long, expensive journey but a trip of a lifetime.

[Fuzz]

You can't really drive to Nunavut. Fly in, fly out. Pick a place. There aren't a lot of roads even connecting places. Yukon and NWT can be driven between in the south, and north. But you can't make it a loop.

[MoneyGuy]

^yes, I’ve checked possible road connections and a loop is impossible.

[Fuzz]

If I had the time I'd drive up throguh Alberta, cross at Indian Cabins, Hay River, Yellowknife, then you've gotta go into BC to Ft Nelson, then into Yukon to Whitehorse. Then up north, Dempster to Tuk and back to Dawson City, take the top of the world road to Chicken Alaska. You could do more Alska, or head back south into the Yukon, Kluane Park, then to Haines, where you take the car ferry to Juneau. Then down to Prince Rupert, and back to Alberta.

[MoneyGuy]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

If I had the time I'd drive up throguh Alberta, cross at Indian Cabins, Hay River, Yellowknife, then you've gotta go into BC to Ft Nelson, then into Yukon to Whitehorse. Then up north, Dempster to Tuk and back to Dawson City, take the top of the world road to Chicken Alaska. You could do more Alska, or head back south into the Yukon, Kluane Park, then to Haines, where you take the car ferry to Juneau. Then down to Prince Rupert, and back to Alberta.

That sounds like a helluva trip and we have the time but I’m not sure we’d do all of that. I’ll map it out.

[Fuzz]

You can make it shorter by skipping the southern NWT part. If I were to eliminate anything, it would be that. Only because it's the easiest to fly into later, and not a lot of distance to drive to places around it.


We did the segment of Whitehorse to Tuk, Dawson, Chicken, Kluane and back to Whitehorse in 2 weeks, and it wasn't super rushed. You really need a week to get to Whitehorse, and I'd guess a week to finish it from Haines, but I'm not sure how long the ferry sections are. So a month.

[Weitz]

Inwouldnt bother with anything in the NWT really. Fly to Yellowknife and explore.

Head up from GP to Dawson then to Alaska one way and Tuk the other.

[schteve_d]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

Anyone here traveled to all three territories? I’d like to fly to the three and rent cars in each. We’ve been to every province and it’s be cool to complete the circuit. It’d be a long, expensive journey but a trip of a lifetime.

My parents did a trip in a rented motorhome a few years ago. They left Okotoks and went up through all three. They had a blast and they do consider it one of their best ever holidays, and they've been on plenty.

Not sure where they flew back from but they had another couple that wanted to do a similar trip. My parents drove up one way and then flew back, their friends flew up, picked up the motorhome and did the same trip backwards to get the motorhome back "home". Sounded like a great way to do it, I'm still jealous of it and wouldn't mind replicating it one day!

[Freeway]

Anybody with any experience with travelling to Spain? Sounds like I might be headed there for a family gathering next September.

[chemgear]

Wow, Japan suspending sales of physical Suica cards. Crazy.

Chip shortages still?

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by chemgear

Wow, Japan suspending sales of physical Suica cards. Crazy.

Chip shortages still?

Looks like Pasmo cards also are suspended. Crazy.

[Esoteric]

I guess you can still buy the "Welcome to Japan" version of Suica/Pasmo - only downsides is it's limited to 28 days of use, and any remaining balance can't be refunded.

[d00little]

Originally Posted by chemgear

Wow, Japan suspending sales of physical Suica cards. Crazy.

Chip shortages still?

I just put my old Suica onto my iPhone wallet and was able to tap it at all gates. Much easer to top up on the phone using Apple Pay as well.

[Jimmy Stang]

Does anyone have any suggestions for a physical Sim for Italy? I will be using Airalo eSim, but a couple of people in our group have phones that can only accept a single physical Sim. Data is needed, whereas calling and texting isn't.

On previous trip, we got one through Vodafone. But I recall it being quite expensive, and in typical Italian fashion, required showing your passport (to confirm eligibility for the "tourist" plan), and it took about an hour.

Amazon sells data-only sims, the prices seem reasonable, and one particular brand has a 4.3/5 rating, which isn't tooo bad. Anyone have any experience with something like this: https://www.amazon.ca/Prepaid-Connec...dp/B09NPPFXTD/

Or just find some kiosk on the street?

[Johnny199r]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

Does anyone have any suggestions for a physical Sim for Italy? I will be using Airalo eSim, but a couple of people in our group have phones that can only accept a single physical Sim. Data is needed, whereas calling and texting isn't.

On previous trip, we got one through Vodafone. But I recall it being quite expensive, and in typical Italian fashion, required showing your passport (to confirm eligibility for the "tourist" plan), and it took about an hour.

Amazon sells data-only sims, the prices seem reasonable, and one particular brand has a 4.3/5 rating, which isn't tooo bad. Anyone have any experience with something like this: https://www.amazon.ca/Prepaid-Connec...dp/B09NPPFXTD/

Or just find some kiosk on the street?

I got one from vodofone when I was in Rome last summer. It was like $30-$40 for all the data in the world for the few weeks we were there.

[Weitz]

I used wind in Italy in 2018. $18 euro for 20 GB.