Driving to Winnipeg

Early December, around the usual time that I start thinking about buying a ticket to fly home to Winnipeg I took a look at airfares and found nothing for under $1000 out of Vancouver, Seattle was already way jacked up. And so, John and I have decided to drive the 1644 miles / 2645 kilometers, we’ll leave sometime this afternoon or evening.

Seattle to WinnipegSeattle to Winnipeg Hosted on Zooomr

Now, every single person I have mentioned this too thinks I am out of my mind. Maybe its the recent tragedy in Oregon or the recent natural disaster in Seattle where 53,000 are still without power that is making everyone super cautious. Or maybe its just that Americans are more hesitant about long cross country trips. See, I think back to my time at the University of Waterloo which is a similar distance, 1322 miles, when we made the trip back and forth and no one called us crazy. It’s just what you did to get home.

Least you worry too much, yes we have experience driving long distances (I’ve driven between Waterloo and Winnipeg at least three times and have driven from Toronto to Seattle), yes we have experience driving in the snow (we’re from Winnipeg), yes we will have warm clothes (we are driving to Winnipeg after all!) and no we are not taking the Neon. And yes, this will likely affect the amount of time I spend in Winnipeg, but by no more than a day or so. And yes, this means I have more money for Christmas presents!

…For interest sake I pulled how much my last two flights to Winnipeg cost (both out of Vancouver and booked last week of November/first week of December). 2004 was $670CDN and the trip there took over 24 hours; it would have been faster to drive because of flight delays that meant I had to stay overnight in Vancouver. 2005 was $879CDN and was also delayed but by only several hours. Given that you need to budget at least five hours for flights out of Vancouver, possibly more if the border is likely to be delayed, and it’s three to four hours to get to Winnipeg depending on if you have to layover or not, driving really isn’t that much longer :).

For curiosity’s sake flights are now $2500CDN+, will take anywhere from 9 to 18 hours and have multiple connections on the east cost, either Montreal, Toronto, or both! A random weekend in February is $770.

If there are any sights or stops we should be making along the way please leave a comment.

Update: Eric just ruined my vacation after pointing me to Kayak and I found this best price trend for SEA to YWG for the 23rd. Apparently December 7th was the time to buy.

BestFareTrendBestFareTrend Hosted on Zooomr
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4 Responses to Driving to Winnipeg

  1. kristi says:

    best of luck to you guys! i’ll probably be stranded in the denver airport so should be driving back myself…

    the road through montana is quite scenic :)

  2. jackie says:

    Terry and his friend are driving this exact route today and tomorrow. Right now they’re somewhere in Montana. Maybe you guys will meet up at a Denny’s or something.

  3. Matt Goyer says:

    AH, we should have carpooled!

  4. Skua says:

    Wow. You’ve really been getting boned with the flight costs ! I live in Victoria and fly back to the ‘peg for xmas every year, except this past, and I’ve never paid more than $500 CAD; usually it’s around 400. Funny you said the flight from Van to Wpg was so expensive as I usually have to take the puddle jumper over and then run across the airport to connect. I’ve also driven to the ‘peg, London and back; it’s a nice drive. You should just take the Clipper to Victoria and fly from there. It would likely be cheaper. Hope you had a good trip and enjoyed the balmy Winnipeg weather. I remember alot of -40+ days walking to Shaftesbury High. Brrr.

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