Canada Travel Guide

If you're travelling on your own, buses are by far the cheapest way to get around. Greyhound Canada runs most of the long-distance buses west of Toronto, including a service along the Trans-Canada Highway from Toronto to Vancouver. The major centres in the east of the country are served by a network of smaller lines and by a wide range of different companies. Long-distance buses run to a fairly full timetable (at least during the day), stopping only for meal breaks and driver changeovers. Nearly all are nonsmoking, have toilets and coffee-making facilities and are less uncomfortable than you might expect - it's feasible to save on a night's accommodation by sleeping on the bus, though you may not feel up to much the next day.

Any sizeable community will have a main bus station, but in smaller places a gas station or restaurant will double as the bus stop and ticket office - though often they are inconveniently situated on the edge of town. Seats can be reserved but this is rarely necessary: only those services between nearby cities like Montréal and Québec are likely to get booked out, and even then you'll have to wait only an hour or so for the next departure. Out in the less populated areas, buses are fairly scarce, sometimes only appearing once or twice a week, and here you'll need to plot your route with care.

Fares are pretty standard from company to company: as an example, Toronto to Winnipeg, a distance of 2100km, costs $167 one-way. The free Official Canadian Bus Guide , containing all Canadian (and northern US) bus timetables , is produced bimonthly but is not made readily available to travellers. Consequently you'll need to rely on free individual timetables from the major bus stations or local tourist offices. Always double-check routes and times by phoning the local terminal (we've included telephone numbers for most cities), or the companies. For Greyhound Canada, reservations are not necessary; if a bus is full, another is automatically laid on. However, an increasing number of services can make "seat selection" for a small fee which guarantees a specific seat on the first bus out (useful for window-seat sightseeing).