Driving Edmonton to Ottawa alone

[kristinem]

Im planning on driving from Edmonton to Ottawa at the end of July and just wondering what I should expect?? Im 25yrs old woman so will probably not sleep in my car on the side of the road and stop at motels/hotels... My car is a mazda 3 and really great on gas, but im starting to wonder if flying is a better idea....??

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to the RTA forum !

Only you can decide whether it is better to fly or not, depending on your circumstance and the time you have, but we are a place where road trip fever rules, so not many of us would take the flight option, but again it depends on circumstances.

I would definitely not sleep in your car by the side of the road, not only will you not get a good nights sleep you could be breaking the law. You should expect at least 4 long days on the road with 3 nights of lodging costs, in a business like fashion. Adding time would make it more relaxed, but trying to do it in less time wouldn't be wise IMO, and flying would be the only option.

[glc]

I think you may be hard pressed to do it in 4 days, I'd allow 5.

[Midwest Michael]

I would agree that this is a case where 5 days would really be the minimum. Typically, you can travel 500 miles/800 km a day without much problem for a full day on the road, however, that is assuming travel on freeways. The Trans-Canada, while a perfectly good, and often exceptionally scenic, highway is not generally a freeway, but rather a 2 lane highway with frequent 3rd passing lanes. Most of the highway has a 90 km speed limit - with slowdowns as the road goes through town - so allowing the extra day would make the most sense.

[glc]

My mapping program actually says that a route through the US that's 300 miles longer is faster. Taken with a grain of salt.