In addition to the brutal winter, I'd also say the summers there are also pretty brutal. Or maybe I'm just soft bcos you know... I'm from Vancouver LOL~

But I agree with Supafamous that I quite like Ottawa. I used to visit there often enough when I was studying in Ontario, and the vibe there is just sooo much nicer than GTA and the surrounding areas.

East Coast life is also very different than west coast life in Metro Van or Calgary / Edmonton. Road trips alone would absolutely blow anything we have here out of the water. During normal times, there are also so many more places you can head down to in the US from there. And Europe is a much shorter trip from there as well.

Had I landed a coop job there in Ottawa, things could have turned out very differently for me...

I'm curious where to. I'd love to tour around the Maritimes but I think that's a fair trek from Ottawa.

By "East Coast", my understanding is that it generally refers to SE Ontario to SW Quebec. And bcos of that, the destination options pretty much go in 360º instead of just either head south or east for us in Vancouver. And within that 360º of travel, the list of places you can get to within a ~10 hr drive is just HUGE compared to where we can go in 10 hrs here.

Assuming Toronto as the base of operation, the places that I can think of going would include, but not limited to:

- Detroit
- Cleveland
- Pittsburgh
- Washington DC
- New York
- Ottawa
- Montreal
- Quebec

Here, we have:

- Seattle
- Portland
- Calgary

If you want to tour around the Maritimes, the simple version is to use Halifax as your base, and just travel around NS, NB, and PEI. I did a trip like that after my university graduation, and it was epic.

I survived 3 Alberta winters in a row. Wasn't that bad.

Ont. / East Coast is next level. Lake Effect / Ice storms / the 401

:heckno:

I'm going to Montreal this May. Hoping to do a full maritime circuit next year :concentrate:

I shared this last year on RS, but my wife and I did a road trip across the American Mid-West (Chicago, Cincinnati, Columbus, Detroit, Indianapolis, Lexington, Louiseville, Pittsburgh, etc.) and it was a really nice trip. Likely not on anyone's list of major cities to visit, but we got to see a narrative that you don't see on TV or the media everyday. We really enjoyed our trip there and would encourage anyone to visit...when it's safer to do so...from a political perspective. :badpokerface:

East coast is more city tours due to the population density, if you want epic scenic drives you cant beat the west. Utah, arizona, pacific coast hwy.
I’d like to drive to alaska one way and fly back but $$$$

Just leave your BMW there, no big deal. :troll:

I was looking hard for a green one but never found one. Ended up with a red one. Loved the car but had a hard time with two backward facing car seats in it so moved up a size. Besides the points mentioned already about feeling that the interior had been cost cut, the lack of a lsd in the back and relying on brakes instead meant that I went through two sets of pads and one set of rotors in under 100k kms on the rears only.
https://freeimage.host/i/3AQG3W7

Oh yeah, the summers can get pretty brutal. I usually went in late April when school was out but I did July once and it was oppressive. Worse than Toronto for sure.

Barrhaven, or as they use to call it, Farrhaven isn't bad at all to live in for families. I have two friends there and they both really like it, traffic isn't bad and all the major amenities are available in Barrhaven so you only need to go into the city if you need a night out at a nice restaurant.

Peak Ottawa was when Smith Falls still had the Hershey's chocolate factory open and you could go by and buy huge quantities of broken chocolate bars for dirt cheap. Also, the poutine is much better there than here.

That said, Canada Day celebrations in Ottawa is EPIC! It gets very hot during the day, but partying / concert on the lawn of Parliament Hill is something every Canadian should experience at least once.

(I went twice, so that should be enough for 2 lifetimes?) :badpokerface: