I had a taxi driver try to shame me for more tip, and call me cheap , when I tipped 10 percent on what had been the total when I got out of the car. I had been taking luggage out of the trunk. My relatives had not been quite as quick to get out of the stopped taxi, and the driver left the meter running until she had shut the door. He also did not help me get the 4 suitcases out of the car. He has been slightly surly the whole trip.
This was in Toronto where there is also less of a taxi tipping culture than in NYC.
He was a jerk, he ended up with around 8 percent tip, and he felt entitled to hurl insults at 6 am in the morning. It added stress to my travel that day, when we were heading overseas.
I take the train or GObus to the airport when I can.
So, it’s sort of a pre-emptive service thing for me, to avoid a server or taxi driver having a fit after I’ve left the tip, so I don’t have to deal with their attitude. It hasn’t happened often. Twice that I remember.
I don’t Uber. (Maybe you knew that!)
I generally have had really excellent experience with taxi drivers. It would be less than 0.5 percent who have been jerks. Maybe 10 bad experiences in my whole life, and no bad experiences in Montreal or Quebec City.
Husband likes to get in as much knowledge and "lay of the land"as possible, especially when we arrive in a new place. . This trip we have had five private tours with “Tours by locals” , including one that drove us from Montreal to Quebec City, with stops on the way.
I sometimes wish we were less scheduled, but overall, I prefer it to doing the planning myself.
How would I know that?? I have a 5* rating on UBER,I didn’t even know that was a thing until a driver in Montreal pointed it out to me. I’ve taken tons of UBER rides and have only had 1 semi sketchy experience, can’t say that about my cab experiences.
You might know it because I think I’ve mentioned I don’t use Uber on CH, HO and Facebook.
My cousin used to work at the headquarters in San Francisco. I was boycotting Uber for half a dozen reasons.
That sounds really good to me now, though I might have eschewed it 20 years ago!
Especially the drive with stops.
I’m usually the one planning and researching even when I travel with friends or family, and I’d still do the research, but having the logistics taken care of would be really attractive these days.
I did a lot of solo travel in my twenties and definitely gave tours the side eye, but I don’t anymore.
We initially planned for five people, and apparently the cost of a driver with a tour isn’t much different than the train, although we would have considered the train if we had known about it. One of the guides told us about it!
If you ever come back this way, Via Rail has a route referred to as the “Quebec City Windsor Corridor”. The train basically goes from Quebec City, Quebec to Windsor, Ontario with many stops en route including Montreal. If you choose to travel economy, there is a cart that comes around with refreshments for sale (usually sandwiches IIRC but I’ve only travelled economy when going from Ottawa to Montreal since it is only a two hour train ride). If you can afford a Via 1 ticket (or business class I think it’s called?) you get a hot meal and adult beverages (or non alcoholic ones if you don’t drink or don’t want to drink). It’s a lovely way to travel - you don’t have to worry about parking etc. And the signs in Quebec are in French only so if you don’t speak (or read) French, there’s that.
The food is really awful on VIA these days. I took VIARail regularly for 35 years. The food was pretty good up until around 2010. It kept getting worse between 2010 and 2020.
Definitely pack your own very good sandwiches from Montreal or Ottawa instead of buying pre-packaged food from the Economy Cart or paying for the VIA1 business class meal.
The last 3 years I took VIARail regularly, 2017-2020, usually to Montreal 3 times a year and the 120 mile/ 200 km journey between London and Toronto several dozen times a year, I was choosing to bring a good takeout meal from Toronto or Montreal. Much better bang for the buck. I even had a thread on Chowhound for good sandwiches to take on the train.
The ventilation is horrible on VIARail in the Montreal- Windsor corridor right now. The CO2 was reading around 3800 on an Aranet4 CO2 reader last week when an acquaintance took the train from Toronto to Ottawa. This is not safe for anyone who is elderly or immune - compromised. Seats are pre-assigned. It can be hard to move away from another passenger who is coughing when the train is sold out. Even back in 2019, I’d be sitting next to a university student who was coughing up a storm, and wiping his nose with his sleeve. ( Hell is other people. I would see people take their shoes off and put their bare feet on the upholstered seats in Economy ) Sometimes, the employees were able to offer another seat , but often they’re hands were tied.
I would not take the train. That’s why I’ve stopped taking VIARail. My last train ride was on March 8, 2020. I had been at the highest loyalty level for VIARail for over 9 years when I stopped taking the train.
Wow that’s too bad. I haven’t done much travelling in the last 10 years since I had a credit card debt to pay off then the pandemic happened. This will be my first time travelling since March 2020 so I am going for a short train ride to Montreal to see how comfortable I feel before I make plans to go anywhere else. I used to travel business class from Ottawa to Toronto since it’s a 4.5 train ride so I liked getting a nice breakfast on the way there then dinner on the way home. When I leave for Montreal on Tuesday I will be taking a mid morning train so I will have breakfast at home then lunch when I arrive in Montreal. When I come home the following Sunday, my train leaves at noon so perhaps I should bring my own sandwich to have on the train.
We don’t have one yet. Politicians keep promising one, and it never happens. This has been going on as long as I can remember . The story about someone talking about a future high speed trains in Quebec and Ontario might be in the newspapers.
Our passenger trains share the railroad with our freight trains. Freight takes priority, so passenger trains have to pull over and let them pass. I would say 1 out of 3 VIARail passenger trains is delayed by more than an hour. If it’s 2 hours or more late, VIA will offer 50 percent off a future ticket. But no refunds. LOL.
As a tourist, the 2 trains that are worthwhile, if you can purchase a sleeper car, are the Canadian which travels from Toronto to Vancouver 3 times a week, and the train from Montreal to Halifax. There is a separate dining car with better food on the overnight trains, for people who pay for a sleeper car.
BTW, I do recommend high speed rail in Germany, France, Spain and Italy. I’ve traveled mostly by rail when I have visited Europe. It’s my favourite way to travel. I would think the trains are properly ventilated in Europe. Not sure, though.
It used to be a 4 course meal, with liqueurs or Scotch after dinner. Since around 2015, the whole meal has been on one tray, like most economy airplane meals. The wrapped chocolates are passed out afterwards, usually.
From 2012-2020, VIA1 often would run out of the on-demand meals. There were usually 3 or 4 choices. They would run out of the chicken or beef, which meant half the car might be stuck with a cold chickpea plate. This led to more than a few passengers feeling ripped off.
I tried the Kosher option once, pre-ordered, just to see what it was like. Stale bagel, but very generous otherwise.
Around 2015, the dessert was often a cellophane-wrapped factory -made gluten-free brownie. Before 2015, the desserts would be regular desserts, like chocolate mousse or cheesecake.
The chocolate after the meal changed , too.
I still was taking VIA1 for the extra space and quieter work environment. The meals stopped being a treat.
It might be more worthwhile for the Toronto to Montreal or Montreal to Quebec City trips, if they’re stocking the trains differently for those business passengers.
VIA1 was a disappointment for me, food-wise, between Toronto and London , after 2015.
) Sometimes, the employees were able to offer another seat , but often they’re hands were tied.
