Travelling is Expensive

So somebody dropped by yesterday and handed me a cheque with a nice number on it for a web design work. It was the cheque I was going to spend on a new lens for my DSLR and a plane ticket to the West Coast and back. It was kind of nice holding the cheque in my hand while thinking of all the lovely things I could buy with it. But in the end, I decided to forego the new lens and put all the money into the West Coast trip fund because, damn, hotel rooms are so frickin’ expensive, even in September.

The average cost for one room is $150/night! It’s crazy! Why the hell do they still count September as Peak Season? Kids would have gone back to school already. When we went out East two years ago on our honeymoon, we could get a nice hotel room for $50! And we were there in August, which was obviously still in the Peak Season.

In addition, the fun things I want to do during the trip cost a lot of money. Here’s the list so far:

• Tofino Whale Watching $69
• Jasper Tramway $24.00
• Maligne Lake Cruise $40.57
• Jasper Rafting Trip $49
• Columbia Icefield Ice Explorer Bus Tour $35.95
• Lake Louise Canoe Rental $60 (per hour!)
• Banff Gondola $24.95

Everything times two because I’m not going to go alone. Well, except for the canoe rental maybe. See how expensive it gets? I might have to forego the tramway/gondola thing. And I still have yet to put food and gas into account. I’m actually considering buying a box of Indomie (an Indonesian instant noodle brand) in Vancouver and eat just that all through the trip. Hey, it’s only $10 for 30 packs of noodles! Just enough for two weeks if I had two packs a day. Heh. But I got the feeling that Troy wouldn’t let me do that.

By the way, thanks to everyone who left me travel tips on the previous post. Those come in handy as I’m writing up our itinerary. I’m actually a little afraid of Banff. The prospect of having to fight the hordes of tourists in Banff for the best picture-taking spots just makes me cringe. I’m also not going to do too much hiking while I’m there, or at least just do the easy routes. Mind you, I have bad knees. It kind of sucks because, seriously, when you’re in the Rockies, you’re expected to hike. That’s why I’m thinking of renting canoes instead, which would cost a lot more than hiking, but what can you do.

When it comes to affordable accommodations, I’ve figured out that getting a two-bedroom suite would cost a little less than paying for two hotel rooms since there’ll be the four of us travelling together and we’ll split the expenses between the two couples. Here’s hoping that there’ll still be vacancies in places with two-bedroom suites when we get around to making reservations!