When thinking about North America, you can't really skip the old rivalry between Canada and the USA, whether it is hockey, politics, or standard of living.
But which country should you actually road trip first - the US or Canada? Today we will take a deep dive into comparing the two in terms of road tripping - more precisely campervanning. We will look into all factors that could and should influence your decision and, of course, reveal our choice at the end of the article.
As both countries are massive in size and attractions, and can't be covered completely during one vacation, we will focus on the Western Parts of both countries.
I will compare:
- Nature
- Cities
- Best time of year for a road trip
- Flight cost
- Campervan related costs
- Campground network
- Campervan rental availability
Let's get started!
Nature & the outdoors
As factor number one, we just had to choose nature. With the thought of campervanning in mind, the first images that you will probably have in mind are breathtaking views in world-renowned National Parks.
Let's first talk briefly about the 7 National Parks in each area, and its beaches and lakes.
National Parks in Western USA
Joshua Tree - located in Southern California, East of Los Angeles and known for its unique trees, rock formations, and desert landscape.
Grand Canyon - the queen of all National Parks in Northern Arizona, with multiple viewpoints, hiking options and many more outdoor activities.
Bryce Canyon - known for its orange-red hoodoos (spire-shaped rock formations) and its Amphitheater. It is located in Southern Utah.
Zion - slowly gaining in popularity also outside the US, this park amazes with steep red canyon cliffs and a possible river treck through its Narrows. It is located in southwestern Utah.
Death Valley - known for its endless salt flats, as well as Titus Canyon and its ghost town and colorful rocks. It is North America's lowest point located in Eastern California on the border to Nevada.
Yosemite - located in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, east of San Francisco. It is known for its towering rock formations, such as El Captian and its enormous ancient sequoia trees.
Arches - lies north of Moab in Eastern Utah. It is known for its more than 2,000 natural red sandstone arches.
National Parks in Western Canada
Kootenay - located in Southeast British Columbia, it is mostly known for its hot springs, canyons, and lake.
Banff - located in Southwest Alberta, it is Canada's oldest National Park, established in 1885. It is known for its many glaciers and ice fields, alpine landscapes and lakes, and dense evergreen forest.
Jasper - located in Southwest Alberta, it is known for its magical views of glaciers, turquoise lakes, and rugged mountain peaks.
Glacier - located in Southeast British Columbia, it is worth a visit to discover its alpine scenery and deep valleys filled with forests. The historic site of Rogers Pass, the final link in the coast to coast railway that brought Canada together as a nation, offers culture next to the natural highlights.
Yoho - located in Southeast British Columbia, it is known for its waterfalls, alpine lakes, cliffs, and trails.
Mount Revelstoke - located in Southeast British Columbia, it is one of the smaller National Parks and known for its rainforests and world-famous ski jump.
Pacific Rim - located at the West Coast of Vancouver Island, it is known for its rugged coasts, sandy beaches, and temperate rainforests.
Beaches vs. Lakes
While California is rich with beaches of all sizes, British Columbia only has a few beaches to offer in the Vancouver and Vancouver Island area. However, Canada scores points for the many jaw-dropping mountain lakes that invite you for a dip in summer.
The Verdict
This category is definitely an equal score. Both countries are world-famous for their incredible nature and National Parks, and there simply is no favoring one over the other.
There are, however, a few differences; if those appeal your liking, they might have an impact on your decision.
The Western US is very deserty and dry; hence you will get to see a lot of sand colors in the range of yellow, red, orange, and brown, of course, with some pine trees in the mix as well.
Western Canada is the epitome of the Rocky Mountains and hence veeery mountainous. You will have plenty of literally rocky mountains, forests, and mountain lakes to add some gray, blue, and green to your color pallet.
Cities
The pursuit of a campervan road trip for escaping to nature and leaving the busy day-to-day life behind doesn't necessarily mean that you don't want to explore and get to know the cities in either area. After all, how can you have visited California without getting to see L.A. or San Fran.
Cities to visit in the Western US
Los Angeles - the epitome of the Californian Dream, with its famous movie set neighborhoods, shops, and cafes. This city is probably on the bucket list of a lot of people, and as so often, the likability of the city exists mostly in extremes - either you are a big fan, or you don't understand the fuss. Wondering where we stand? We don't understand the fuss and are more San Fran people than L.A. people. 😉
San Francisco - the most European city of the US, famous for its hilly streets, its culture, lifestyle, and tolerance. It is indeed a beautiful city with a great mixture of architecture, nature, glittering water, and a vibrant night-life scene.
Las Vegas - the most artificial city with blinding lights and 24h action. The Strip, with its fancy and not so fancy casinos, restaurants, hotels and clubs, invites some to stay longer and others to escape again after one night.
Cities to visit in Western Canada
Vancouver - wow, what a city. Vancouver has several times been very high up on the list of most liveable cities in the world. Thanks to its accessibility to water and mountains, stellar architecture, and cosmopolitan lifestyle.
Calgary - it is actually larger than Vancouver and has developed tremendously from its farming times back in the day. It is now a cosmopolitan city with a growing oil industry.
Victoria - definitely the smallest of all listed cities; it wins you over with its charm, parks, and flower displays. It is a very walkable city, again combining glittering water and an outdoor feel with city life.
The Verdict
In this category, the US is a step ahead, offering the chance to experience three world-famous cities at once. Only Vancouver can compete on the same level, as Calgary and Victoria take the roles of the underdog.
Time of Year
Possible road tripping months in the US
Due to its climate, campervanning in the Western US is possible year-round. While the Southwest will get incredibly hot during summer and somewhat chilly during winter, roads and most campgrounds are open for all seasons.
We recommend April/May and September/October as best road tripping months.
Possible road tripping months in Canada
As Canada's climate is a lot colder, campervanning is only possible from May-September. During the winter months, most campgrounds are closed, and roads will either be closed as well or covered with snow. We are not saying that a road trip is impossible; however, you would need to rent a 4x4 and do some research to find those campgrounds that are still open.
The Verdict
Again the US wins in this category, as it simply offers more flexibility and variety throughout the year.
Flight cost
While the fluctuation of flight prices can be a nightmare sometimes, we can paint a general picture. Coming from Europe, flight prices for L.A. are quite reasonable, and you can expect between €300-€600 outside of high season. In high season, it can easily go up to €1,000.
Vancouver paints a pretty similar picture. Just now, on my search on Google Flights for a round-trip in May, I found flights between €400-€600 from all major airports in Europe. In high season, you can likely pay around €1,000.
From Australia to Vancouver, prices start at around €700 (AU$1,130) and easily reach €1,200 (AU$1,940). For L.A. prices start at €500 (AU$807) and can also easily go above €1,000 (AU$1,614).
The Verdict
When you are good at playing Russian Roulette or flexible with your travel dates, you can really find some great flight deals to either city or area of the country. In general, L.A. has slightly cheaper fares than Vancouver and also wins this category.
Should you want to get alerted for amazing flight deals on a frequent base, as you are flexible with your destination and travel dates, I can only recommend for you to sign up for the premium newsletter of Jack's Flight Club. You will be amazed at what he digs up. Believe me, his newsletters will make you itch just to book your next flight.
Campervan related costs
Numbers don't always tell it all. Especially when it comes to price tags in different currencies. So don't be thrown off by the number. Keep the currency exchange rate in the back of your mind so you don't freak out when reading what seems to be a very high price.
The US Dollar is historically stronger than the Canadian Dollar. At the time of writing, US$100 equals CAD$133, which equals about €92.
Let's take a closer look to see how costs really compare while campervanning. These are average numbers.
*10 Feb 2020 https://gasprices.aaa.com/
**Dec 2019 https://doi.org/10.25318/1810000101-eng
Both countries offer an annual pass for National Park entry fees. In the US, it is the 'America the Beautiful Pass'.
It costs US$80 (~€73) and is valid for one vehicle for one year. If you plan to visit at least three National Parks in the Southwest, it is worth getting this pass.
In Canada, it is called the Discovery Pass and costs CA$136 (~€94) plus taxes. It is valid for one year and non-transferable. If you plan on visiting more than seven National Parks, it will be worth it to get the pass. As there are no more than seven National Parks in Western Canada, there is no real need to buy the pass and simply pay the parks as you go.
In terms of food, I can not give you any specific numbers to compare, as prices are highly dependent on the supermarket chain and your preferable products, and dietary restrictions (organic or not, etc.).
For example, we discovered that Safeway supermarkets, which are very popular in the Western US, are pricey compared to Walmart. They do have a loyal program, though, and our cashier was so kind to let us use the loyalty card from the guy in line behind us, which saved us US$30.
The Verdict
This category is pretty equalized, and prices vary depending on the season. I call it a tie.
Campground network
Both countries are excellent for campervanning, also because of their vast campground network. In both countries, you will find governmentally (State and Provincial) run campgrounds as well as privately run RV parks. You can find several thousand campgrounds in both countries. If you would like a more detailed insight in the average campground price in each country, please take a look at my detailed post 'Average Campground Rates per Night for Small Campervans'.
The Verdict
Again, I call it a tie.
Campervan Rental Availability
In our comparison of rental companies in Los Angeles and Vancouver, we can recommend four companies in Los Angeles and six in Vancouver. However, the big difference is the distance from the airports. In L.A., all four small campervan rental companies are located within 15 minutes by taxi or Uber from the airport.
In Vancouver, on the other hand, only one rental company is located within 15 minutes from the airport. Two are located about 30 minutes away and the other three between one hour and a half and two hours. They do offer airport pick-up and drop-off, however, of course, for an extra fee.
The Verdict
The US takes the lead in terms of availability of campervan rentals close to L.A. airport.
Our Choice
We chose the Southwest in the US and California as our first campervanning destination. There were three main factors:
Recommendations
Two different friends of ours had already campervanned in the Southwest and California and had highly recommended it to us. We had it on our list; however, it was not on number one or two. 😊 We are glad our friends inspired us to go on this adventure, it was one of the best trips in our life.
Time of year & Flight cost
These two factors quickly moved this trip up to number one. Originally we had planned to travel to South Africa and Botswana that year; however, we faced some severe discrimination towards Jen (with a Guatemalan passport) from the South African government, which made us cancel our plans and decide not to support their visa system.
We already had a 15-day vacation approved at our jobs from Mid-April to the beginning of May and had no other specific plans. So one day, we opened Google Flights and searched for flights all over the world for the dates we had available. A €400 roundtrip flight to Los Angeles caught our eye. After a quick research and evaluation, we decided it was the perfect time of year to give campervanning a try and well the rest is history, simply by us bringing this blog alive. 😁
So as you can tell, our decision was a very spontaneous one. That being said, although I like to plan, most spontaneous things are usually the best, and we experienced the best trip yet.
Conclusion
This comparison shows that the US makes it a little bit easier and more flexible, hence as a conclusion: the USA wins the comparison battle!
Of course, this does not mean that you should not campervan in Canada. Of course, you should!! And we will!! I got the chance to ski in the Rocky Mountains in Banff and Jasper as a child, and I cannot wait to go back in summer campervanning it out and skinny dippin' in those turquoise lakes. 😇
What would be your choice? Or maybe you have campervanned in one or both countries already! Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
