Long-distance
Out of the region, by road
Once a trip passes an hour, the question stops being which car and becomes what the passenger is going to do with the time. Long-distance work is planned around that rather than around the distance.
Routes
Where these trips usually go
Approximate driving times from downtown Toronto in ordinary conditions. Weather, construction and the hour of departure move all of them.
| Destination | Route | Driving time |
|---|---|---|
| Niagara Falls | QEW | about 1.5 hours |
| Hamilton | QEW | about 1 hour |
| London | Highway 401 west | about 2 hours |
| Muskoka | Highway 400 north | about 2 hours |
| Buffalo, NY | QEW to the Peace Bridge | about 2 hours plus the border |
| Ottawa | Highway 401 east then 416 | about 4.5 hours |
| Montreal | Highway 401 east | about 5.5 hours |
Destinations beyond this list are arranged on request. The limiting factor on a very long trip is the chauffeur’s hours rather than the vehicle, so anything past Montreal is worth discussing before it is booked.
What four hours in a car should be like
Quiet enough to hold a call for the length of it, and steady enough to read without regretting it. On a long run the vehicle category matters more than it does across town: the sedan that is ideal for a twenty-minute trip to a client is not automatically the one you want for the fifth hour of the 401, particularly with two passengers and luggage in the back.
Timing is planned around the two rush hours the trip has to pass through rather than the empty highway in the middle. Leaving Toronto eastbound at 4:00pm and leaving at 6:30pm are the same drive with a forty-minute difference attached, and the later departure often arrives earlier.
Winter changes the arithmetic entirely. Between the lake-effect snow east of the city and whatever the 400 corridor is doing north of Barrie, a trip that takes two hours in September is not a two-hour trip in February, and we will say so when you book rather than after you have missed something.
Questions
Before a long trip
Related
Trips that leave from a terminal rather than an office start at Pearson or Hamilton. For the vehicle categories worth considering over several hours, see the fleet, and companies making these runs regularly settle them through a corporate account.
Reserve
Tell us where, and when you need to be there
We will work back from the arrival time, allow for the weather and the hour, and confirm the departure.