“Minion Monies”: How much did The Maritimes Cost?

I’m often asked how much some of my trips cost. So I’ve decided to start writing posts at the end of each trip about this and for fun, I’ll call it “Minion Monies”!

I’ll attempt to recount the general trip expenses to try and shed some light on my travel costs. A few disclaimers moving forward. All prices will be in CAD unless stated otherwise. Prices will be for when the travel occurred. It’s likely prices will change over time so keep that in mind!

The following will be an accounting of the Maritime Trip I took with the parental minions in October of 2021. If you’ve not read the blog, you can do so here. Or if you want a summary of the entire trip you can check that out here. It might provide some extra context to the costs below!

The Transportation ($1491.50)

The Flight ($802)

For flying from Vancouver to Halifax and back, we took advantage of a few offers from WestJet to bring costs down. By signing up for a WestJet credit card offer, I receive a $0 companion fare and $450 WestJet Dollars. This helps to significantly bring down the price of our airfare.

At the time, round trip flights between Vancouver and Halifax cost around $554 (rounded) each. For the three of us, it would have cost $1663 (rounded) in total. By applying the companion fare, we only needed to pay the taxes and surcharges for one ticket. This brought our total airfare down to $1260 for a savings of around $400.

In addition to the companion fare, applying the 450 WestJet Dollars (with an extra eight leftover in my account) brings the cost down even more. Ultimately, the cost for our flights, work out to be around $802 (for a savings of around $861).

The Car ($242)

For our car rental, two “perks” from the American Express Platinum card come in handy. The first is enrollment into the Hertz Gold Plus Rewards program and an accompanying corporate discount code. The second is an annual $200 travel credit. 

While the discount isn’t super substantial, it does help to bring the rental price down a little.

What is fairly substantial though, is the $200 travel credit. As long as the travel expense is made through American Express’ Travel Services, then you can apply the $200 travel credit to it. The prices from the Travel Service’s car rental page ended up being significantly higher than Hertz’s own site. So I did end up calling in to have the Amex Travel Services agent book it through Hertz, so I could take advantage of both the Hertz price with discount and the credit. Upon the charge showing up on my bill, calling in to apply the credit is straightforward.

With an initial (discounted) rental cost of $442. The net cost after the application of the travel credit is around $242.

Gas ($399)

One additional cost to road tripping through the maritime provinces is refueling the car. We had to do this eight times and in total set us back $399. Oddly enough, more expensive than the total cost of the rental itself!

The Ferry And Confederation Bridge ($48.50)

Getting to and from Prince Edward Island has some interesting costs associated with it. From what I can gather, you’re only charged when you leave the island. So for us, the ferry ride from Nova Scotia to PEI did not cost anything. However, our drive across the Confederation Bridge from PEI to New Brunswick cost $48.50. Sadly, it looks like the prices at the time of this writing have gone up. 

Total Transportation Costs

Airfare	$802
Car Rental	+ $242
Gas	+ $399
Bridge Crossing	+ $48.50
Total	= $1491.50

Accommodations ($2174)

For the most part, our accommodations were pretty straightforward. Generally, I’m not too particular about where I stay while travelling. As long as it fits in my internal matrix of location, price and comfort I’ll usually book it. Because of the itinerary, we did stay at multiple properties. Here they are:

Halifax – Cambridge Suites ($487)

In Halifax, we stayed at the Cambridge Suites for four nights. Cambridge Suites is in downtown Halifax right across the street from the Citadel and a few blocks from the water. While the rooms are a little dated, the price was attractive at 119 a night. Adding on the taxes and one full day of parking, the total for our stay came out to $587 (rounded). 

Taking advantage of another credit card welcome offer, this time the CIBC Adventura Visa. I am able to use the “pay with points” feature to apply the 15000 point welcome bonus to the hotel charge. This essentially knocks $100 off the bill resulting in a total cost of $487 for four nights. 

Yarmouth – Tru by Hilton ($140)

We did a day trip out of Halifax down the east coast. Instead of returning to Halifax for the night, we instead continued driving until we get to Yarmouth. Interestingly, there is a brand new Tru by Hilton hotel in Yarmouth. It’s a nice new hotel and is a comfortable place to spend the night. For the one night we stayed here it set us back $140. 

Cape Breton Island – AirBnB ($342)

Finding accommodations around Cape Breton Island can be a bit challenging because there are so many places to stay. There aren’t too many “hotels” along the Cabot trail but lots of little lodges and BnB’s to stay at. For our time there, we stayed in the town of Cheticamp at the Sunset and Water View Home – Cheticamp through AirBnb. It’s a lovely 2 bedroom basement suite which gives us great access to the national park. For our two night stay we paid $342.

Charlottetown – Delta Hotel ($405)

While there are several places to stay across Prince Edward Island. Staying in downtown Charlottetown makes the most sense for us. The largest hotel in the city is the Charlottetown Delta Hotel and where we called home for a few nights. In total (after taxes and including parking) our cost for three nights comes to $605 (Rounded).

However, prior to this trip, I did take advantage of a few American Express Offers. Amex Offers periodically appear on their credit cards which credits back value for spending at different vendors. Three such offers ended up providing a bit of savings for this stay. Two were vendor specific to Marriott and one was specific to BC tourism. In all three cases you need to spend a specific amount to get some money back. With future travel confirmed, I pre-emptively purchased a $350 Marriott Gift Card which triggers both the Marriot and BC Tourism offer. Earlier on in the year I also did it with a $50 on $250 purchase. So in total, I had $550 worth of gift cards with credits of $200

I used all the gift cards at this hotel which results in an actual cost of $405 for three nights.

Moncton – Chateau Moncton ($123)

We didn’t intend to spend that much time in Moncton, so we only needed a place to stay for a night before heading south to the Bay of Fundy. Chateau Moncton fit the bill for us as an affordable place near downtown Moncton. It has the added benefit of being along the water and rewarded us with a spectacular sunrise in the morning!

This hotel would have cost us $157 (rounded). However, I had some leftover Expedia for TD points sitting around collecting dust. So after applying them to the booking, we ultimately end up paying $123 for one night.

Alma – Shore Lane Alma ($398)

We stayed two nights in Alma at the Shore Lane Suites and Cottages. Namely the “Lookout“. Alma is a small town with limited accommodations since we wanted a place with two rooms. Luckily the lookout check all the boxes and we really enjoyed our time there.

This is a pretty straightforward booking and I did so through Agoda. The total for the two nights was $398

Dartmouth – Courtyard Marriott ($279)

For our final two nights in Dartmouth (Halifax) we didn’t need to be in downtown anymore. We also wanted a place that offered free parking and the Courtyard Marriott in Dartmouth fit that bill. 

The hotel is quite nice and new. It’s comfortable and close to restaurants and stores. So it’s a good place to base out of if you don’t need to be in downtown Halifax. 

Our cost for the two nights is $279

Total Accommodation Costs

Halifax	$487
Yarmouth	+ $140
Cape Breton Island	+ $342
Charlottetown	+ $405
Moncton	+ $123
Alma	+ $398
Dartmouth	+ $279
Total	= $2174

Food and Beverage ($2400)

Instead of trying to itemize everything, I ended up going through all the food/beverage charges we racked up and come up with a total of ~$2400. Costing Food and beverage is a tough one because its so subjective to the traveller. (One could argue that hotels are similarly subjective too.) We did do some more upscale meals like our first meal at the Bicycle Thief, The seafood dinner at Merchantman and our last meal at the Canteen. We also did cost cutting things like cooking for ourselves in Alma and Cheticamp. So, if you’ve read through the blog and have an idea of how we went about eating our way through this trip, just know it cost roughly $2400 dollars to do! 

Miscellaneous Expenses ($155)

In terms of miscellaneous expenses, this mainly includes entry into the national parks like the Bay of Fundy and Cape Breton Island. The two tours we did of the Glenora Distillery and Alexander Keith’s Brewery. And finally entry into the Maritime Museum. In total these add up to about $155.

 

Totals

If you add everything up:

Transportation	$1491.50
Accommodations	+ $2174
Food & Beverage	+ $2400
Miscellaneous	+ $155
Total	= $6220.50

We get a grand total trip cost of $6220.50

Splitting that over three travellers you get $2073.50 per person

Average that out over fourteen days and its roughly $148.11 per day.

Hopefully if you’re still reading to this point you find this helpful! I’m looking to start doing this for all trips moving forward and go back and try to dig up receipts for past trips too. If there is extra information you’d like to know, or have suggestions on how this can be done better, please feel free to drop a comment below and let me know!